New Delhi: An acting workshop changed the course of actor Sheetal Menon’s life and led her to directing. Her short film Duet, the first movie to stream on Spotify, explores the theme of how an artist moves from grief to a better place. For Menon, the journey was somewhat similar.
In an exclusive interview to ThePrint, she shared how she was not a very busy actor, but an acting workshop changed her life and perspective towards filmmaking. At this workshop, along with some actors, she was tasked to write a small scene. This is where her first short film, Sibling (2019), started coming to life. She began her journey as a director.
“When you’re developing an entire story, the world, and seeing all the characters, it just came alive. I think it was like a slow transition,” Sheetal said.
While writing the scene for the story, which is about two sisters and their comatose father, she worked on it so much that eventually the small scene turned into a full-fledged script for a short film.
“I didn’t know how to direct. But while writing the script, I learnt how the world of the film would look,” she added
The transition was not easy. She wanted to act in the film as well, but that would’ve limited her focus to one character. Whereas, while writing or directing, the filmmaker must look at all the characters and the world around them. It was her husband, Bejoy Nambiar, who solved this dilemma and motivated her to both direct and act in Sibling.
“I remember him saying, ‘You wrote this. Are you seeing the world?’ And I said that I was, very clearly. I couldn’t bear the idea of giving the story to somebody else to direct,” she recalled.
Music is the film’s character
Her second short film, Duet, explores how an artist, especially a performing pianist, experiences isolation. For Sheetal, the film reflected her own journey as a filmmaker.
“Somewhere the story needs to really speak to you and has to come from a deeply personal place,” she said.
Duet is set in the Covid-19 years, a time when most people experienced isolation and uncertainty. Sheetal recalled that the constant sound of ambulances at the time made her anxious. For her, these anxieties became an important element in the film.
The pandemic had blocked inter-personal communication. Sheetal found an antidote in music, which she had depicted cinematically throughout the film.
“Music plays a very integral part in the film. The sound is like a character… I was very sure that I couldn’t go to shoot this film without knowing what the music is,” she said.
She reached out to musicians from around the world for Duet. These include Ben Crossland from London, whose original tracks she used in the film; Eric Christian from New York, and Sid Acharya, an Indian based in Sydney, who composed the film’s background score. Reaching out to these artists was difficult, and she was in disbelief when they responded.
“Such gifted artists speaking to you, understanding you, and giving you their music felt like there was a bigger force helping me through this,” she said.
Sheetal recalled that her actors spent a lot of time understanding the music and learned how to play the pieces featured in the film.
“He’s (Sidhant Gupta) playing out of sadness, isolation, but also feeling stuck and not being able to play. His hands are shivering,” she said, as she described a scene.
The collaboration with Spotify
Sharing how the collaboration with Spotify happened, she said the film’s heavy reliance on music, its focus on a musician, and collaborations with artists from different countries made it an ideal fit for the platform.
“When we pitched the idea, they really connected with the story and thought it was a great idea. From there, it all kind of worked out,” she said.
Short films are difficult to make. The time is less, emotions are more, and the production cost is a tiny percentage of a feature film. Nevertheless, Sheetal really enjoyed making the film.
She said that the ecosystem for short films India is not very stable, and making one often depends on “personal resources, taking risks, goodwill and jugaad.” Even after all this, finding the right platform and sustaining the film’s viability remains the real struggle.
“I’m hopeful that the ecosystem will transform because there is such talent and so many great stories in that short format,” she remarked.
Duet, starring Sidhant Gupta, Sayani Gupta and Pooja Sarup is streaming on Spotify on 30 July.
(Edited by Aakriti Handa)