Ranchi: The maiden feature film of a Jharkhand-based film-maker will premiere at an international film festival in the USA next month.
Spring Thunder, directed by National Award-winning film-maker Sriram Dalton, has been selected for screening at the inaugural edition of Bay Area South Asian Film Festival in California from September 21 to 23.
A graduate in fine arts, the 38-year-old film-maker from Palamau received the Rajat Kamal award in the 61st National Film Awards in 2014 for his short film The Lost Behrupiya under "Best Arts/Cultural Film" category.
Produced by Hollybull Entertainment, the two-hour film will be screened on the opening day of the festival. "It's really an honour and am glad," said Sriram over phone from Ambikapur in Chattisgarh.
An environmentalist at heart, Sriram has made optimum use of his favourite medium to highlight the global concern of degrading environment. "From mining activities to conflict of policy makers, crime, misuse of money, politics, fight of local people over land acquisition and most importantly the universal concern for depleting forests, I have highlighted all these aspects in the movie. It basically throws light on people's struggle between sustainability and development in rural India," he explained.
Mostly shot within Jharkhand in places like Palamau, Latehar and Koderma and other states like Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, the shooting started in 2014 and took four years to complete. "Even though the language of medium is Hindi, I have used English and other dialects like Kudukh to connect with the audience," he said, adding the music of the film had been composed by Leslie Lewis.
Sriram is currently on another mission. To spread awa-reness on the basic rights of people surrounding land, water and forest, Sriram started wa-lking from Nasik in Maharashtra in early June to reach Jhar-khand in September. "I feel water should never be treated as a commodity and made free for all. Sometime my friends join me in my mission and this helps me to reach out to as ma-ny people as possible," Sriram said, adding he would reach Ranchi within a fortnight.
