Siddharth Chauhan’s childhood memories in his village Dhanoti (in Rohru) inspired him to make this film.
Siddharth Chauhan, a Shimla born award-winning Indian independent filmmaker ,whose shortfilm PAPA has won Satyajit Ray Short film award at London Indian film festival recently, has made it to ‘Oscar Qualifying Film Festival’ for his latest film: PASHI.
Giving this information here Chauhan,27, said “ PASHI has been selected to compete at the Rhode Island International Film Festival, to be held in August, 2017 at United States”.
Since the festival is an official Oscar Qualifying Film Festival, if the film wins an award at this festival, Pashi will be directly nominated for the world’s most prestigious Awards: The Academy Awards for the Best Short Film; also known as the OSCARS!!!
As an independent film production house based in Shimla, this is a dream come true and an unparalleled honor for all of us, a cheerful Sidharth told the Indian Express here .
He explained “This will be our film’s International Premiere (1st public screening outside the country) and PASHI is the only film from India to have been selected this year. Every year a large number of films from across the world try their luck at Oscar Qualifying Festivals, for making it to OSCARS. These festivals are extremely competitive and selective about the content and quality of films”.
‘PASHI’ which means a trap in the regional Pahari spoken in Rohru (nawar valley) especially around the villages: Tikkar, Pujarli, Dhanoti and Khalawan. Pashi is an ancient concept used by villagers and children for hunting birds and animals.
Siddharth’s childhood memories in his village Dhanoti (in Rohru) inspired him to make this film.
The film was primarily shot in Sunta Lodge, a beautiful wooden mansion of Village Khalwan and some parts were filmed in Village Dhanoti near Tikker. Unfolding the story of the film, Sidharth said there is a young boy (Chetan) learns about a technique of trapping birds from his old grandmother (Savitri Ji) and begins to practice it. His friend John, encourages him to go for it while his mother is worried about his future.
Lead actors are Chetan Kanwar, Student of Class 12th from Chapslee School, Shimla,John Negi, a model/actor from Rampur, Kamayani Bisht, an English Professor in the state government and Savitri Devi Sunta, the oldest family member of Sunta Family in Khawalan.
