It is the school where students need not bother much about carrying a bag stuffed with books, flip through the pages of textbooks and sit for long hours in the classroom without engaging in any interesting activity.
At Bala Badi, a pre-school located in Cheepurupalli mandal, Vizianagaram district which is run by Sodhana, an NGO led by P.D.K. Rao, children could hardly wait to start their day and head to the campus as lessons are taught in a playful way incorporating aata, paata and nrutyam (playing, singing and dancing). Here, millets and dried leaves become teaching tools and children enjoy the learning process.
Capturing the impact of experiential learning and encapsulating it in a 22-minute-long documentary film made Palla Anand, a documentary film-maker, win a Golden Nandi Award -2013.
The documentary film maker received a confirmation letter from Andhra Pradesh State Film Television and Theatre Development Corporation and the prestigious award for directing the film on Bala Badi and telecasting it on DD channel in 2013 will be presented to him shortly.
Driven by the urge to bring social change, Mr. Anand began his documentary making journey a couple of decades ago. Born and raised in Eluru and settled in Visakhapatnam, he says that documentary making is his sole passion. “Two decades ago, when I started my journey, I have to come across several setbacks which include incurring heavy losses. However, I did not lose hope,” recalls Mr. Anand.
The quiet corner of Green Park Colony is where his studio has been set up and he has so far made 10 documentary films, 10 short films and more than 10 exclusive documentaries for PSUs and corporate companies. The documentary film-maker also runs a training centre on the same campus to train aspirants in visual journalism and news reading.
Explaining the constraints involved in documentary film-making, Mr. Anand says that shooting different elements of a particular subject and depicting them in a gripping manner is the most challenging part of the craft.
About his future plans, Mr. Anand shares that he would like to set up a bigger studio where he can groom more number of students and make meaningful documentaries that bring about social change.
