Meet the SHEROES - Prerna Siddarth

Prerna always wanted to be a filmmaker but people wanted her to walk on a more conventional path. A rebel with a cause, she grew up to become a filmmaker. She has been acknowledged as one of the six upcoming directors of the country by HMV sa re ga ma in their “The Underground Project”. A devoted Story seeker, she has ventured into deepest of the country with her camera.   She is currently looking to fund a project she dreamt of making 7 years ago. Here is more about this young SHERO

Tell us about what you do

I have been a film maker for about a decade now. I always had a passion for film making but I wanted just as much to mix this passion with a cause. In this direction I took my first major step with Doordarshan and Bharat Shodh (NGO) and went across three states (Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Uttranchal) in search of millionaire farmers (thankfully did find them). This resulted in 13 documentaries which I directed for DD National titled "Kheti se Lakhpati" instructing the farmers on how to gain profits through farming. My next major work was with a Canadian NGO Kid Powered Media, where we went to different slum communities of Delhi and taught those children Life Skills through the process of film making. During this process I got the opportunity to work with different amazing NGOs of Delhi, like Swechcha, Salam Balak Trust and Vidya. In my last project, I made films from the grass roots for UNICEF's Poo2Loo campaign and Red Siren Campaign with Protsahan India Foundation. And currently I am working on Untitled.

What is the Story behind untitled? And what is the idea behind it?

I wrote the script seven years back. It is a short film on the loss of innocence. Being a middle class Indian Girl who wanted to be film maker was quite a challenge. Loved ones lost no opportunity of talking me out of it. It is through their pestering that I realized that so many of us, this generation or the older, had set out to become something completely different, due to life and its pressures we lose some of our magic and finally become in some way or the other "UNTITLED". As kids we are naive and appreciate the beauty around us but as we grow we stop doing that. We accept the conventional ways of life. This is the main crux of the film. 

What are the challenges you faced?

It is a short film with one main character and demanded us to go to different places, but managing the funds to build sets has been hard. We needed to find a forest to shoot, Delhi has no forests. There are places in Manali and Shillong, we couldn’t travel there so we went to Rishikesh and shot there.

Shooting equipment was another issue, most of the work I have done with this movie until now is using one DSLR, but more equipment is required. That is the reason we need the crowd-funding.

Any message for the SHEROES and young filmmakers?

I am too young to give any advice, but I will just quote Lupita Nyong’o from Oscars, “ No matter where you are from, your dreams are valid”. So live them, don’t ever stop.

For  Untitled Prerna launched a Crowd Funding campaign on Indiegogo.com and Raindance Film Festival has partnered with them for this campaign. The campaign will is live, support the UNTITILED Campaign. Help this SHERO in making her dream come true. 

 


SHEROES
SHEROES - lives and stories of women we are and we want to be. Connecting the dots. Moving the needle. Also world's largest community of women, based out of India. Meet us at www.sheroes.in @SHEROESIndia facebook.com/SHEROESIndia

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