The ‘Bicycle Thief’

Director of Photography and engineering student Rahul on the sets.

The debut screening of this film at the festival took place at Siva Parvati theatre in Kukatpally on Monday and will be screened at least four more times.

At first look, he’s a typical, slightly overgrown and taller-than-his age, kind of teenager about whom nothing could be instantly striking. But catch him on location and he appears to transform himself into a creative person, not to forget that creativity is present in the family.

That is K.V.S. Mouli, a student of Class X at the Bolton School here, who is now on cloud nine, considering that he is sharing screen space with legendary directors in the world of films. His 13-minute short film ‘The Bicycle Thief’ (‘Cycle Donga’ in Telugu’) has been chosen for screening at the ongoing 19 edition of the International Children’s Film Festival of India (ICFFI).

The debut screening of this film at the festival took place at Siva Parvati theatre in Kukatpally on Monday and is going to be screened at least four more times before the end of the festival. The film is all about sharing and friendship between three children. Shot completely on the digital format using a Canon 5 D single-lens reflex camera (SLR), all the major cast and crew members are also students and other children.

The film will be shown as part of Little Directors section in the festival, including those from the Spoorthi Foundation that is an orphanage in Cherlapalli on the outskirts of Hyderabad. Ask Mouli about what his connection is, with the orphanage, he modestly says it is just because a distance relative of his was involved in helping out with some clothes for the inmates and stuff like that made him go there once and time and time again.

“I thought the children from the foundation would be good for the main roles in the film because they bring with them a certain amount of reality as well as innocence for the characters,” the little director said. Of course, his primarily guidance, inspiration and support to launch on such a project was from his grandfather, the filmmaker K.N.T. Sastry.

“All I want is to make my grandfather proud and be considered a good filmmaker as I grow up,” the youngster says. He organised a workshop for three days on three consecutive Sundays at the Spoorthi Foundation to firm up on his cast and some members of the crew too. The Director of Photography behind the Canon 5 D, an extremely popular SLR with short-film and amateur filmmakers is a first year engineering student called Rahul, said Mouli.