Snapshots of the Craft: In Conversation with Priyanka Chhabra

Snapshots of the Craft: In Conversation with Priyanka Chhabra

Priyanka Chhabra is an independent filmmaker, editor and visual artist based in Delhi. Her work includes films such as Shame was a Place Inside, A Summer Flu, Shape of Trees and Oranges and Mangoes. Priyanka studied filmmaking at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, and her work has been exhibited at Oberhausen, Rotterdam, York, Calgary, Mumbai and Kerala. Priyanka visited the Manipal Centre for Humanities in October 2018 to screen her latest film Pichla Varka. She also released Chaicopy’s October 2018 issue Offline.

The following interview was conducted by Tanushree Baijal and Tanvi Deshmukh, M.A. English students at MCH, over email in February 2019.

*** T&T: Could you tell us about what it is like to work as an independent filmmaker in India? What has your experience been in terms of starting out and establishing yourself?

PC: It is tough, but exciting as well. And it’s still not easy to say whether one is established in any way. Because what will you take into account? Making films as sustenance? There is no established way of pursuing that, in the sense that funding options are limited, there is intense competition, distribution channels are not fully configured and we, the community, are also to blame. But there’s so much work to be done still, and so many stories to tell. My experience has been varied over the last ten years, since I finished studying and began working. I worked as an assistant logging tapes and depositing cheques, had a part-time job as a communication

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T&T: Thank you so much for your time, Priyanka. This has been apleasure.

Still from A Summer Flu

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