Lockdown diaries: Hiten Tejwani shoots for a short film from home, calls self-shot projects ‘a great learning experience’

Actor Hiten Tejwani shares that he took his wife, Gauri Gauri Pradhan’s help to shoot the awareness film of Covid-19 pandemic, at home amid the current lockdown.

Unlocking the creativity amid the lockdown situation, actor Hiten Tejwani has been experimenting with projects that are self-shot from home. The actor has recently self-shot for a short film, and has also featured in a music video, along with other actors and makers from the Marathi cinema, paying tribute to all the doctors, nurses, police officers and many others who are relentlessly working out there for the safety of the people.

Actor Hiten Tejwani admits that with his 10-year-old kids around, it was difficult to shoot from home.

Talking about the short film, Tejwani says, “It’s a very interesting film themed on coronavirus and has been sent for the Lockdown Film Festival of India. We’ve individually shot our parts and I’m eagerly waiting to see how the final product looks,” Tejwani shares.

Self shooting a video can difficult as one has to do the work of a director and cameraman, too. “The first challenge was that I needed someone to shoot it for me. So, Gauri (wife, Gauri Pradhan Tejwani) helped me with this. Then setting the frame, camera angle, zoom in, zoom out, retakes and all that are essential in filming a scene,” he shares.

And with his 10-year-old kids, Katya and Neevan, around, the actor says it became all the more difficult for him to work from home, as he would wait for the right moment to film his part.

“Of course, you need a corner or a quiet place in the house where you won’t be disturbed, especially when you have kids running around all the time. There are all kinds of noise as someone would be cooking in the kitchen or watching TV or talking to someone. I had to wait for the right moment to shoot when there is pin drop silence and no distractions,” he says.

As the lockdown gets extends till May 3, Tejwani is looking forward to working on more such projects. “Self-shot projects are a great learning experience and there are some more scripts that have come my way and I might consider them. I’m eager to watch what others have shot by themselves from home and learn from it,” he concludes.