Buzzingg Celebrate your successes – Big or Small
With over 80% of its internet users accessing YouTube every month, highest number of Facebook users in any country and with multiple OTT platforms available, India is one of the richest and growing online entertainment markets in the world. The trend of making rich content for short films, web series and on-demand platforms has spread rapidly in the recent years and the industry has been bursting with some exciting new age film directors who are bringing in their fresh vision and creativity on the screens. Meet Mumbai based Vedd Rawtaani, the director of the famous web series Pyaar On The Rocks on Sony Liv, who has carved a niche for himself in the annals of web series making.
Vedd is the first member from his family to embrace the world of film making. His fascination for performing arts dates back to his school days where he developed fondness of writing, acting and directing for plays, participating in competitions and winning them. From making movies with a handycam gifted by his sister to enrolling in film making and editing workshops by the time he finished his 10th, he had made up his mind to make a career in film making.
During those days, I worked hard in improving my Editing skills so as to make it my strength area in film making.
Vedd Rawtaani
Even during his 10+2 college days, he used to take part time jobs as an Editor and used to direct some films as well. He got the opportunity to direct a film on drug abuse called Memories which was shot using his handycam. It received critical acclaim and was distributed by the Narcotics Department of Mumbai in various colleges. At the age of 17, he also wrote and directed a short film Two-Faced with cinematographer Anuj Dhawan (cinematographer for Kangna Ranaut starrer Simran). The film went to various festivals and also received rave reviews.
When I was in my 12th grade, I started working in production company of Sarfraz and Shah Nawaz Khan, sons of legendary actor Kader Khan. With them, I co-produced and was the creative producer of a short film called In Your Arms which had a web release and has garnered more than 4 Million views. They have been my guiding force, mentors in my journey so far.
Vedd Rawtaani
He went on to graduate in film making from Whistling Woods in 2015. He was the youngest in his batch to be selected for the specialization of Direction. After his graduation, he started working as a freelancer directing product ads and fashion ads. During that phase, he had come up with a story for a thriller web series but no one was interested to make a film on it. To make matters worse, he also had a breakup during that phase.
It inspired me to write a story based on my life. I told my story to one of my writer friends from whistling woods batch. He adapted the story to his life where he had a live-in relationship and that’s how he linked it. Subsequently, my partner and whistling woods classmate, Prasun Jindal, enriched the script further. And that’s how Pyaar on the Rocks was born.
Vedd Rawtaani
Pyaar On The Rocks
Along with Prasun, Vedd formed a company called Filmi Fiction in 2016 with the aim of creation of original fictional content in the form of web series. Being their first production, his team laid lot of emphasis on casting and spent a good time of 2 months in finalizing the cast. They had budget constraints so they did a mock shoot first with low level equipment to get the acting and chemistry right. Then they went for a 11 day start to finish schedule shooting 8-9 min of content a day with sync sound. After 3 months of post production, Filmi Fiction released the first episode of Pyaar on the Rocks in Oct 2017.
The series is about Rahul, Gullu and Shampy who are living the perfect bachelor life in their bachelor pad. Everything goes for a toss when Kamya enters Rahul’s life and takes the bachelor house for a toss. It celebrates the myriad characters and their idiosyncrasies that exist in this world. It went on to receive rave reviews and has garnered over 2M views. As a testament to their good work, recently, OTT Platform Sony Liv has acquired the web series. It will be exclusively streamed on the platform now and the Season 2 is also in the works.
When I feel I have not done worthwhile in, say, last couple of months, I feel incomplete.
Vedd Rawtaani
Buoyed by the success of their first web series, Filmi Fiction is also working on another chapter based web series, Ek Tha Raaja whose first chapter has been recently released. It is one of his most accomplished work as a director and a technician. Besides projects under Filmi Fiction, Vedd also continues to work on Brand shoots, ads, music videos as a freelancer.
I never followed a set pattern but I do focus on building content that creates huge value. I always have hunger of building value.
Vedd Rawtaani
Vedd aspires to make a full length hindi feature film in the near future. Besides this, he also aspires to do a web series based on prostitution racket of Mumbai for which he is working on the script. Also, under the Filmi Fiction banner, they plan to start a murder mystery thriller based web series in the coming months. They envision Filmi Fiction growing to entertain audiences across all genres.
Vedd’s energy and passion just oozes off the screen and you can’t help but admire the level of detail he commits to every single second of his films. What makes him stand apart is the realism entrenched in his narrative, his unconventional subject matter and the grace with which he tackles complex emotional entanglements. In just few years, he has worked on different genres in film making and still continues to impress at his age. A man of unrestrained passion, Vedd has continued to grow with each of his films and a true masterpiece from him isn’t far away.
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