11 minutes of fame, Jalandhar lads make it to Cannes

Gagandeep Singh

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 13

Lost, an 11-minute silent film on drug abuse by two city lads has made it to the Short Film Corner of Cannes International Film Festival.

The film will be screened on May 16 and it can be viewed across the world at the festival’s video library from May 16 to May 22.

Using their own resources, Aasheesh Chopra and Namratpal Singh Basra, shot the film in the city.

“The film focuses on drug abuse that has not only been destroying the lives of Punjabi youth but is also a worldwide threat. The film revolves around drug abuse and depression. It is depression that leads to drug abuse and then depression caused by drugs further deteriorates the situation,” said Aasheesh, who conceived the idea and played the lead role in the film.

“The narrative paints a horrible picture of a depressed youngster haunted by the nightmare of death, who chooses to deal with his depression by taking drugs, smoking and drinking,” said Basra, director of the film.

Helping their families in their businesses, they said that selection of the film in the festival has encouraged them to work harder and break into mainstream Punjabi and Hindi film industry.

“We started making the film in May, 2015. Since we had no deadline for the project, we took our time and finished in January this year. Apart from working on the storyline and structure of the film, we researched a lot on the issue, aftermath of drugs and kind of psychological and physical changes that occur in an addict,” they added.