Lockdown Shorts began as a film/series project in the times of lockdown across the globe. A series of short films between 5-20 minutes each that talk about the situation across the globe in the last few months. How the lockdown has affected each and every individual and how filmmakers could translate it into films – whether it is a love story or a thriller or a comedy of errors or just an individual’s story that could be referred to in years to come as cinema in the times of Corona. A documentation of these times through fictional stories capturing the essence of these times. And in this endeavour, Lockdown Shorts ended up making close to 20 films and the journey continues. Lockdown Shorts and its filmmakers are pioneers of lockdown filmmaking across the globe having made films on a scale not seen in the lockdown and post-Covid world so far. To celebrate the filmmakers and talents that put together these films, Monday 24th August 2020 onwards for the rest the week, Lockdown Shorts will be releasing Behind-The-Scenes videos on its Instagram page, documenting the 5 stages of 20 short films made remotely, in 5 months.
Lockdown Shorts grew from a team of 2 to a team of more than 200 talents from across the world in the span of three months. This could be called a revolution in itself for breaking all norms of filmmaking by empowering talents to work remotely and collaborate with each other from different parts of the country as well as the world. It could be defined as new wave cinema where talents from Kashmir, Calcutta, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Jaisalmer, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune, Dharamsala, Toronto, Doha, New York, Berlin, Spain, Melbourne and Yokohama came together to document a historic time. About the Founders –
The idea of Lockdown Shorts was conceptualised and started by Satish Raj Kasireddi from HOGA Films and Ahab Jafri (Tauzi) from Make it Happen Films around the second week of March just when India had announced a nationwide lockdown. Both are filmmakers based in Mumbai. Ahab Jafri (Tauzi) – Ahab Jafri, popularly known as Tauzi, is an experienced Producer. At a very young age he has gained experience in handling any scale of work from digital campaigns to TVCs and films, based on chiefly understanding the creative aspects of production in the most fun and responsible way. One of his strongest skills is people management and his sets are known to be some of the happiest work environments in the industry. He has produced & line produced films for a range of brands like Netflix, Axe, Swiggy, Airbnb, Discovery Channel among others. Satish Raj Kasireddi – Satish has accumulated many years of work experience as a Writer & Director. Having considerable experience developing stories across various genres and formats, he has also directed ad films, music videos, documentaries, short films, and webseries. His works have been for leading brands like Tata Motors, Discovery Channel, Netflix, Sumadhura Group, Sony Music etc. His early years as a professional were on films like Jab We Met, Love Aaj Kal, Rockstar and he established himself with films like WhyLean, Mia I’m (Shor Se Shuruat), He is currently working as a Show-Runner & Creative Director on a series for Netflix.
