The Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) recently held the premiere of the second edition of MAMI Select: Filmed on iPhone, unveiling four short films, each representing distinct linguistic and cultural dimensions of India’s rich cinematic landscape. Through a rigorous selection process led by Festival Director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur and category-specific mentors, four promising filmmakers emerged: Amrita Bagchi (Hindi), Rohin Raveendran Nair (Malayalam), Chanakya Vyas (Marathi), and Shalini Vijayakumar (Tamil). These filmmakers were equipped with iPhone 16 Pro Max for filming, MacBook Pro for post-production, substantial production grants, and mentorship from celebrated industry luminaries including Vikramaditya Motwane, Konkona Sen Sharma, Lijo Jose Pellissery, and Vetri Maaran.
The films, ranging from 20 to 40 minutes in duration, are now accessible worldwide through MAMI’s official YouTube channel. The event also witnessed the presence of an array of celebrities including Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, A.R. Rahman, Disha Patani, Kabir Khan, Raveena Tandon, Zoya Akhtar, Zahan Kapoor, and several others.
Shalini Vijayakumar |
Shalini Vijayakumar, Selected Filmmaker, Tamil Cinema Category
Mentor: Vetri Maaran
“Seeing Red” (Tamil) is a 26-minute film set in the 1980s in a small town in Tamil Nadu. It is about three women in a big family who can suddenly see a ghost. The slapstick satire uses the supernatural lens to shine a light on patriarchal structures and deeper social truths about gender perception and family dynamics in contemporary India.
Vetri Maaran |
Along with being a writer, performer, and creative producer, she also writes and performs comedy, which eventually led to the creation of Hysterical Comedy Collaborative in 2022, an all-women improv and sketch ensemble. Most interestingly, however, she and her partner have a unique story. Not interested in the idea of a ritualistic marriage and its legalities, they wrote and directed a play that has two clowns, played by both of them, and they got ‘married’ within the act.
YOGESH CHIPLUNKAR
Chanakya Vyas, Selected Filmmaker, Marathi Cinema Category
Mentor: Konkona Sen Sharma
“Mangya” (Marathi) is a 28-minute film set against the backdrop of a sudden bird flu outbreak in Maharashtra. It centers around an 11-year-old boy, the son of a poultry owner, who is trying to save the life of his pet rooster.
Konkona Sen Sharma |
“It was great to also have Konkona’s inputs as an actor. When we were doing script reading sessions, she would also respond as an actor. That’s very interesting because how an actor reads a script and how they respond to it helped me in the end.” Chanakya is a playwright, screenwriter, director, and educator, and was the former Artistic Director of Indian Ensemble, a multilingual theatre company. His plays have been performed at venues such as Ranga Shankara, Prithvi Theatre, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts. He has received grants from the India Foundation for the Arts and Science Gallery Bengaluru and was selected for the Directors Lab at Lincoln Center (2017) with a Ratan Tata Trust Scholarship. Currently, he is writing his debut feature film script and a web series.
Rohin Raveendran Nair | YOGESH CHIPLUNKAR
Rohin Raveendran Nair, Selected Filmmaker, Malayalam Cinema Category
Mentor: Lijo Jose Pellissery
“Kovarty” (Malayalam) is a 32-minute-long film. It is a love story between a typewriter and the typist! Set during the 1980s in the backwaters of Kavalam, Kerala, it uses elements of magic realism—and no, it’s not a horror comedy.
Lijo Jose Pellissery |
Rohin is an independent writer-director and was an episodic director on the Netflix series Black Warrant. He directed episode three from this seven-part series. Previously, Rohin also served as the second unit director and second unit director of photography on both seasons of the popular Netflix series Sacred Games, directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap. Rohin’s short film The Booth (2019), produced by Vikramaditya Motwane (Andolan Films), screened at Oscar-qualifying festivals like POFF Shorts (2019) and the Bangalore International Short Film Festival (2019), and won Best Short Film at the Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival as well as the Signs Film Festival (Kerala). Presently, Rohin is developing a Malayalam feature film—a thriller set in Wayanad, Kerala.
Amrita Bagchi |
Amrita Bagchi, Selected Filmmaker, Hindi Cinema Category
Mentor: Vikramaditya Motwane
“Tinctoria” (Hindi) is set within the ruins of an 18th-century fort in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, where a celebrated designer is having her global collection launch. It’s her great-grandfather’s property, and the place has its own history of torture—with the spirits of those workers confronting her as she goes about preparing for her big day. Intertwining dark humor with historical reckoning, it is a haunting exploration of colonial legacy and contemporary fashion.
Vikramaditya Motwane |
Amrita is a multidisciplinary artist whose creative practice spans filmmaking, visual design, and performance. She has also acted in web series, films, and TVCs, including clowning with Rupesh Tillu and Clowns Without Borders India. “I was told clowning would be a good way to help me become an extrovert after being an introvert for so many years,” she told us. She is currently playing a primary character in an upcoming Netflix series.
On being mentored by Vikramaditya Motwane, Amrita shared that he’s someone she’s looked up to for a while. “Not only is he a great director, but very prolific. Just in a decade, he has done two shows and five feature films—it shows his remarkable creative flexibility. He was very involved and supportive of my film, without trying to control it. He was this calming presence who would give us clear feedback."
