Hasta La Motion!

Abhishek Verma, National Award winning animation filmmaker for his animated short, Maacher Jhol has another award to his credit! After winning the Académie des César- National Film Academy -France at Les Nuits en Or for ‘Best Short Film’ (Maacher Jhol) from India, Verma’s another short film, Lukka Chuppi on open defecation and poor sanitation, has now bagged a Select Respect Award at TAF Festival, Greece. 

‘Lukka Chuppi’

“This is a special award we received for the relevance of the content and it’s presentation in animation. It’s great to receive an award for, Lukka Chuppi, a film on a big problem faced by girl children and women in india – open defecation and its adverse effects. I am sure this content is completely alien to the European nation but it’s has been acknowledged well by the festival,” commented Verma on the win.

Abhishek Verma

Despite receiving the award and lot of appreciation, Lukka Chuppi remains unreleased in India, apparently owing to some administrative issues. 

Verma stated, “I think I will be bashed for answering this in public, but it’s a grave problem that Indian Government Film Commission does. Firstly, For the sum of money allocated for the first installment of the project, you have to keep a deposit for the same. Secondly, the deadlines are skewed. It was commissioned in December 2016 under the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ and now it’s 2019. May be because the target of number of toilets under the campaign is already achieved. The film was supposed to release in Villages and three tier upscale PVR.”

Verma seemingly sounded dejected on the current situation of the film. He and his team have approached the authorities to check what can be done about this situation and might also approach few OTT platforms for distribution.

He further added, “We’ve approached the PMO about the relevance of the film and also about its release by any Government body. We asked the permission from Government film bodies and they denied. It has been more than five months since our last interaction [with the concerned authorities]. Each feedback comes after six months, emails go unnoticed as a lot of people don’t care much.”

Verma and his team is currently working on another animated short Kitchen, which is being crowdfunded on Wishberry.

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