Sh…indie is the buzzword!

It was the ‘Sh’ session that kick-started the star-studded line-up on the third day of CIFF. As senior journalist and festival director of New York Film Festival, Aseem Chhabra shared, “All the panellists’ names start with Sh — Shweta Tripathi, Shriya Pilgaonkar and Shashank Arora. Hence the name.”

The conversation centred on indie films and what it meant to be an indie actor; the young panellists articulated their thoughts in wise words. For Shweta, who has thrived in the nurturing ecosystem of indie film sets, an indie actor is someone ‘who is not afraid—not afraid of challenges, of experimentation’.

For Shriya, being an indie actor is a state of mind, where the collective effort is to see a project through. For Shashank, it means experimentation with no pressure to sell. However, for Shashank a film is a film and an actor is an actor. Indie or commercial, his job remains the same. Shweta, who has films like Masaan, Haraamkhor, Mirzapur, Made in Heaven and more to her credit, likes working with debut directors because she finds the passion of new directors infectious. “What happens behind the camera is a great learning experience,” she says.

Shriya, who has acted in Mirzapur, Guilty Minds and The Broken News, said she valued a good working experience on set. “An environment where everyone serves the script with no selfish agenda,” she shared. To Shashank, the actor of Titli, Manto, Made in Heaven and Super Boys of Malegoan, indie films brings him sanity. Shweta will soon be seen in films like Mirzapur and web series Mirzapur Season 4, and the latest season of Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein, while Shriya will be seen in two indie films. Shashank, who talked about his upcoming film Gangster Newton, which involves plenty of physics, took a cue from Aseem’s comment that Shashank is officially Kamal Hassan’s favourite, and made an appeal, “I am Kamal Hassan’s favourite. Please give me work!”