If water (pani) is essential for survival, so are the jungles that sustain the livelihood of rural people who live in close harmony with nature. And what better way to drive home the point than films.

Netarhat Film Institute, a brainchild of national award winning filmmaker Sriram Dalton who hails from Palamau but works in Mumbai, has chosen jungle as the central theme of its second workshop that will begin on Tuesday and continue till August 8.

Around 100-odd participants will be asked to narrate their ideas and the 10 best ones will be selected as the themes of as many short films of 10 minutes each.

"The selected participants will be offered training in filmmaking during the workshop," the 37-year-old Sriram told The Telegraph on Monday.

The workshop will cover important aspects of filmmaking such as screenplay writing, shooting, direction and editing.

"Our aim is to help local talents make films with limited resources that will highlight important issues involving the people and society," Sriram said.

The film institute had conducted a 12-day workshop, the first of its kind in the rural set-up of Netarhat, with pani as its theme during May 25-June 5 last year. The 50-odd participant had made 13 short films that were screened at special festivals later.

A graduate in fine arts from Banaras Hindu University, Sriram took up filmmaking and won national award for his short film, The Lost Bahrupiya, at the 61st National Film Awards in 2013.