‘Instant’ success story
Just 22 years old, and her directorial debut has already got the attention of some bigwigs of the film industry including Sonam Kapoor, Anand Rai and Anand Gandhi.
Of the 100 entries in the DNA Shortcuts Film Festival (in partnership with Shamiana short film club), Iranian-born Jasmine Chabria’s film Tatkal was among the five winning films that were screened to a jam-packed auditorium. She was the only female filmmaker among the winners.
Jasmine, who received the award from Madhur Bhandarkar, was working in a youth magazine before she quit her job to make films. “When I got a job as features editor in a youth magazine, like any other youngster, I was really excited to do it. But my parallel interest in making films finally made me quit. I always knew what I wanted to do in life and I decided it was time to start doing it,” she said.
The film title Tatkal means ‘in an instant’. The story revolves around a pill that makes wishes comes true instantly and how a simple girl uses this pill to grasp the reins of justice in her hand.
When asked what were her expectations from her film screening at the festival, she said, “I make films to express what I visualise and when it’s ready, all I want is to show it to the audience. That was the only intention I had when I entered the festival — just to communicate. I never thought about winning or losing.”
Jasmine was born and brought up in Iran and moved to India when she was fifteen years old. She wants to work with stalwarts like Rajkumar Hirani, Mahesh Bhatt, Zoya Akhtar and Anand Gandhi. She is also fascinated with Christopher Nolan and Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhaidi.
“They are the filmmakers who get amazing ideas and manage to transfer those ideas on celluloid while making them mass appealing,” she says.
Talking about her fascination with filmmaking, Jasmine adds, “Ever since I was a kid and my mom used to tell me stories, I used to create elaborate scenes in my mind, complete with sets and costumes. Even during my final graduation exams, I made elaborate sketches of costumes and set designs on my question paper. So you can imagine that no matter where I was present physically, my mind was always in the world of storytelling. That’s what I always wanted to do.”
Jasmine is soon going to work with some popular film directors that she doesn’t want to name till things are finalised. Her book The Decent Stalker of SRK is all set to hit the stands soon.
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