My Role: Big Idea. Film Concept & Story. Fleshing Out the Film. Full Writing + Handling Shoot, Edit, Music, Post. Also the rather crucial element of how to get this film made in a rather tight (but pushed) budget of 25 lakh. I got Colour Palette Films on board. It helped that I knew the producer, Sayan Banerjee, & the director, Arunima Sharma. We decided to curry favour for art design, borrowing a lot of things which we couldn't afford. But PH, Director, Producer and I worked tirelessly to convert the location into a proper set. I designed and created certain production-design elements from my house as well to enhance the film's realism. We went with a very trained cast from two National Schools of Drama, and did not give in the the insistence on having more glamorous faces. My CCO, Parixit Bhattacharya, was completely on board with this point of view of mine. The Director took a 3/4th cut on her fee so that we could afford a really talented DOP from FTII, who had done excellent Beauty Work to survive in Bombay, but had worked under the best cinematographers of Hindi Cinema too and carried a bulk of knowledge & the sheer potential to pull off a stunning lighting scheme in which nothing looked out of place, or unreal. Every shadow was chiselled. Every highlight carefully muted. Every handheld shot with wide lenses captured the actors in a really 3-dimensional way. Nuances were introduced & elevated. And we shot it not on Alexa, but Sony Venice 2 with Cooke lenses to achieve the unique balance of colour latitude & clean shadows that only the Venice 2 Sensor could deliver. And yeah, we created a small set inside the location too. And with supreme colab spirit, we got it right. A 25 lakh film to look, sound and feel like a One Crore film. The Sarangi that you heard was recorded live, by an artist from one of India's most traditional gharana. That's the truth. Result? Somesh Surana, the Chairman of HDFC ERGO & Chairperson at the GIC (General Insurance Council) loved it as soon as he saw it in our delivery presentation. It was ticking all boxes for him, including that of memorability.