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Published in Mango news  on Dec 21, 2018

A short film, Naresh, A Gardener’s Life Story, was selected to be screened at the African Smartphone International Film Festival (ASIFF.)
Akshay Pusthay, a 22 year old resident of Hyderabad, shot the short film on an iPhone 7 Plus with 2K resolution.
Akshay shared his idea behind the short film and said, when he visited his friend Aslam’s residence, he met Naresh, a gardener at Aslam’s residence. He interacted with Naresh and immediately thought of making a film about him.
Akshay said, “I wanted to make a rom com (romantic comedy) short film with Hyderabadi flavour. So, I captured a few videos of Naresh for body language reference for my short film, which I saw later on my PC and felt it was a bit inspiring and I decided to complete the project which was just an idea at that time.”
Moving forward with the film, Akshay had some difficulties with editing it and was close to giving up on the project. However, later, DSN Films and editor Vinay Mahankhali, helped Akshay finish the editing of the film. The sound of the film comprises royalty free music and Rakesh Chaurasia’s Sea Breeze from YouTube. Other aspects of the film, such as scriptwriting, voice overs and subtitles, were taken care of by his friends and family members.
Akshay submitted his film to more than 50 film festivals, but with no positive response, he lost hope. It is then, when a committee at the African Smartphone International Film Festival watched his short film and decided to screen it. Akshay said, “Out of the blue on December 1, which is also my mom’s birthday, I received a mail from the African Smartphone International Film Festival with a message ‘congratulations your movie has been selected and you can promote your movie by adding our laurels.’”
Naresh, A Gardener’s Story will be screened on the 22nd of December at the ASIFF.

Hyderabadi documentary goes international

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Published in The Hans India Newspaper on Dec 21,2018

Hyderabad: Akshay Pusthay, 22, who made a short film exclusively shot on Iphone got international recognition as it got selected for African Smartphone International Film Festival. 

The documentary film “Nareshh a gardener's life story" will be screened on December 22. When Akshay visited his friend Aslam’s workplace, he saw Naresh, the gardener, working there. During interactions with the gardener, the thought of making a short film on Naresh cropped up in the mind of the young entrepreneur. He said that he immediately started taking videos and pics of the protagonist of his short film. Akshay said that “I wanted to make a ROM-COM short film with Hyderabadi flavor. So, I captured a few videos of Naresh for body language reference for my short film, which I saw later on my PC and felt it was a bit inspiring and I decided to complete the project which was just an idea at that time.”

But as the project moved further it was an uphill task and the young entrepreneur almost gave up the movie while editing, However, he was thankful for DSN Films and their editor Vinay Mahankhali with whom he spent 15-20 days watching them editing their films. The whole documentary was shot on iPhone 7 Plus mobile with 2K resolution and the audio was added from royalty free music & Rakesh Chaurasia's Sea Breeze from YouTube. The voice-over was lent by Tiia Pusthay, his eldest brother’s wife. The script of voice-over was written by his other elder sibling Anurag Pusthay. Subtitles were added by Akshay’s friend Naga Raj. While the camera work, editing and direction was done by Akshay himself. 

Akshay said that he had submitted the film to more than 50 film festivals and as time passed, he lost hope of getting nominated for the festivals. “But out of the blue on December 1, which is also my mom’s birthday, I received a mail from the African Smartphone International Film Festival with a message ‘congratulations your movie has been selected and you can promote your movie by adding our laurels,” said a beaming Akshay.

BY Satishraj G Medapatla