The Last Act

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Posted: 13 years ago

Anurag Kashyap. Photo Rajeev Bhatt
Asmit Pathare
Chakri Toleti
Sudhir Mishra. Photo: V.V.Krishnan

A psychopath commits a crime, leaving 12 clues around the corpse. The clues can be traced to 12 cities. Each clue is de-constructed through 12 short films to piece together the crime puzzle. Releasing today, The Last Act, produced by Showhouse Films and Seagram's Large Short Films, is a collaborative project featuring the work of 12 directors.

Filmmaker Asmit Pathare, who was part of an international collaborative project titled The Owner, was looking at distributing the film in India and met Anurag Kashyap. "Anurag Kashyap told me about the project. The deal was that I would string the films together apart from being the Project Director and coordinate with 11 other directors. We decided on The Last Act in July and worked towards a December release. At that point, we didn't even know who the other 11 filmmakers would be," says Asmit.

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A contest was announced and 11 filmmakers from different parts of the country were chosen by Anurag Kashyap, Sudhir Mishra and Chakri Tholeti. "Anurag Kashyap worked out the basic plot. The selected filmmakers were given 10 days to submit two scripts each. I had four days to select the 11 scripts. The filmmakers then had 20 days for production and 10 for postproduction. The 11 filmmakers were not in touch with each other and I was the point of contact for all of them. We managed to pull through," says Asmit.

Asmit's task was to find a common thread connecting the 11 stories. "It was tough, because each of these 11 filmmakers come from different parts of the country, rooted in different cultural ethos," says Asmit.

The Showhouse team brainstormed on a connecting link between the 12 clues and 12 cities. "We finally thought of a theatre troupe that travels through these cities," says Asmit.

The Last Act has a run time of 2hrs and 20 minutes and is being released across the country as part of PVR Director's Rare initiative.

12.12.12

* The Last Act is a collaborative feature, comprising 12 short films of 10 minute duration each. Each film is part of a larger story.

* Twelve directors were chosen from 600 entries and given the plot outline worked out by Anurag Kashyap.

* The cast includes Saurabh Shukla, Asif Basra and Shreyas Pandit along with characters across 12 different short films.

* The directors: Anurag Goswami, Himanshu Tyagi, Nitin Bhardwaj, Jagannathan Krishnan, Kabir Chowdhry, Nijo Jonson and Rohit R. Gaba, Rohin, Nitye Sood, Varun Chowdhury and Asmit Pathare, Tathagata Singha and Tejas Joshi.