VINCENT KING
With 14,88,906 YouTube hits and counting, Silent Melody, a short film about a sweet love story of a deaf-mute girl, has become one of the most-talked about films this year.
Its director Prasanth Varma has been named as the Most Promising Budding Director at the recently-held North American Telugu Association (NATA) Convention 2014 in Atlanta.
Prasanth, who had submitted the film to NATA two months ago “without any expectations”, says, “I had essentially made Silent Melody to get recognition from the Tollywood fraternity, not to win awards. That’s also because most of the short films that win awards are based on social causes or similar topics. But mine was a love story. I was being practical about it.”
He adds, “A few days after later, I received a mail from NATA congratulating me on winning the award. It read that though my film was a love story, they decided to award me because Silent Melody was the only film which looked professional. The officials also wrote that I was just a step away from being part of the Telugu film industry as a filmmaker. Those words felt great.”
Life has, of course, taken a filmi turn for Prasanth now. The 25-year-old filmmaker says, “There was a time when I had to take appointments with big production houses to narrate my scripts, but today, they are asking me for my appointment. I have around 10 film offers and I am currently in discussion with five big banners and I have also signed my first feature film project.”
“I have seen directors who have been struggling for more than 20 years to get an appointment with these producers, but with one short film I am able to enter any door with my scripts,” says Prasanth, who had made short films titled Crave for a Crunch and Deenamma Jeevitham earlier.
BARKHA KUMARI
Dr Geetha Chitta was 17 when she met Mother Teresa in Bengaluru. And, Mother’s words: “Go, you must love the poor”, stayed with her.
Since 2002, Dr Geetha has been running a non-profit organisation called Foundation for Children in Need (FCN) with her husband Tom Chitta in Chicago, US. In India, FCN has its registered office at Porumamilla in Kadapa district and three years ago, one was opened in Hyderabad.
Through FCN, the Chittas sponsor the education of 2,200 children and college students throughout AP and Telangana. These children are orphans, physically challenged or have parents who are physically challenged. Each child is provided with Rs12,000 and many of the college students are given Rs 24,000 per year.
Recently, the couple was felicitated for their community service by the American Telugu Association (ATA) in Philadelphia, which honours outstanding individuals of Telugu origin.
Since the Chittas don’t have children, they consider these 2,200 their own and travel all over the US for five months, making appeals to their friends and sponsors. The rest of the year, they work in Indian villages. Yes, FCN is their full-time job.
Tom was a priest earlier and Geetha used to practise general medicine. But due to Visa issues, after moving to the US in 2000, she could not practise.
But Tom says, “If we were working, we could have helped only 30 or 50 needy students. So, we started FCN to reach out to many.”
It wasn’t easy though. Geetha, who conducts free medical camps and health education for teenage girls, explains, “For the first two years, our friends would host us in their homes. Some for eight months, others for two or three... because we didn’t have a source of income then.”
But now the Chittas are organised better and that’s the USP of FCN. Tom says, “Sponsors are given the photo and family background of the student they help and the student writes to them two times a year.”
