Director Rahul Riji Nair makes lockdown-based anthology

Kerala State award-winning filmmaker Rahul Riji Nair, known for the films Ottamuri Velicham and Dakini, has come up with an anthology based on the lockdown titled Survival Stories. Comprised of eight segments, it has an overall duration of 50 mins.

Rahul has teamed up with his frequent collaborators such as Renjith Sekar Nair and Vinitha Koshy in addition to filmmaker Jeo Baby and editor Appu Bhattathiri. Jeo has directed one of the segments. It will be released online through the channel Muzik247 on Youtube on Friday at 6.30 pm.

In a statement, Rahul said, "In these tough times, artists across the globe are looking beyond the ordinary to find new ways to express themselves. Survival Stories is our humble attempt in that direction to keep our art alive and our voices relevant. What started as a small experiment with just two of us, soon snowballed to something magical! This project opened us to a whole new world of opportunities to collaborate and innovate."

While sharing the poster which features the main characters, Rahul said that the experience made them fall in love once again with that undying spirit of the team's camaraderie. All the chapters in the anthology were conceptualised and executed during the lockdown phase. The project was produced by Rahul's own company First Print Studios in collaboration with several independent artistes.

Though the pandemic has forced everyone to stay indoors, filmmakers across the world are in pursuit of novel ideas to remain creative with content interesting enough to engage viewers. It's all made possible by a wonderfully collaborative team of passionate actors and technicians who work from their homes under the guidance of the filmmakers. The popularity of the short film Family, featuring celebrities across all film industries, has encouraged other filmmakers to try out similar ideas.