Biyot Projna Tripathy. Telegraph picture

Jamshedpur, June 24: She started of as a filmmaker and came a full circle as a jury member.

After bagging the National Award for the best promotional film Ladakh: The Land of Mystery in non-feature film category in 2004, Biyot Projna Tripathy was again a part of the prestigious event, but as a jury member this time. Tripathy returned to her city a couple of days ago after judging films in the non-feature category, a category she had won earlier, at the 54th National Film Awards.

“It was a different experience. There were entrees from all over the country, but I enjoyed watching the Malayalam movies in particular. At present non-feature films are generating great interest in India,” she said while talking to The Telegraph. She rated Andhyam and Mimuku — Malayalam movies — as particularly riveting and poignant. For the young filmmaker the future was hopeful, as she felt that more and more directors were touching subjects that were left unexplored before.

“Quality-wise there have been improvements. There are better documentaries to be seen now and people are interested as well,” she said. “The quality of cinema being produced here by Indian filmmakers can compete with world cinema,” she said. “The technique used by us is effective as well,” she said.

She also said that Indian filmmakers are ready to experiment. “Filmmakers are also looking at different methods of animation and short fiction films as a medium of narration,” she said.

“As a jury member I saw tremendous development in the quality of animation films made today from.”

In fact, the young filmmaker was so moved by the medium, she plans to direct an animation film — if plans work out. Her other co-members were — Arvind Sinha, Apurba Sarma, Satheesh Venganoor and Dr Iftikhar Ahmed — all top names in Indian cinema.

This year’s non-feature short-film winner was Amitabh Chatterjee’s Bishar Blues. “Our decision was prompted because of the uniqueness of the subject matter,” she explained. The film dealt with the idea of Islam being a monolithic religion. She said that the ceremony helped her to come across some interesting filmmakers who were focussed on their work and knew what they wanted to do with their craft.

“It was an enriching experience, as I came across very promising filmmakers with the right attitude. Their interest in films runs deep,” said the filmmaker who has to her credit 20 documentaries and three short films — The Coffee House, Hawa Mithai and Window of Desire.