Short film made by local artistes wins award at India Film Project

Nagpur: Filmmaking is a medium of expression for those involved in the process. And winning appreciation and recognition is a matter of pride for them.
This feeling was experienced by Dr Rishab Joshi and his team when they won the ‘Platinum Film of the Year’ award in professional category at India Film Project 2019 for their short film ‘Paul’. The film was screened at Mehboob Studio, Mumbai, on October 13.
India Film Project is 50-hour filmmaking challenge. Celebrating its 9th season, the project is Asia’s largest content creation festival held annually in Mumbai. A total of 35,000 filmmakers from 14 countries and 325 cities participated in this grand event.
Dr Rishab, a dentist by profession, had participated in the project last year too, and won three awards for his film ‘Wake Up!’ for best film, best actor and best script in the amateur category.
‘Paul’ is the second film made under the banner of ‘Not just a dentist’. “The film is based on the real-life story of Paul Stamets, an American who discovered that natural medicines like mushrooms can cure modern diseases like Alzheimer’s, Dementia etc. The film revolves around the day that changed his life forever,” said Joshi.
The film will soon be screened across India and will also premiere on television in the coming months. “It was a difficult task to make this film in under 50 hours but we gave our 100%. The best part about winning this award was the reaction of audience during the screening. It was an amazing experience to play Paul,” said actor Santosh Hirasinghani.
Dr Rishab wanted the film to make audience aware about Paul. He has written, directed, shot and edited this film which is produced by his brother Dr Rigved.
Rajat Godde has composed the music. Apart from Hirasinghani, the other actors are Ashish Maske, Rohit Koramkar, Rahul Meshram, Shreeya Chhokra. Hardik Manmode is the assistant director while aerial shots were done by Harish Dafe. “The whole movie was shot in Nagpur,” said Dr Rigved.
“We all are from the city and we’re proud to bring the trophy to the city. Our movie is getting a huge response from the Bollywood fraternity,” said Rigved.
“We submitted the movie for the project just a few minutes before the deadline. People from the city have made a mark in the world of filmmaking and we are happy to be a part of it,” said Maske.