Don't treat short films as side dish, they're main course now: Shoojit Sircar

Short films are being consumed in a big way on the Internet and they are no longer the side dish to a feature length movie, says filmmaker Shoojit Sircar, who will judge the segment at the 15th Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM). Sircar, who has been to the festival in the past with his films "Pink", "Piku" and "Sardar Udham Singh", said while he is under no pressure of presenting a movie to the audiences this time, he finds jury duty equally scary. The short films segment at the gala, set to begin in Melbourne on August 15, is titled "All Our Voices". "I normally say no to being a part of the jury because it's so difficult to judge a film. Short films are really brilliant. Earlier, we used to see short films almost like diploma films or (it was like) somebody just trying to learn the craft, but now, they're very well-crafted. "So, please don't treat this (format) as a side dish, it's the main course now because people are consuming them in a huge way on social media. If the film is good, it just travels on its own. One has to be very sure about judging short films because the crafting is at a high level. It is no less than a full-course cinema," Sircar told PTI. The filmmaker said Mitu Bhowmick Lange, the festival director of IFFM, is a friend from his Delhi days and has done a "marvellous job" in organising the gala that attracts best of the talent from India. "She's just made a huge mark for the Indian diaspora in Australia... I've been going to this festival for the last many years... When Mitu offered this role, I couldn't say no. But it's not easy judging films," he said. Sircar is also looking forward to the festival to just "jam" with old friends from the film industry and present his production venture "The Umesh Chronicles", starring Amitabh Bachchan, Babil Khan and Kriti Panth. The movie, produced by Sircar and Ronnie Lahiri, is directed by Pooja Kaul. "I don't have a film for me that I've directed (this time) but I have 'The Umesh Chronicles' that we have produced. It is directed by one of our dear friends. I will meet a lot of people there. "I have a lot of friends - Kabir (Khan), Imtiaz (Ali) Rima Das, and so many others (participating at IFFM). It's an occasion for all of us to come together because we normally don't get time to meet in Mumbai. But there, we will have three-four days to just jam and talk," he added. IFFM will come to a close on August 25.