Actor Atul Tiwari, who is part of the short film Every Life Matters, says that his experience of shooting the film was enriched because of the wonderful team and the producer. The film has been produced by Girish Arora of Sane Insane Pictures, directed by Dadhi Pandey and also stars Satyajit Sharma, Sudeep Sarangi and baby Ayesha.
“It was a wonderful experience. The director is an old friend of mine, he belongs to Lucknow, like me. When he started in theatre, I was already an established theatre artist. I knew him from a young age and it is so heartening to see your juniors doing well. When he approached me to do the film, I didn’t ask about anything else. I didn’t even talk about money. It was a day’s work and I knew that I will be doing it. When the shooting date came, there was a good cameraman and the producer was so welcoming. So much so that every little green room in Madh island, they had put up a little invite which said – Thank you sir for coming – irrespective of who the green room was for. They were trying to be as warm as possible. The producer welcomed me and thanked me for not asking for a single penny. I was with another wonderful actor Satyajit and that made the atmosphere even warmer,” he says.
He adds, “Though we didn’t have a single scene together. But being in the same space made the experience even more beautiful. When my shoot ended, the producer came to me and thanked me and gave me flowers and insisted that they give me a packet. He really insisted that I take it. What else can you ask from a film unit? The film ended up to be a good product,” he says.
The film’s story is about the plight of people during the first wave of Covid and the subject was something Atul could relate to. “In 2020, I was in Kanpur with my sister and brother-in-law for seven months during the first lockdown. The country was under lockdown, everyone was very edgy. People were leaving their places of work and travelling on foot to go where they wanted to go. That was very disturbing and I insisted on going and meeting and helping them. We made these packets to give these migrant workers. We made these packets keeping a lot of things in mind. We thought that we should give gud as gud stays for some time but sweets won’t stay beyond 24 hours. Channa is a grain that will stay and give them more strength and so we gave them that with sattu. We gave them 2 litres of water in a bottle with a handle so they can refill it and carry it. I insisted that we go the highways where they were passing by. We went there stood there and welcomed them. After that, I was so disturbed, that I wrote many pieces on the crises of Covid. When this film came my way, the subject was so nice. I had to do it,” he says.
Talking about the challenges faced in a short film format, Atul adds, “The challenges of writing in any format are very big. But I am myself a writer and have also made films. I know that it’s possible to do well in the short format as well. The only challenge is the release and how much people see it. But thanks to the OTT platforms and digital media, it’s possible that more people see these films now. Now more short films are being made due to this. It’s a good time for short films.”
