Before the ink on his diploma was dry, MBA graduate Anshul Sinha was already starting the next leg of his journey. The first step? A role as a producer at a local TV station. The role allowed him to have a hand in making more than 20 documentaries. It was only natural that Anshul would want to strike out on his own.
Today, this award-winning documentary filmmaker has made a name for himself with his keen investigative reporting skills, attention to detail, and research-driven films that strive to make a social impact.
The Prologue – Where It All Began
Anshul grew up in Mumbai and completed his schooling in the city that reveres and celebrates film. Afterwards, he moved to Hyderabad to study further. He completed his MBA from Osmania University, and then went on to earn his PG Diploma in Mass Communications & Fundamentals of Film making from AISFM.
Of his educational experience, Anshul says, “Yes, my Mass Communications and MBA degrees have both helped me in my field of filmmaking. In fact, I started my filmmaking career when I was doing Mass Communications for Bharatiya Vidya Bhavans. I started with Documentary films, and then after a year, I started making short films. Documentary film was part of my assignments when I was doing Mass Communications.”
Initially, he worked another job to support himself while trying to figure out what project to pursue. The road hasn’t always been smooth or free of challenges. He explains, “It all started in 2015. I was working in a MNC when I got this project. I quit my MNC job and started working full time on Mitti by joining a local production house. I did 8 months of study and research work, and after doing the research work I still didn’t get support from my production house. I quit that job and started searching for a producer to fund this project, but after 3 months of hunting, we didn’t find anyone.”
Anshul elaborates further, “Then we started doing crowd funding and on a very limited budget we have made this film. I have worked for free on this project. For 18 months I was surviving without any salary, which is a big challenge. A few of the crew members have also worked for free. We understood the vision behind this movie, and this is the reason why we sacrificed 18 months for the cause of the farmers. Now, after facing these challenges, we still couldn’t find a distributor to do the national release of Mitti. But we didn’t gave up, and now we are doing road shows.”
He adds, “We have completed 25 road shows until now, and the biggest change that we have affected is that an organisation from the US is adopting a village in Telangana. If we had given up on this, then this change wouldn’t have happened.”
Celebrating His Impactful Work
Anshul’s projects span across various fields, shining a spotlight on some of India’s ignored and under reported issues. Overall, he has made 41 films – an impressive number – especially when you realize that he’s won 104 awards as well.
His last three projects are ones that he is extremely invested in. The first, ‘Mitti: Back To The Roots’, is what he is currently working to promote. Of the film, he says, “This film is on the current agrarian crisis in India, and it also provides solutions. We didn’t have distributors to release this film so we have done 25 road shows of this film. Recently Mitti was screened at Stanford and Washington DC University, and we have completed 9 screenings in the US. The vision of the movie is: zero farmer suicides – let’s make it happen!”
Another of his films that has received widespread praise is ‘Gateway To Heaven’. He says, “Gateway To Heaven is the bio-pic of a man who has completed the last rites of 10,000 orphan dead bodies in Hyderabad. The main intention of this movie was to show Rajeshwar Rao’s work to whole world. We did 30 road shows of this film and raised 1 lakh rupees for this man. It was nominated for 11 International awards, and won 3rd best film at the UK awards.”
His film ‘Road Of Spero’ in his own words, “It’s based on the story of someone who gives free skill development training to rural students. The main aim of this movie was to help rural students improve their skills.”
Anshul credits his supportive family and friends for seeing him through hard times. He also has a loyal team who he is very appreciative of. He says, “Babu Yadav helps me in almost every step of filmmaking. Rajnish Sharma helps with the writing and casting. Sarvana Kumar helps with the cinematography, and Pramod Surya is my go-to for editing. They are the pillars of my Mitti.”
Exploring The Process
Anshul says, “Filmmaking is not an easy job, one has to learn the craft if you want to be a director, it requires huge sacrifices.In India, there is very little respect for artists, but slowly through the digital revolution that is changing.”
He admits, “Personally, I am still struggling and battling with my career, whatever award money we get we convert that into making our next projects. Currently I am searching for new project since Mitti is completed – Hope we will get it soon and we will continue bringing about changes in many lives.”
Are there many lives being changed? Anshul is sure of it. He says, “Many people take action after seeing the film. This is what I have observed after screenings. I remember there was one girl who was mentally prepared to commit suicide, but after watching ‘Road Of Spero’ she said that she would fight and would not commit suicide. Incidents like these inspire me to continue my work.”
Anshul muses, “Passion and Commitment towards your storytelling is essential. If aspiring filmmakers have these things, then they can achieve anything. They should have confidence in their stories. My last 3 major projects – no one trusted in them – but in the end, they were made. After they were released, they made an international impact. So, trust your conscience, and keep working. Don’t stop, keep on making films. Don’t stress yourself by thinking about the end result – whether it’s going to be a failure or success is not in our hands. We should do our best and rest will follow automatically.”
We can’t wait to see what project Anshul and his team decide on next. Team KYS loves highlighting the efforts of storytellers – regardless of medium. And we can’t thank Anshul and his team enough for focusing their lens on the issues that really matter.
Takeaway – Habits That Help!
We asked Anshul Sinha if he had any tips for our students and he said, “The current era is one of innovation and creativity, kids should learn the art of multitasking, which will help them survive in the long run. Keep yourself open minded and be like water, which can flow anywhere and can take any shape.” Wise words!
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