'Place a camera anywhere in India and things look good'

Umakant Thurugoti, director of ‘Seven days in slow motion’ that featured in the Film India Worldwide section at the 40th Iffi, didn’t always know he wanted to be a filmmaker. He liked telling stories, drawing cartoons when young, but as fate would have it, Thurugoti completed his electronics and electrical engineering and secured top honors.
“My parents promised me that if I stood first, I could do whatever I wanted to on the side,” he says.It all began when the Hyderabad-born filmmaker went to the US to get his graduate degree in computer engineering. Six months before his final semester could end, Thurugoti remembers taking a break from studying for his data structure exam in the coffee room.
“That’s where I saw a 60-year-old man doodling and I started doing the same. We exchanged drawings and he suggested I go to the architecture section and try out for the animation course.”
Since engineering had already provided him with a technical background, he was asked to prove his artistic side.
“I hurriedly bought a sketch book and pencils and began drawing. After seeing my first sketch, I got admission to the course and also assistantship,” he recounts.