The Making of Save Birds

 The making of 'Save Birds':

 a short film by Ashwamedh Kalamanch

     Ashwamedh Kalamanch team is working on Marathi short-film 'Nakoshi' based on 'Save Girl child' cause. We have almost finished the shooting and the last schedule of short-film shooting is remaining. Earlier I decided to keep the really sad ending of the short-film but after thinking for some days; I have decided to keep 'Happy Ending' to it so as to give some positive message. We do shooting on Sundays as all are working people. As usual last Saturday night I went to Virar so as to wake-up early morning on next day and empty the bedroom to create a set of Hospital there. As I entered the room and opened the door of my terrace I saw a little bird hopping on my terrace.

         

           I have a terrace flat in Virar where we do all the shooting of Ashwamedh Kalamanch's projects (Short films and Web serial Hasya Jatra). The home remains closed for 5 days and so we keep all the windows and doors completely closed before leaving home. This little birdie may have entered the house through a small gap between the roof of the terrace and the sliding glass doors. I could see that the frail birdie was completely exhausted of trying to search out the way out from where it came inside.  It could have been there from 2 or 3 days as it was not at all able to fly. It was just hopping and moving slowly on the terrace. 

               To save it; I opened all the windows of the terrace. But it was too tough for it to reach the window due to weakness in its small body. I didn't want to touch it as it was already completely frightened to see me at home. Even if I could have lifted it and kept on the terrace wall; it would have died by falling down from the 4th floor. So I decided to feed it till it gets the energy to fly away by its own.I kept a bowl of water in front of it and gave some raw rice to eat. When I switched off the light it slowly reached the bowl and drank some water and ate rice. I felt a great relief. Keeping windows open, I went to sleep. Next morning when I woke up I didn't found it at that place. I thought it might have fled away. I was quite happy. But as I turned my eyes towards dustbin I saw it dead. My all prayers and attempts to save it were failed. I felt sorry for that birdie and wished I could have added some sugar/glucon-D to the water. Ahh !! It was too late. I thought I would make it's death a valuable message to save the lives of many other birds, and minimize my guilt feeling to some extent. So I took footage of its dead body on my Handycam and decided to make this short-film to make that little birdie immortal.

                 As usual; I poured some water in the pot outside my terrace window and spread some rice near it. As usual, birds started coming there; but this time I was ready with my cam. I tried to take some handy shot but the camera was quite shaky so I mounted it on a tripod and kept it at a long distance from water-pot. In a zoomed mode, the videos are generally blurred for my handy-cam but I didn't have another choice. Only pigeons dare to come closer to a human being, but rest birds really afraid of us. I shot crows and Salunkhi/Titavi while eating rice and drinking water. And then waited for my team to come. Our friend and an actress Rupali More who is playing the lead role of 'Nakoshi'; always comes with her husband and son for shooting. Shailesh too has some interest in acting and has worked in some webisodes of Hasya Jatra. That day I was more eagerly waiting for Priyanshu; their son. Without him 'Save Birds' shooting wouldn't have been completed on the same day. I know its really tough to make children act; so I just take their natural expressions from many angles and use them to create/cheat scenes. I did the same here.

        Although he loved to fill the glass bowl with water he was least interested in acting. I finished shooting and went to create a hospital at home for 'Nakoshi'. Priyanshu took empty injection from our set and kept filling the bowl at regular intervals. While editing the film, once again sensitive 'deepbaazigar' felt sorry for that little birdie. But a chicken-lover non-vegetarian 'Deepak' forgot it after the video became viral and got so much appreciation. You can watch 'Save Birds' here. 

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Save Birds - A short-film by Ashwamedh Kalamanch