All about Duet, Sheetal Menon’s Sidhant Gupta-starrer, first short film to release on Spotify
Here's the latest update from the Bollywood world:
It was less than a decade ago that short films in India had few platforms to rollout on, aside from YouTube. The advent of streaming in the country proliferated India’s nascent short filmmaking industry. And now, with Sheetal Menon ’s sophomore directorial Duet, a new avenue opens. The movie is set to premiere on July 30 on Spotify, marking a milestone as the platform’s first-ever short movie rollout.
Adding to this, Sidhant Gupta stars in Sheetal Menon's Duet. Duet to rollout on Spotify Backed by Bejoy Nambiar and produced under the Getaway Pictures banner, with a screenplay co-written by Arpita Chatterjee and Sheetal Menon (who also conceptualised the story), Duet stars Sidhant Gupta as a pianist grappling with the sudden loss of his estranged brother amid the isolating backdrop of a global pandemic. Duet will also stream on Getaway Pictures’ YouTube channel.
Meanwhile, “The movie grew out of a very specific kind of grief… the isolation so many of us felt during the pandemic,” says Sheetal Menon. The movie follows a haunting duet as the narrative tracks the pianist’s struggle to come to terms with his brother's passing until an inexplicable musical connection pulls him back toward hope. “For any storyteller, the moment of sharing a movie with the world is almost impossible to put into words. Duet took far longer than I had ever imagined, and there were many moments when I questioned whether I should keep going. But the story kept gnawing at me and refused to leave me. Today more than anything, this movie's rollout is a reminder to never give up on a story you truly believe in,” adds the filmmaker.
Notably, Calling Duet a “journey from the darkest moment to the kiss of light,” Sidhant Gupta adds, “I have always wondered what a person must be going through internally when giving up on life seems easier than living another day. What is that level of pain that’s beyond any help in someone’s head? This story came to me post Jubilee. It never left me, and that’s how I knew it was the one for me.”
As per the latest buzz, Apart from Sidhant, Duet features special appearances by Sayani Gupta and Puja Sarup. It has been lensed by cinematographer Siddharth Srinivasan and edited by Prakash Kurup, with sound design by Moinak Bose, whose immersive soundscape plays a vital role in the movie’s emotional and atmospheric world. The movie’s score is composed by Sid Acharya.
In further updates, Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Movie Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day. Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world. Read More
Source: Hindustan Times