Hoards of aspiring filmmakers and actors travel miles to the dream city Mumbai every year, however, very few can grasp the essence of the bustling city and enjoy living along with it. When third-year electrical engineering student Pulkit Goyal travelled to Mumbai from a small city in Chattisgarh, he did not have the faintest idea about films. Neither was he coming to Bombay to make his name in films. As any other serious engineering aspirant, he studied hard and cracked IIT JEE Mains and Advanced to join  Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in the year 2015 and end up joining the Electrical Engineering department.

Pulkit, who is the head of the film club in IIT Bombay, recently uploaded a film named ‘Bombay Showreel’ on YouTube. The film was part of a project for the first year students in IIT Bombay, which Pulkit was heading. Soaking the energy of Bombay, the short documentary begins with a shot of iconic Dhobi Ghat in Mumbai. “Although I do not belong to the city, when this opportunity came to make a film, Mumbai as a city was indisputably my choice. I sat along with my juniors during ideation process of the film. We googled about the places we are going to go and immediately had a sketch in our mind as to what we want to put in the film,” said an excited Pulkit.

Having no idea about films before he joined IIT-B, Pulkit had started taking interest in filmmaking from his first year. He learnt about the technicalities of film in his first year when he joined the film club of IIT Bombay. Talking about the transition of shots and technicality of the film, Pulkit pointed out the shots were planned beforehand and depending on the locations, they made adjustments. “We heard the music that we are planning to use for the documentary and then started to plan the transition and shots to maintain the temporal and spatial movement of the film,” said Pulkit.

The short documentary doesn’t limit itself to the markers and famous landmarks of Mumbai, which is the case with many such documentaries portraying the buzzing city. On the contrary, it focuses on people, their emotions, rituals, traditions, occupation and figments that permeates the air of the city with vibrancy. “The film was a result of mixed ideas from some of the first year students who are from the city and know the city well. We shot for four days over two weekends. I helmed the editing table where we assembled the shots for a month and although we were not sure about the output earlier, it turned out good after the edit,” said Pulkit.

“Before making the film, I haven’t travelled in the city so much and didn’t know much about the city. It is because of this film that I have explored the city to my heart’s content which made me know what the city actually is about,” said Pulkit. Earlier this month, a music video created by IIT Roorkee students surfaced on YouTube that created a storm on social media. “Although I don’t think it will be a massive hit on the Internet, we hope that more people watch it and get a hold of what Mumbai as a city has to offer,” concluded Pulkit.

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Watch the video here.