National award-winning filmmaker Rima Das, whose Assamese movie Tora's Husband was screened at the 28th Kolkata International Film Festival, feels OTT, as a medium, has given more opportunity to directors and producers to reach out to a wider audience.
Asked if it was helping independent filmmakers and producers get their work released, Das said as a producer, she was of the view that it “may be” difficult to move forward with a film after making it.
“Over the Top platforms can be of great help in this context. Two of my previous films Village Rockstars and Bulbul Can Singh can be viewed on the Internet. It helps me reach out to a bigger audience, both as a filmmaker and producer,” she said.
Das’ Village Rockstars, which was India's official entry to the 90th Academy Awards in Best Foreign Language Film Category, had won two National Awards for Best Feature Film and Best Editing in 2018, besides being featured in several prestigious film festivals.
Bulbul Can Singh fetched her the National Award for Best Feature Film in Assamese in 2019.
About the emergence of modern technologies in filmmaking, she said the scope has expanded with the emergence of new platforms.
Speaking on the theme of Tora's Husband, the filmmaker said the movie, featuring Abhijit Das and Tarali Kalita Das, is a story of a father in a small town who tries to economically sustain himself amid lockdowns.
Das also dwelt on how it was shot in real-life locations for two years even as the Covid pandemic raged on.
Tora's Husband had premiered at the 47th Toronto International Film Festival in September.
Das dedicated the film to her father, who she lost shortly after she began shooting Tora's Husband'.
Asked about her movies travelling to different film festivals, Das said she certainly likes the experience but the execution of her thoughts, the process of filmmaking and seeing the final product are of utmost importance.