Youngsters,
particularly, students loosing lives over taking smart
phone ‘selfies’
has inspired a group of students in Kota to make a film on the subject.

The movie begins on the Rawatbhata Road in Kota where four college students meet and decide
to have some fun. Doing so, they land
at Bheetriyakund along banks of Chambal
River in Kota City. One of the students, in the hope
of inviting ‘likes’ for his photo, starts clicking selfies. Little does the student
realise that his bid to overpower social media was going to cost him his
life.

The
short movie ends with the drowning of the student in the Chambal river. The film is
making an attempt to convey what is happening at so many places across the
country. Take the example of the case of drowning of 14 students of a Pune based college at
Murund beach in Raigad district last month (February 2016) or the drowning of 7 youths near Nagpur taking
selfies on March 2015. There was also the case of a boy killed on the railway tracks taking
selfie in Kerala. There are still many more similar
incidents to relate.

Talking about the movie, the director of the film, Mr Pawan
Sharma, who is B.Tech. Engineer, said that while he
has made other films, with this one, he wanted to convey the ills of society. “Our
aim is to educate youngsters and students against the selfie craze. The film is just 5.46 minutes long but carries a strong
message.”

The
tagline of the movie also asserts that “A moment of your life is more important
than 100 likes on your selfie”. After shooting the movie in a day’s time, the
director had put the short film on YouTube in February. Red
(Horror), Diamond (Suspense) and Swaccha
Soch Swaccha Bharat (Social film on Government’s Swaccha Bharat Mission) are the other short films made by Pawan Sharma.

“Since Kota is the coaching capital and a number of students stay and study in Kota, I expect
the film to create awareness about the subject,” Mr Sharma added. Pratik Dashora, Ashish Porwal,
Gaurav Soni and Tilak Raj Verma are the lead actors in the short film. They are
all students from Kota. Abhinav
Meena is the Director of Photography and shot the film with a digital camera.