Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, April 3: A security guard at the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in the city was
never known to the students of the college beyond his assigned work. But a small initiative by an engineering duo from the college made him a star within a day. Many students from the college started adoring him after listening to his inspirational love story on how he managed to marry the daughter of a navy officer and turn his marriage into a love-cum-arranged marriage after initial hiccups.
His story, and others such as his, is being told in the form of documentaries by Sandeep Roy and Sameer Pattnaik, both third year engineering students from the college, who have vowed to tell some uncommon stories of common people from the city. Inspired by the famous works of Brandon Stanton on ‘Humans of New York’, the duo now does not shy away from hitting the streets to make movies and documentaries to tell untold stories.
“I was fascinated by the works of Stanton, who toiled hard to tell some untold inspiring stories of some common people. I tried to experiment with the same concept in my city and worked towards bringing to light some inspiring stories of common people whom we often meet but seldom get into conversation with. Many people are now blindfolded by their social or economical status but this often segregates them from reality. Our society is enriched with many people who have many inspirational stories to share,” says Sameer Pattnaik, a 3rd year IT student from the college.
The duo often tries to squeeze time from academics to try their hands with moviemaking and documentary-making. Borrowing DSLR cameras from friends and arranging tripods from some seniors to pursue their dream is now a common part of their lives. In order to manage logistics, they often try their hand at making some stuff from themselves. “Many a time, we confront hassles in logistics. Moviemaking is complex. We have to often arrange cameras, tripods, fixers, sound recorders among other things and most of them are expensive. Recently, we tried to build a fixer on our own with the help of PV pipes which can help us in adjusting the camera with our hand. These things are now a part of our lives,” says Sandeep.
Sandeep and Sameer till now have made more than five movies including some promotional videos and teasers. Their cinematography page on Facebook christened ‘Humans of IIT, Bhubaneswar’ has around 612 members. The small team is now planning to extend their work in order to cope with financial problems. “We are now planning to build a brand and collaborate with clients in order to cope with fund crisis which often dampens our prospects and work,” says Sameer.
The budding moviemakers, however, are still unable to impress their parents about their passion. “My parents often ask me to focus more on studies and are skeptical about our passion. However, I believe it is of paramount importance for all of us to have a passion and a hobby which we can pursue apart from our studies or our jobs. Such a hobby is a great stress-buster and often acts as an inducer of happy hormones while building our profile simultaneously,” says Sandeep.
Both the students have big aspirations. Sameer wants to try his luck in a Hollywood movie, and wants to work with acclaimed director Christopher Nolan (Batman trilogy, Inception, The Prestige, Memento) while Sandeep wants to be part of the video crew of Tomorrowland, the world’s most famous DJ show.
