After the successful screening of two short films this year — The Green Window and Soch — at various prestigious film festivals across India and internationally, and bringing home many accolades for The Green Window, director Indira Dhar Mukkherjee is gearing up to present her next short feature film called Stars. The highlight of this short is the cast, consisting of kids less than five years old. The film is based on how the Covid pandemic affected the lives of kids stuck at home.
“I wanted to make a film on toddlers and what they did during and after Covid. Stuck at home, how did they manage to cope with the lockdown and how did they react when the lockdown happened. I chose to do a film on toddlers because they are the ones who started to just experience life but got stuck at home. All the lead actors of the film are below five. I am a mother myself. I have a four-year-old toddler at home. I experienced the first-hand struggle of my son staying at home when he was supposed to go out. I saw the process. I came to know how other kids went through something similar by interacting with other mothers. Then I thought a film should be made on this. I have shown a section of the society but toddlers across the globe went through this. So a lot of people can relate to it,” said Indira about her reasons to choose the subject.
Behind-the-scene moments from Indira’s shoot with the kids
Indira has just wrapped up the shooting of the film, shot in three days at indoor locations. After a rigorous workshop of 15 days with the kids, the no-dialogue, lyrical film is getting prepared for its post-production stage. Sharing her experience of shooting with a bunch of toddlers, Indira said, “It is the most difficult prep I took for making a film. I was doing acting masterclass for kids at a kid’s activity centre where I spotted them. After going across different festivals last year, one thing I realised is that children’s films are very less in the competition category and they do not reach as many people. I have wanted to make a children’s film ever since I visited the Mumbai International Film Festival this year. These children are very good actors. We are planning to release it digitally around this year’s Children’s Day, but before that we plan to send it to various film festivals.”
Pictures: Indira Dhar Mukkherjee