I produced this video essay titled Sankranthi & Telugu Cinema for Film Companion South, and working on this has been a highly rewarding experience. For years, Sankranthi has remained a celebration, a time I eagerly look forward to every year. There’s something very joyful about the festival that’s hard to express in text. It’s a feeling that emerges from childhood memories, the people around, the conversations, etc. If you are here, I assume you are a film lover, and Sankranthi is a film festival in the literal sense. This tiny video essay is a reminder of those cheerful memories, a love letter to the films we watched with our friends and families during Sankranthi vacation year-after-year, and a critque on the evolution of – or lack thereof – Telugu Cinema. I have spent many hours sitting in my room, facing the computer, transmuting words into the audio visual form. Barring the painful part where I had to listen to my voice, it was a fruitful learning experience.

If this video gives a glimpse of your childhood or even nudges you to notice something that you might have been overlooking through these years, my job is done. You can watch it here:

If you are someone who prefers reading over watching, here is the written version of the voice-over (actually conceived as an essay) which has a notable chunk that wasn’t used in the final version of the video essay.