Super Shots

• City boys’ film best from India
• Trophy, gift vouchers today
• Ranked 23rd at Hollywood
• Missed top-10 bus to Cannes

Four city boys have made India proud at Filmapalooza 2015, an event under the 48 Hour Film Project, the world's biggest amateur filmmaking competition held in Los Angeles.

2 Shots. 2 Late, a seven-minute film made by Sumit Saurabh, Kabeer, Aniket Krishna and Suyash Raj - all from Patna - was on Sunday ranked 23rd in the Best Film category among 145 short films from 83 countries screened at the contest.

The announcement was made after the film was screened at the TCL Chinese Theatre at the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame on 6925 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, California. The team of four youths from Patna would be handed over a trophy and gift vouchers for their film on Monday.

2 Shots. 2 Late has already won the Best Film from India award, beating a film each from Mumbai and Hyderabad.

Kabeer, the film's director, screenwriter and editor said theirs was the only film from Asia to be ranked in the top-25. "Though we were hoping to be in the top-10, we are proud our film made it to the top-25. The audience response during screening of our film today was overwhelming," he said.

Kabeer (23), a Delhi Public School alumnus, was born and brought up in Dak Bungalow Road area.

He is creative head at an interactive media design and consultancy firm in New Delhi. All four youths behind the film are former students of National Institute of Fashion Technology, Delhi.

"Our film, 2 Shots. 2 Late, is a dark comedy about a couple's fight gone wrong. Apart from best film award from India, it has also won 'The Best Film, New Delhi', 'Best Actress, New Delhi' and 'Best Sound Design, New Delhi," said Sumit Saurabh (27), producer of the film and an alumnus of St Xavier's High School, Patna (2003 batch) and NIFT-New Delhi (2008 batch).

Sumit, born and brought up in Pataliputra area in the city, works as a photographer and runs his own production house and training institute for design students in New Delhi.

According to contest norms, teams are assigned a genre, a character, a prop and a dialogue and given 48 hours in which to produce a short film. The top 10 international films would get a chance to screen it at the Cannes Film Festival in France in the short-film category. The competition began in US in 2001.

"Our film was selected as the best from India by a jury comprising Nagesh Kukunoor (director of critically-acclaimed movies like Iqbal and Rockford) and Rajat Kapoor (actor, writer and director). The genre assigned to us was bar comedian and the line to be incorporated in the movie was: "Let us not do it today". I played a real estate agent in the film," said Suyash (28), the lead actor.

Suyash was born and brought up in the Rajeev Nagar area and is an alumnus of St Michael's High School (2004 batch) and NIFT-New Delhi (2008-batch).

He works as a sales and marketing head, North-India, for Pidilite (Fevicol and Fevikwik) in New Delhi and pursues acting in his spare time.

Suyash said 2 Shots. 2 Late was shot and produced entirely in New Delhi in October. "Sumit, my roommate in Delhi, is into film production for some years now. He insisted that I act in the movie, which I gladly accepted. Working in this film was a wonderful learning experience as all of us gave our 100 per cent," Suyash said.

Aniket Krishna, assistant director of 2 Shots. 2 Late was born and brought up in Kankerbagh area and works as a full time photographer, graphics artist and art director in New Delhi.

Smita Dubey from Mumbai bagged the Best Actress Award in India in the 48 Hour Film Project.

About the contest

What is the 48 Hour Film Project?
The 48 Hour Film Project is the world’s biggest amateur filmmaking competition. Entries from 145 cities in 83 countries compete with each other for the International Grand prize at Hollywood. The top 10 films get to be screened at Cannes Film Festival in the short film category.

What does one have to do to participate and represent India at Hollywood?
A participating team has to write, shoot, edit and submit a 10-minute-long film in just 48 hours. To ensure the creative writing and shooting was done in the given 48 hours, the teams are given a specific genre, prop, character name and dialogue that they have to use in most parts of the film. A jury selects the top three films to represent a country.

What is the film the Patna boys have made and what awards or honours has it fetched them?
The film is called  2 Shots. 2 Late. It’s a dark comedy about a couple’s fight gone horribly wrong. The jury in New Delhi adjudged it as “Best Film from India”, “Best Film, New Delhi”, “Best Actress, New Delhi” and “Best Sound Design, New Delhi”. On Sunday, it was ranked 23rd in the Best Film category in Hollywood, among 145 short films from 83 countries.