Aseem Sinha

Ranchi, Aug. 6: Imagine Shah Rukh Khan cavorting with Preity Zinta deep inside the Saranda forest. Sounds incredible, right? But for a local lad who has made it big in the Mumbai film industry, this could be possible if Jharkhand’s scenic treasures get the right dose of exposure.

Thirty-six-year-old Aseem Sinha, whose editing skills have made him the favourite of no less a director than Shyam Benegal, was in his hometown, Ranchi, recently. And the man who works wonders with his cinematic scissors believes that Jharkhand has the potential to become a major film destination. Sinha, who frequents the Film Training Institute in Pune and the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Calcutta to share his expertise with the students, said he joined the film industry “by chance”.

He had once gone to FTI to see the film archives while pursuing a rural management course at XISS, Ranchi, in 1986. He was then working on a research project, which dealt with cinema as a vehicle of consciousness in rural development. However, the FTI archives impressed him so much that he pursued a diploma course in cinema with specialisation in film and video editing after completing the rural management course. And the rest, as they say, is history. Sinha, who has a studio in Mumbai’s Andheri, is working on Shyam Benegal’s Netaji-the Last Hero among other films at present. Sinha has also edited some of Benegal’s other films like Mammo, Sardari Begum, Samar, Hari Bhari and Zubeida besides Ketan Mehta’s Aar Yaa Paar and Kalpana Lajmi’s Darmiyan.

The talented man from Ranchi also edited the children’s film, Jajantram Mamantram, and popular TV shows like Chandrakanta of Nirza Guleri, Reporter of Vinod Pandey and Sankranti of Benegal. He made a short film on Subhash Ghai for his production house, Mukta Arts.

“Many people from Bollywood still do not know about Jharkhand. They wonder if it is a state in the Northeast. At times I have to refer to Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and Bihar to make them understand the state’s location. The government should market the state’s scenic locations by offering lucrative packages to the Mumbai film industry,” he said.

Sinha, whose uncle Vinod Kumar made a feature film in Hindi in the early 90s — Aakrant said he would do his bit to bring Jharkhand on the Indian film industry map.

“My uncle shot a major portion of Aakrant in Rajadera near Netarhat. I am here to do some research on a subject for a film,” he signed off.

— with Bengali actor Sreela Majumdar and Mumbai’s Sadashiv Amrapurkar,