Anandmurthy’s short film Sinam made in Tamil has won eight awards at the recently held Calcutta International Cult Film Festival. It has also made it to the finals at Best Shorts California. Basically a Bengalurean, Anandmurthy has done his Fine Arts from Ken School of Art.

“This is said to be the first time a short film has won in eight categories, and I was glad to know about it,” says Anandmurthy. Featuring Sai Dhanshika of Kabali fame and Bidita Bag in  the lead, Siman has music by GV Prakash and cinematography by Saravana Natarajan.  “It is a social film that will create a buzz when it gets released,”  he adds.

Having started as an assistant with director Kathir, Anandmurthy has assisted various directors over the last 25 years. He is now assisting director Bala on his upcoming film, a remake of Arjun Reddy starring Chiyaan Vikram’s son Dhruv. 

“My first film Thileepan is stuck due to financial crunch and I had to do this 20-minute short film to show that I am capable of handling a feature. This script also needed to be made as a short as it wouldn’t have been able to pass through the censors as a feature since it deals with a very controversial subject,” says Anandmurthy, who gives a synopsis of Sinam. “A documentary film-maker's interest is piqued when a caller identifies herself as a prostitute. And she is shocked when the latter says that her father is the reason why she finds herself in a brothel today. When Durga, the film-maker visits Shakthi, the prostitute, we get to hear the story of the travails of a woman, named after an Indian Goddess confessing her story to another that bears a similar name. This ironical subtlety forms the bedrock of the narration, which is an account of anger (sinam) prevailing over love. As we wind down contemplating this irony, we join Durga in tears as the film ends with a soulful rendering of a Tagore poem.”

Anandmurthy’s next move is do a feature, which is currently in discussion with various producers and he hopes everything fall in place. “But short films will be my forte, as I get to tell some stories which the mainstream cannot handle, since there are a lot of restrictions regarding religion and language when it comes to feature films,” he says.