Akshay Indikar, a student at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) has directed a Marathi short film Doh which has been selected in the competition section at the Seventh International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala.

Akshay is a second year student of film editing at FTII. He got together with other film students from the city to work on this short film. The 24-year old was saddened by seeing most Marathi films today with a rural setting and hardly any talk about urban life. This triggered the idea to make this 20-minute short film.

Akshay has directed and written the screenplay of the film, while his classmate, Kshama Padalkar has produced and edited it. For this festival, which is considered prestigious among the film fraternity, out of a total of 900 entries 30 short films have been selected.
The film is about a young girl named Shruti, her intimate relationship with her lover and the changes in her life that take place thereafter.  “There are very few Marathi films these days that speak about conflicts in urban lifestyle. I wanted to put forth my observations about life in an urban area and the related issues. In my film, I wanted to bring out the complexity of this life and how one handles it.” said Indirkar.

Doh has been selected in the short fiction category at the festival, which is scheduled to take place from July 18 to 22 in Trivandrum. On this independent film, Akshay and his team worked for about seven months and improvised the storyline in the process. Pramiti Narke, a Lalit Kala Kendra graduate, plays the character of Shruti.
Akshay goes on to say, “In this modern world more importance is given to one’s physical appearance. This film shows how Shruti, after getting intimately involved with her boyfriend, starts to newly acknowledge her body and pays more attention to her needs.” Akshay is very vocal about all such issues he witnesses around him and hence participates in social activities. He also has been holding film appreciation workshops for school students in Kolhapur, Tilak Vidyapeeth and Kaivalyadham Yoga Ashram in Lonavala.