An indie-film 76 minutes in length, made on a shoestring budget of 35 lacs (personal savings and loan from friends & family), took almost 2.5 years to finish, 1.5 years to release, four non-actors as protagonists and almost ruined film negatives, Shuttlecock Boys, an indie-film has a realistic, rustic story awaiting its release on August 3, 2012 by PVR Cinemas, under its Director’s Rare initiative. The film is being released in Delhi, Gurgaon, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bangalore with special shows in Hyderabad, Chennai & Kolkata.
Shuttlecock Boys, made under the banner of Pennywise Films Pvt. Ltd., will not only take its audience through a journey of life, but reach out to everyone wanting to chase their dream as well. It’s a story that revolves around the lives, successes and failures of four friends who hail from lower-middle class backgrounds living in Delhi, with a question trickling down their minds. ‘Revolving around four protagonists Gaurav (Vijay Prateek), Manav (Aakar Kaushik), Pankaj (Alok Kumar) and Loveleen (Manish Nanwani) who seek to answer the question trickling down their minds. ‘Should we accept what life offers to us on a platter or should we try to chase our dreams, taking the path less taken?’ They then decide to embark upon an eventful journey that will change the course of their lives and careers forever.
The film has been well received at international as well as national film festivals. These include India International Film Festival – Tampa Bay, Gotham Screen International Film Festival – New York, Seattle South Asian Film Festival – Seattle, Chicago South Asian Film Festival – Chicago and Jaipur International Film Festival – Jaipur.
Indie-films tend to involve fewer people in the making due to budget constraints and the same is true with Shuttlecock Boys. The film has been produced by Pankaj Johar, Hemant Gaba and Thakur Dass. While donning multiple masks, Hemant apart from directing the film, also handled casting, screenplay and the post production coordination & supervision.
The perfectly suitable background score has been composed by Avinash Bhagel and lyrics have been penned down by Prachi Singh, Manas Mishra and Gaurav Solanki.
Pankaj Johar, producer of the film says:
“Shuttlecock Boys is an honest film that we as a team have believed in to bring to you the most common facet of an individual striving to achieve what has been dreaming of instead of choosing to live someone else’s life. Every shot in the film will make the audience think through regarding the decisions to be made in their lives. We as a team have put our heart, soul and money to bring this across. My fingers remain crossed until the 3rd of August”.
Interestingly, the film was shot in Delhi covering 18 different locations with cops throwing the crew out of a park while the shooting took place. A total of 22 days with 30 crew members is what it took to bring it all to celluloid. The film has been shot on Super 16mm camera to minimize the costs, with sync sound chosen over dubbing in order to bring out organic performances. Inexpensive Chinese Lanterns were bought to support the lighting instead of hired lights.
