PVR Director’s Rare Film Banner brings another path breaking Indie-film, Shuttlecock Boys, for the movie aficionados. The movie is 76 minutes in length, made on a shoestring budget of 35 lacs (personal savings and loan from friends & family), took almost 4 years to be finished, four non-actors as protagonists and almost ruined film negatives. Shuttlecock Boys has a realistic, rustic story and is set to release on August 3, 2012 by under PVR Director’s Rare initiative.
Shuttlecock Boys, made under the banner of Pennywise Films Pvt. Ltd., will not only take its audience through a journey of life, but reach out to everyone wanting to chase their dream as well. It’s a story that revolves around the lives, successes and failures of four friends who hail from lower-middle class backgrounds living in Delhi, with a question trickling down their minds. ‘Should we accept what life offers to us on a platter or should we try to chase our dreams, taking the path less taken? That’s the question our protagonists Gaurav (Vijay Prateek), Manav (Aakar Kaushi), Pankaj (Alok Kumar) and Loveleen (Manish Nanwani) seek answer to, as they decide to embark upon an eventful journey that will change the course of their lives and careers forever.
The film has been well received at international as well as national film festivals. These include India International Film Festival – Tampa Bay, Gotham Screen International Film Festival – New York, Seattle South Asian Film Festival – Seattle, Chicago South Asian Film Festival – Chicago and Jaipur International Film Festival – Jaipur.
Mr. Sanjeev Kumar, joint MD, PVR Cinemas says: “I am extremely delighted to announce the release of our ninth movie “Shuttlecock Boys” under the PVR Director’s Rare Banner, which will be released exclusively at select PVR Cinemas. Shuttlecock Boys by Pankaj & Hemant is an honest & refreshing film that has a heart. The protagonist in the film demonstrates courage, determination & persistence which our patrons will appreciate. With PVR Director’s Rare, we have been able to bring distinctive movies for our patrons. We have released eight films under our banner and each movie is equally different from the previous one like Supermen of Malegaon was an independent documentary film that tickled the funny bone while Kshay was a grave movie that took an unforgiving look at obsession. We feel delighted that we have been able to deliver a meaningful cinema to people and further promise to bring many such movies in coming future.”
Indie-films tend to involve fewer people in the making due to budget constraints and the same is true with Shuttlecock Boys. The film has been produced by Pankaj Johar, Hemant Gaba and Thakur Dass. The film has perfectly suitable background score composed by Avinash Bhagel and lyrics have been penned down by Prachi Singh, Manas Mishra and Gaurav Solanki.
Pankaj Johar, producer shares his thoughts on the film by saying,
“Every shot in the film will make the audience think through regarding the decisions to be made in their lives. We as a team have put our heart, soul and money to bring this across. My fingers remain crossed until the 3rd of August”.
Interestingly, the film was shot in Delhi covering 18 different locations with cops throwing the crew out of a park while the shooting took place. A total of 22 days with 30 crew members is what it took to bring it all to celluloid. The film has been shot on Super 16mm camera to minimize the costs, with sync sound chosen over dubbing in order to bring out organic performances.
PVR Director’s Rare is the recently launched alternative programming initiative of PVR Cinemas to support the theatrical release of critically acclaimed, small independent films. PVR Director’s Rare has already released eight films under its banner – Good Night Good Morning, Chaurahen, The Forrest, Kshay, Love Wrinkle Free and Supermen of Malegaon, The Untitled Karthik Krishnan project. Another film, Harud, is slated to release on 27th July.
The films are carefully handpicked by PVR’s expert curators. In a given week the audience can watch a much admired classic or a relatively lesser known gem. These selected films will be highly content driven, engaging and entertaining & will be showcased at PVR Director’s Cut and at selected PVR Cinemas pan India.