On 21st June, Filmmaking students at FX School were privileged to attend an exclusive seminar by Director Hansal Mehta whose film Shahid won the National Award for Best Direction in 2013 and whose recent release Citylights received enormous critical acclaim.

In an intimate, candid and enlightening dialogue with students, Mr. Mehta shared his experiences and his method of working. Mr. Mehta’s matter of fact, down-to-earth persona made the interaction engaging and lively, with questions and answers flying back and forth. Methods of directing actors, approaches to script-writing, ways to motivate and inspire team members, the importance of sticking to a film’s budget and many other topics were discussed.

The most important learning that students came away with was to focus on their storytelling and constantly work on their craft.

Raj Devjani, a Filmmaking student who attended the seminar says, "It was illuminating to have Mr. Hansal Mehta speak with us about his work.

Having embraced digital filmmaking methods, he reinforced our faith in the fact that analogue may not necessarily be the best way to make movies today. This was heartening for the students of FX School, who have only stepped into the digital era of movies and are not acquainted with analogue.

Further, when sharing his experience while making Shahid he emphasized on the pragmatic. It was singularly inspiring to learn how he made that film almost without any conventional resources and got people to take notice of it. He underscored that whatever one's tools are to make movies, one must be brave to venture into the unknown and that nothing is above storytelling."

CB Arun Kumar, Academic Director of FX School says, “FX School is becoming a leading film institute pioneering in using the latest tech innovations and this, combined with the quality of our education allows us to foster and deepen relations with the best in the industry such as Mr. Mehta.”