Mumbai’ madness makes waves at NY Shorts Fest!

Varadraj Swami, director, Akhbar Ka Ek Panna

Varadraj Swami and Shahzad Ahmad, the writers of Manjhi The Mountain Man recently tasted sweet success again when their short film Akhbar Ka Ek Panna won at the New York short Film Festival and Rasika Agashe won the Best Actor Award. The shorts is written by Shahzad Ahmad and Varadraj Swami and directed by Varadraj Swami as well.

A Still from Akhbar Ka Ek Panna

Interestingly, the film seems to be straight out of the life of the writers, who even after Manjhi await the world to know that they have been responsible for the research and dialogues of the acclaimed film.  Says the duo, “Metropolitan life brings with it urban chaos.  The stress and the need to prove oneself at every step is not just painful but at times suicidal. Success in a metro spells the beginning of a stressful journey, not the end. Here, at every step one needs to go through so many complications that it is not easy living the life. We are glad our feelings on the metro madness made sense even in New York.”

The writers plan to take the film on a world festival tour before embarking on their next. “This time it will be a feature,” discloses Varadraj. “You can say Akhbar Ka Ek Panna was the fourth leaf from our book, replete with exciting stories waiting to hit the celluloid.” The other short films by the duo are The Endless, Shades and Recession. "Our short films are our short stories coming to life," avers Shahzad Ahmad.