0:01:08 – Speaker 2
Greetings and salutations. Thank you for joining us. We’ve got another exciting episode for you, as always. Welcome to Embrace your Storm. So today I’m speaking with Shosh Wat. He’s submitted a film to the Tornado Film Festival and it’s called Breaking Barriers and it’s got a little bit longer of a title than that, but we’ll let Shosh Wat tell us about it. So, shosh Wat, thanks for coming on today.
0:01:32 – Speaker 3
Thank you. Thank you, Jonathan, I’m glad that you invited me for this podcast and I’m more than honored to be here. Thank you.
0:01:39 – Speaker 2
It’s my pleasure to have you on. Thank you so much for coming on. So, Shosh Wat, tell the audience what’s your film Breaking Barriers all about.
0:01:46 – Speaker 3
So Breaking Barriers, the IIT Madras story. That’s the full title, as you said. So the film is a documentary film about this revolutionary degree which IIT Madras started. So IIT Madras is an institution in India and they started this hybrid degree program in data science and applications. It’s a bachelor’s program, but the catch over here is that any student, irrespective of their age or background like their educational background or their location they can be from any part of the world and be a part of this degree, and the very interesting thing about this is that this is a hybrid degree. You don’t need to be on campus, you don’t need to be present on campus to do this degree.
0:02:35 – Speaker 2
So is this like the first time there’s been a degree like this, Like not even necessarily at your school. But does India not really do hybrid degrees like this?
0:02:46 – Speaker 3
No, yeah, india doesn’t do hybrid degrees like this, because what exists currently are known, as you know. They are either distance courses, where you are just sent in the materials and you’re just supposed to give an exam monthly, or something like that.
But, totally online courses, a degree of this kind, and how it came into, like how its inception started, how it came into an inception, how it started and how it’s been pulled off having such a wide variety of students over the world. That is the reason why we made this documentary, because this story this is truly a remarkable story in itself and that’s the reason why we got motivated to make this documentary.
0:03:21 – Speaker 2
Okay, and now you also said prior to the interview that is it, itt. Is that the name of the school?
0:03:28 – Speaker 3
No, the name is IIT Indian Institute of Technology. That’s right.
0:03:32 – Speaker 2
IIT, sorry. And so you said that this is the equivalent of our MIT over here in Boston in the United States, correct?
0:03:39 – Speaker 3
Yes, yes, correct Okay.
0:03:42 – Speaker 2
So now with the hybrid program, that means that people can, you know, do some work online, but then they’re also going to physically go, you know, to the campus and do stuff also, right?
0:03:53 – Speaker 3
Yes.
So like what you’re done, like what happens is that you know, like for this data science program you’re actually since data science is the kind of a subject which not necessarily requires you to be present physically, because most of the stuff is done either on computer or it’s mathematics you can actually do the courses and the study from the comfort of your home.
But you know there are sometimes, you know, you have to do some kind of classroom courses over there. Towards the end of your study you’re expected to be on campus. There is also another program on electronics which is also kind of a hybrid program started by IIT Madrasima just few months back only after this data science program started Over there, you are expected to be on campus every semester for a week to do some lab work. And apart from this, the time there is one time at the year where all the students of the degree program are actually, you know, called, they are invited to the campus to be a part of a fest, which we call a fest, as in, a fest means a kind of a cultural festival where you know students perform guests come in their workshop.
their workshop, so that is when you are expected to be on the campus. So this is how you’re connected to the campus and the exams and stuff which you all give. Those also happen offline. But the catch here is that those exams are actually held at examination centers located in your local city. So let’s say I’m in Calcutta, or let’s say you’re at Boston, so there will be an exam center at your city and you will have to go over there physically in the presence of a proctor or an invigilator, and you have to give the exam there.
0:05:24 – Speaker 2
Okay. So, like again, we were talking before the interview started. So here you are, you’re a student kind of getting this computer science degree. Basically You’re going to school, that’s the equivalent to MIT, and yet you started the first film society and you lead that society. So tell us how that got started, which I’m assuming that led into you making the documentary.
0:05:51 – Speaker 3
Yeah, you’re absolutely correct, jonathan. In fact, the very reason this society got created was due to the film, so like it’s a very interesting story actually. So what happened is that after I got into IIT and you know the seniors I was a freshman and they were the seniors my first question was you know, what is the culture of filmmaking over here? And yeah, there was some content creation clubs and everything, but it was not really much focused into filmmaking kind of a thing. So what we? So then you know Republic Day, which we celebrate in India on the 26th of January, so that day actually, you know, the constitution of the country came into effect. So that was cool, so like. So like the celebrations are held every year, every year, so like it’s a national holiday, so on. For that purpose we had to kind of, you know, I got an idea then, let’s make a film about this. And very kindly, my seniors allowed me to like okay, let’s do it together. So we made one short student film, and that was the time of the COVID, so we actually did not step out from our homes and we made a screen life in like searching, you know searching as a film which is entirely made on screen, computer screen. So we made a short film like that with, and we also involved our professors and students, stuff like them like, and people like them, and we made a film. So that’s how we actually started this. You know, filmmaking culture.
And after a few months passed by, when there was another fest which was being organized, then I was approached by Mrs Kodai Krishnamurti, who is our head of the student affairs, so she handled these student activities and she also gave me the idea that you know, you guys should actually make a documentary film about this degree, how it started. And I then then I said to you, ma’am, you don’t, you wouldn’t believe me, but you know I had this in mind and I was going to ask you this a few days later. So she very kindly allowed me to. You know form my team, and the team was same as the team which which helped me make this Bandipur Republic, the previous film which I had made for IIT, and that’s how you know it all kind of started and it’s all friends. You know the production manager, ashwin Ibar, my writers, shruti Dutta, srimanti Chakraborty, shushnik Dushaha, and it’s just a bunch of seven people. You know, anjali Sankal, these are all names. I’m calling Pranshu.
So, like we all are very good friends and we just started, you know, making the film and it took us one year to make and you know we got immense support and help from other fellow students here. It was a roller coaster kind of a light because, yes, even though we did have prior experience in filmmaking, none of us had, you know, made such a project of here, even though in film stumps these are not, let’s say, a very monumental or very big kind of a thing, it’s a, you know, it’s a kind of a very small kind of a thing. But even apart from that, you know it took us one year to make. So we have to interview the professors, find out these students who had some extraordinary stories, so, like there are many students for whom this degree was a second chance at life for them.
So if you want to understand you can actually understand, because then there were many people who were suffering from physical disabilities, who could not go to offline college, then this degree was a blessing.
And so like there was inclusiveness. So that’s what we tried to show in this film, because it is uniting from different backgrounds. Earlier, what happened? That only people who had studied, let’s say, physics, chemistry, math, were allowed to enter into IITs. But this degree opened it up. You have studied history, it’s okay. You’ve studied English, it’s all right. You just come and you learn data science from scratch, and it’s an emerging field in the industry, and data science is used everywhere, be it films be it, artistic things be it business things.
But in spite of everything, there was this beauty and there was this human side of things to it. It’s a hybrid kind of a degree, but the connections and the friendships and the relationships which are formed, it’s beautiful, it’s remarkable. Some of the best friends I’ve made are present at IIT. So yeah, that’s how it all kind of started and we didn’t know what we were stepping into. And by the end of the film, like by the end of the production process, we were like, oh my God, we can’t believe that this film is finally releasing, because this one last one year has been it’s been a roller coaster ride. And that’s how the film society also started. And so that’s the reason we also started the film society that let’s kind of formalize this because let’s have a bunch of people in and we have a lot of members and we also do invite a lot of guests also from the film industry. We have film makers like Dan Mervish, ian Simmons and also from the Indian film industry. So that’s how it’s going and let’s see what happens with the future.
0:10:26 – Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean there’s one thing that I would say you kind of mentioned in passing with data science. I tell everyone data is king, Like there is nothing you can’t do without the right amount of data. Like it is downright scary what we can do now with kind of knowledge you know.
0:10:49 – Speaker 3
Yes, yes, absolutely absolutely.
0:10:52 – Speaker 2
But what I love about your story, though, is again we were talking about this before the interview, but like I love how, again, you’re going to school, for, like you know, mit is like computer science you know, electrical engineering, all kinds of crazy stuff like that is going on.
But yet you had this burning passion inside you to make a film. So it’s so cool that you’re just like you know, yeah, yeah, I’m this nerd here doing this stuff, but I want to create in this way, and so what was it like? I know you said you did like a few other short films, like before you know this documentary, but either way, what was it like jumping into, like doing this documentary? Like obviously you’re not, like you know, a film person per se if you’re, you know, going to school for all this technical stuff. Like, did you read anything online to do stuff or did you just kind of like you know what? I’ll just figure it out as I go.
0:11:45 – Speaker 3
Well, actually you know, I started making films since the age of 15. So when I was in my high school, during grade 10, I started making films. That even before that I was, you know, heavily involved in theater and my family has been a very big kind of a film buff. So my grandmother especially Shephasta, unfortunately, but my grandmother was a very big film buff and I remember, at the age of seven and eight six, seven, eight that’s when I actually started watching Hollywood films with my grandmother, with my grandmother. So, like I know that it’s not exactly the appropriate age to watch James Bond films, but, I, started watching James Bond films and all these Mission Impossible movies and I fell in love with cinema.
So at the back of mind there was always this thing of, you know, movies are cool and I just love films, I want to watch movies, I love to discuss about films and then slowly, you know, theater came in. So over here in India, especially at the eastern part of India, so like West Bengal, which is where I stay, you know Kolkata, the Kalkata city, durga Puja is a very big festival over here, so it’s in this festival. What happens is that it’s a five day celebration. There are various cultural functions which are organized in every colony, you know, in every colony or in neighborhoods. So like the people staying there, the neighborhood only, you know, they set up puja pendals and they do the puja rituals. And on the evening of the day, on the evening you’re expected to, you know, you’re expected that to, you know, there are these cultural functions organized where the kids either perform or the elder perform, there are dramas organized, there are song, there are dances, so like all these kinds of stuff happen.
And you should actually visit Kalkata during Durga Puja, so that is during the period of October, november, so during the before one month before Halloween happens, when Halloween happened, so it’s actually visit over here, so it’s like the whole city changes, you know, the whole city starts breathing differently. So during that festival I actually got my. I actually started doing theater when I was 10 years old. I started doing theater. So I loved acting and slowly and steadily, once I reached grade eight and nine, but I, you know, then, due to the academic pressure, I couldn’t, you know, really do acting much. But then I started making music for a little while because I also had training in.
I also had training in songs, classical singing for a little bit and I used to. I love music, so if you also watch the film you can actually see that touch there, you know, because of the music. So I started producing some EDM music. Yeah, I know it’s very different from the classical singing, but you know, at the end of the day it was music, so it was fun, that’s cool.
And then slowly after that. You know, at that time 2018, when I started, actually, that was the time when YouTube was becoming a thing in India, even though outside the world it was a very big thing Many people started.
0:14:40 – Speaker 2
Wow, did you say 2018?
0:14:42 – Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, no, no no, no.
Yeah, so in 2018, actually when it when YouTube was becoming a thing in India actually and many people were choosing it as their careers and everything. Obviously, I did not have in mind that I want to choose this as my career or anything or such kind of thing, but yeah, it was fun and many of the people were doing around and they were just making this short kind of video. So I also, you know, I said that you know I don’t want to do those kinds of short videos, but let me start make doing some kind of mono acts kind of things. So I started doing mono acts with I only play different kind of characters and wrote very short sketches.
You know those videos that you see, and slowly after, slowly and slowly after that, during the month of October, that do the pooja. During that time I wrote and made my first film with one of my physics teachers, you know so he was my neighbor. He used to teach me. He’s my neighbor also right Now also, and he actually in my school. He used to teach me physics. After my school I used to go to him and he used to teach me physics and assist me with physics, and he also did theater with me for a long time.
0:15:47 – Speaker 2
And.
0:15:47 – Speaker 3
I was just like you know. And then, yeah, he’s a retired engineer, by the way, you know, he himself is a very big engineer. He worked a good government job and then his passion was also theater. So like, yeah, you know, let’s do a film, you know let’s do, and it’s not that we had any budget or anything. So I just took my iPhone and I had one laptop, this Mac and then just started making it, just wrote a script in a way where there will be just only three characters it was me, that uncle which and my own grandfather and we just made the movie it’s named to the shocker. It was a 25 minute film and that’s how the filmmaking side of it started.
0:16:19 – Speaker 2
Wow.
0:16:20 – Speaker 3
So over there I also acted, but then later I stopped the acting and just focus on direction.
0:16:25 – Speaker 2
You know it’s funny is I was talking to another person, you know that during an interview and we were talking about like recording equipment, like camera equipment and stuff like that. Because one of the things that I’m going to ask you later in the podcast is how to you know what advice would you have for people to get started, you know, into the film industry, and so when we’re, when I was talking on this other interview, the person was like you know what my advice is? To just kind of get a lot of the advice, that advice ends up being just kind of do it. You know, just do it like.
0:16:59 – Speaker 3
Nike, yes, yes, and this person.
0:17:01 – Speaker 2
And this person was saying like, hey, all I had was my, you know, my cell phone camera and you know this is that and the other thing. But we were joking, saying, like you know, what’s funny is that the camera and the cell phone is better than you know.
A $20,000 camera, 10 years ago Exactly, you know so so you don’t realize that the powerful equipment you already have in your hands, where you know, 10, 15 years ago people would be limited to like, oh, I can’t buy a camera, I can’t buy you know, lighting, I could never, you know, record a movie or whatever. But I mean this day and age, all we need is our cell phone. Practically to almost do whatever we want, you know.
0:17:42 – Speaker 3
Yeah, exactly, and that is definitely true. And the other thing which I would have like to say is that you know, you know, don’t try and attempt scripts which are, you know, beyond the scope of your equipment. So, like, what I also do is that I backtrack the process, so I look what is available at my vicinity. So I know that I have this one kind of phone which is whose cameras may be okay. I don’t have to worry about the quality because I know it’s good enough, but I maybe I only have two actors, let’s say, who are willing to work for free. I have this location which is my neighborhood over here. I can use my neighborhood. The people over here know me very well, so they will be allowed, they will be very kind enough to allow me to use the roads and they will be, you know, allowing me, you know, to shoot at nights and so like, yeah, by the way, people over here they know that you know we make movies. So at first they were like what are you guys doing at night?
0:18:27 – Speaker 2
So at the beginning it was very hard to explain.
0:18:31 – Speaker 3
you know we are shooting a night kind of a scene where you know the lighting exactly is there, so use natural lighting. And sometimes you have to be very careful of continuity because what happens is that, let’s say, you divide a scene to be shot in two nights and since you don’t really have the control on the environment, on day one there is a car standing and you don’t have to use the map Another day to use the same scene and the car is not there. So you have to keep that in mind. So I learned this the hard way, because later, now that I watch my like, I’m still learning. I’m not a professional yet as of now, but I still watch my very first films and I’m like realize that, oh man, I should have paid a lot more attention, because back then it was even now it’s just the excitement of finishing the film and releasing it out, because you don’t really have to worry about the finances as of now.
0:19:18 – Speaker 2
Yeah, no, that’s a great point, honestly. So do you want to get into a little? I mean, you kind of did a little bit like what the documentary is about. You know this program here at IIT. How long is the documentary like? How you know, what would you say is your main? You know, I guess like not the plot but what was the main kind of point you’re trying to push through with doing this documentary.
0:19:48 – Speaker 3
Well, yeah, so like the first part of your question, like the documentary is 43 minutes long, it’s like 42 minutes for 48 seconds. 43 minutes, yeah, it’s around 43 minutes long, and so like we mainly cover four themes over here. So like the first thing is the like, the degree which this says is that it’s so far, yet so close. So like, so far yet so close, which it’s the theme which we cover. So, like when it was the film, it’s not really a spoiler, it’s actually really basically divided into four chapters.
So the first thing is so far, yet so close, which talks about that you don’t need to be physically present to feel the closeness or the depth of a relationship between your peers or your friends or your classmates.
So you’re physically very far from them, but you are very close to them you don’t need to be physically, you’re not bound by the four walls of a classroom to, you know, to get education and to make relationships, friendships and all these networking kind of things. So that’s the first thing which we talk about. The second thing is that we talk about is that life is about second chances. So, as I said that, you know there are many people who are doing this degree at the age of 30, 45 even there are as a student in our degree, there’s one student who is 80 years of age no canon so 80 years of age.
So for them, they unfortunately, many of them either could not continue their education due to some financial constraints, due to some family problems, due to some problems they might have faced at that time of their life and over earlier. In India you were not actually allowed. Once you exit a program, you are not allowed to again, you know, continue it from there. You have to again restart it from the beginning oh man so.
But this degree was changing the definition, you know. It was a hope for the people who who did maybe, you know there were no jobs available. It was a very crisis kind of a situation and the most of the people had already lost their job due to covid. So the film also we highlight one such story where it talks about one student who actually used to work in the unorganized sector as a layer unorganized sector, you know and had to do some very odd jobs, you know, without any security. And then they, when he got to know about this degree, his entire life’s track totally changed and now he’s going to sit for the placements and get a job very soon in the tech field. So this degree has been a blessing for him. The third thing which we talk about is, you know, is the. You know, you know about diversity. So our, our program is very diverse.
So, as I said, you know there is a gender diversity there are people from the LGBTQIA community which we you know, which we have, I believe you know very less student films show about it, especially in India. So we actually highlighted that you know there are many people from the LGBTQIA community, which they are very you know they have found such a supportive and you know such a mature area, mature peer group where you know they are properly respected and they’re properly respected and, you know, treated just like any other human being. And the third thing which we have all, the fourth thing which we have all, just one, is that you know there are many people who are doing this degree to upskill themselves. So there is actually one digger. There’s actually one police officer who is on duty, by the way, so she’s a DSP, so DSP is a ranking in the police system in India.
But, at the same time, since she’s involved in the cyber crime department of things, she wants to upskill her knowledge in data science, and she’s doing this degree beside it. So, these are the kind of stories which you have highlighted. Obviously, there were many other stories which we did. We took a year to make it, but we had to kind of trim it down to 41 minutes Exactly.
And we also highlighted the. We also interviewed the professors of this degree and we found out that even they are like. This is actually. This is what we want to tell you that IITs are not exactly ivory towers as people imagine them to be. They have to be very much competitive because of the population and the number of seats present. But that’s when we thought that we have to take this step, because India is a very popular country and there is an ever demanding need for data scientists with these specialized skill sets, which this degree provides, so that’s what we need to do.
0:23:55 – Speaker 2
Speaking of that, it made me think of yet another thing I wanted to mention. Like the thing we were talking about before the interview, you were saying that a million people will apply to get into this school and only 10,000 people get accepted. That’s 1%. That is some fierce competition to get into a school.
0:24:17 – Speaker 3
Yes, yes, that is definitely true. And for preparing for that examination, which is known as the joint entrance examination with JWE, people start preparing as young as the age of 12. And the exam is they give their exams when they’re 18 years or above, and there are only two attempts. You can give this exam. Only twice in your life you can give this exam.
0:24:37 – Speaker 2
Wow.
0:24:38 – Speaker 3
You don’t have even unlimited attempts and that score is only valid for that academic year.
0:24:42 – Speaker 2
You can’t use that score again like SAT, like SAT allows you to get into five years.
0:24:47 – Speaker 3
But JEE is only for that particular thing and the syllabus is terribly difficult. It’s very difficult. What’s actually taught in colleges in the US on the first or the second year of majors in physics? That’s actually our syllabus over at the high school for getting into school, I believe it.
0:25:06 – Speaker 2
We’re a bunch of slackers over here, I believe it.
0:25:09 – Speaker 3
No, no, no but like yeah, Definitely the quality of education over there is also very remarkable, and many people, after completing their graduation from IITs, go to the US to study at MITs and Harvard.
0:25:21 – Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah. But again, it’s just crazy to think of how competitive that is. I’d imagine people over here don’t think of things like that. So that’s why I wanted to point it out to be like it’s competitive, like so it’s no joke that you’re in the school. You know what I’m saying? It’s an achievement and accomplishment to be in there.
0:25:41 – Speaker 3
So yes, I still got into the data science program. But yeah, for me it’s like that. But yeah, anyways, thank you.
0:25:50 – Speaker 2
Yeah, no problem. So I guess we’re going to be starting to kind of end the interview here. So, like I said before, what advice would you give to people that want to get into the film industry or into making a film? Like what are some maybe quick things that you learned starting off that you would want to pass on to someone else?
0:26:09 – Speaker 3
So like well, first thing I’d say about that like I’m still not yet a professional filmmaker by profession, it’s all a hobby kind of a thing, and I’ve made a couple of shots till now and this one documentary. So what I personally believe is that you know, just you know, don’t limit yourselves by the you know, don’t limit yourself thinking that you will need that, those gears or anything like that.
Yeah, definitely helps a lot, but I think that this advice has been given a lot by a lot of the filmmakers who start out, and that is as simple as just do it. That is that, as you mentioned also just like it’s just do it.
And the second thing which I would like to say is that you know we all love. You know, at our mind and at our heart we all want to make that. Let’s say, we want to make that mission impossible kind of a film where two cars are crashing and there’s this dolly zoom which goes in.
0:26:58 – Speaker 1
You know I want to do it, but what happens is that.
0:27:02 – Speaker 3
Yes, you know I would love to do that, but I would need money for that. But if I try to recreate that in a very low budget, then I have two options. I can either do it very intelligently by, let’s say, let’s say, you know, I’m just making this up on the mind right now, let’s see if I can do it. Let’s say, if I can just do it through sound and through shadows, then yeah, then that’s a good thing, that can be done, and maybe now there is VFX. But if you try to do it the way it is done in those big budget films and you don’t have the enough resources and you can just maybe try and recreate that, then that will be. You know, that is where you know it doesn’t look any more professional, it becomes kind of that.
You know that hobby project. So backtrack the process that is, you know, choose your scripts or write your stories based on the constraints you have. So like, let’s say, you can only make a film with one bottle and you have just one room and you just have one camera. So let’s say you don’t even have actors. So you have to think of a story which you can tell in that one room without even any actor, with just maybe panning the cameras and changing the lighting conditions and showing different positions of the bottles.
Maybe the bottle’s journey of finding its lost cap, you know?
0:28:08 – Speaker 2
I’m just making myself a film. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I hear what?
0:28:11 – Speaker 3
you’re saying so yeah, so that’s my advice. I don’t know if it’s good enough, but yeah, that’s what I do, kind of a film.
0:28:18 – Speaker 2
No, yeah, no, I love that, I love that. So yeah again, thanks. Thank you so much for your time for coming on, thank you for the submission of the festival and I wish you well in your endeavors with this documentary and any other films they have coming down your way. Thank you so much.
0:28:34 – Speaker 3
Thank you, thank you, thank you for having me. It was a pleasure of mine.
0:28:37 – Speaker 2
My pleasure too. And everyone, I thank you for listening, I thank you for downloading and don’t forget to embrace your storm, see ya.
0:28:47 – Speaker 1
Tornado with Jonathan Nadeau. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe now. See you first to hear new episodes with more stories of inspiration about the highs and lows of life and how embracing the storm is so much more fulfilling of a life than being crushed by the weight of the world. And until then, we hope you’re inspired to do something, whether it’s creating, participating or learning whenever leads you to your personal passion.
Transcribed by https://podium.page
