Raghavendra Pusuluri's 'Honor of Love' to be screened at Cannes Film Festival 2014

Hyderabad: Never did Hyderabadi filmmaker Raghavendra Pusuluri imagine that his final thesis project at the New York Film Academy would get selected for the Cannes Film Festival 2014.

Raghavendra’s short film, 'Honor of Love', has been nominated for the Short Film category at the Cannes Film Festival 2014.

“Tollywood is a very different industry as importance is given to commercial scripts. Though I have worked on three feature scripts, I am still struggling; talks are still on with producers. In Tollywood, it’s the stars who decide the films and that has to change,” says Raghavendra, adding, “My aim is to work on scripts that have a global audience and not just the ones that entertain a certain section of the society.”

At the New York Film Academy, Los Angeles, Raghavendra, 27, was asked to make a short film in three to four months as part of his final thesis project. “I was in Hyderabad at that time. From the terrace of my home, I could see a butcher’s shop where birds and goats were being brought in. What caught my attention was the cruel manner in which they were handled. Do we view these animals only as a source of food and not care about their well-being,” asks Raghavendra.

“I decided to make a film which focused on the relationship of a child and a lamb. Once I got the idea, it didn’t take long to execute. The shoot was wrapped up in four days for the 12-minute film,” he says.

Before Cannes, Raghavendra’s short film was also accepted at the Ladakh International Film Festival 2013. “I had submitted the film to other fests too — Sundance Film Festival and Atlanta Film Festival, Raindance Film Festival — but the film wasn’t selected there. I have made seven other short films, but this was the only one that I submitted at the fests.”

And majority of his crew is from Tollywood.

“My father and the producer of the film, Rambabu Pusuluri, is chief make-up artist in Tollywood and has worked in the industry for 35 years. It’s through him that I was introduced to the others from Tollywood, be it the actors or the director,” says Raghavendra, who will be not be attending the Cannes Film Fest on May 14. “I have a lot of appointments scheduled during that time with various directors, so I’ll be focusing on that,” he says.