Filmmaker Anshuman Chaturvedi talks about inspiration for his film Love Poem, why short films are undervalued in India

Love Poem, a hard-hitting short film directed and written by Anshuman Chaturvedi, released on Disney+ Hotstar recently. Starring Rajeev Khandelwal, Smita Gondkar, and Onima Kashyap, the film deals with the pain of a budding poet whose life struggles and problematic love life converge into an existential crisis, wherein life goals seem elusive. In an exclusive conversation with DNA India, the film’s writer-director Anshuman Chaturvedi talks about the film’s genesis, drawing from his personal life for inspiration, and why short films remain under-appreciated in India.

Excerpts:

What was your inspiration behind this painful love story?

In the last three years, I went through a lot. My father died in 2021 and then my pet cat died, so I was going through a lot of pain. So, after I got over it in some time, the creative person in me wanted to recall it. I felt that my heart was devoid of love, I was missing my father, and I was missing so many things in life. So when I got over it, I thought let’s give it a shape.

I wanted to capture the power of the emotion that comes when you are missing somebody or longing for someone and those emotions came out in the form of Love Poem for me. Then we approached Rajeev Khandelwal and when he read the script, he fell in love with the poem that I wrote a decade back, which I used in the film. So all these things led to the making of Love Poem.

Why did you choose to make a short film instead of a feature film?

Feature film is altogether a different ball game. I have been trying to make a feature film for the last two-three years but things are not happening the way I want. In feature films, more money is involved and bigger things are at stake so sometimes it is not possible to immediately make a feature film. Short films are sometimes experimental so not a lot is at stake. In short films, my producer and my actor immediately get the creative kick. We can experiment and if things don’t fall in place we can go back to the start, whereas, in a feature film either you falter or fall back, and then there is nothing to look back to.

Do you feel that documentaries and short films are undervalued in our country?

Yes, because mostly people do not take it seriously or people are mostly interested in commercial value. A few days back, a film from India (The Elephant Whisperers) won an Oscar and it was about 40 mins in length. So globally, people do a lot of short films and they have commercial value and they take it across the globe but in our country, a short film is not that much in fashion.

What is the story behind the poems used in Love Poem?

I was doing my MA in Mass Communication from Jamia Milia Islamia and I was in love with somebody. The relationship didn’t work out. But I am a poet at heart. So, when I was fighting the inner battle to overcome these emotions, I wrote these poems in order to get over them. The poems are very personal and I wrote them a decade back.

Love Poem was released on an OTT platform. Do you think OTT platforms are turning out to be better than theatres in terms of delivering fresh, original content?

Yes, earlier we (short filmmakers) didn‘t have any platform to showcase our talent. You had to go to YouTube but with OTT coming into existence in our country, it made it possible for us to showcase our talent to millions of people. So, in a time span of 2 days, our film gets viewed by millions of people.

Directed and Written by Anshuman Chaturvedi, the short film stars Rajeev Khandelwal, Smita Gondkar, and Onima Kashyap in prominent roles. Produced by Rahul Datta, Love Poem features music composed by Sargam Vaish, cinematography by Navneet Singh, and has been edited by Sandeep Sharma. The film is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.