MUMBAI: Himanshu Tyagi, who has directed FNP Media's short film "Red Shirt", has been a movie buff since childhood. And though he started to  learn the various aspects of filmmaking during college, it was not until 2008 that he decided to make a full-fledged career in the field. 

He said, "Many films influenced me right from when I watched 'Minority Report' in the summer vacations of 10th class. That was the first time I wrote my idea, and it is still a work in progress. However, I never wanted to be a filmmaker back then, I wanted to become a software engineer so I went on to purse Bachelor of Engineering in Information Technology in IITM, Gwalior. But somehow, the film 'Swades' that I watched in 12th std, stayed with me all through my engineering."

"During that time I was writing ideas, stories, narrating them to my friends and learning editing also. It was in 2008, during my third year when I saw 'Dev.D' by Anurag Kashyap which finally made me say to myself 'Okay, I want to make films now'. That was the point where my heart just lost the love for engineering to become a filmmaker! And though 'Dev.D' was the turning point, films like 'Minority Report', 'Swades', 'Lagaan', 'The Matrix' and 'Deewar' have also inspired me," he added.

The young director admitted his love for short films and said, "It is my first love. I started my journey as a short film writer, I think I have over 10 short screenplays but India never had a market or appetite for a short film back then. Fortunately in the past three years, short film market has emerged massively, and I would like to shoot all those scripts now. I was waiting for this, also because I believe instead of assisting a director, a new filmmaker can always prove themselves more by making a short film."

His directorial venture "Red Shirt" is all set to release on June 11. The movie depicts the hard reality that social media is nothing but a number game. 

Talking about it, he said, "In 'Red Shirt' film what I found particularly interesting was we are currently experiencing a world which heavily runs on social media and when an event or a controversy occurs, instead of going for the truth we are more focused on the opinions of other. And once the situation blows out of the proportion, the mere interest of the giants of social media focuses on the numbers and hits, and thus we ignore what had actually happened. People look for opportunities in tragedy for their own expansion, and that’s sad."

Like in the case of "Red Shirt", Himanshu believes story is the king, and he chooses his projects depending on that. "For me it’s very simple, a story can make you laugh and cry, it can motivate you, question certain stuff or frighten you, these are the certain emotions that can take you inside a fantasy world, or we can say these are the genres a film can be made in. If the story can perfectly portray any one of these emotions, I like that. For me the definition of entertainment is perfectly portraying a single emotion through a story," he said.

"Anything can be a story, but a good story for me is always about the person who is writing it and why is he writing it. It doesn’t matter if he/she is a writer or not. Just like our grandparents used to narrate us their journey, it was always interesting to us because the story comprised of their experiences. I believe if a story has been told through personal experiences or you can put yourself in it, it’s always going to be a great story no matter how simple or how complex the story is," he added.

Any advice for young filmmakers? "It’s the best time to make short films and showcase them. Just write, shoot and edit, put your name and release. There is no other way. Take a camera or mobiles will also do, take favours from your friends, and just shoot," he said.

Lastly, thanking Mr. Vikaas Gutgutia, MD and Founder FNP Media, and his team for giving him the creative freedom in "Red Shirt", Himanshu said, "When someone says, here is the opportunity and here is your complete creative freedom, and you can make the film as you want to, that’s the single greatest sentence every filmmaker wants to hear from a producer. Such was the case with FNP Media. They have been super supportive of our vision and made the entire process smooth and comfortable despite the many hurdles we faced during the pandemic. I am grateful to them for this."