Divya Murthy creates funny shorts based on life around her
By Neena Badhwar
Divya Murthy is a young lawyer who is writing research for a university professor in Sydney on media law but when she is coming home to Wollongong where she lives, sitting in the train in a 3-hour journey she is writing out her ideas and even visualising them and finally turning them into short films.
She says she was always interested in acting taking part in plays in school and community functions and it was the actor in her that made her make these films that she says she has shot on her smart phone.
“These days many films are being made on smart phones as they can be just as good. All you need to do is put the phone on a tripod and acquire the right equipment, at times my mum has held the camera for me. For locations I have used my own home or friends’ homes. My friends are very helpful as I have cast them in my videos.”
“I thought if acting work wasn’t coming as much as I would like to get then why not act in my own videos that I can create myself.”
So Divya’s restless creative streak helped her as she has produced some quite witty and funny videos on some of the Indian stereotypes that she observed as she was growing up that are a common place in our daily lives. “I make these short films to start a discussion and sort of pose questions in the mind of viewers,” says Divya who has started her own Youtube channel calling it Divya Vaman channel where she has by now uploaded about five short films and they are being viewed by many people. These short films are funny, just so spot on in comedy, as Divya adds, “I find many situations and people irritating, not just in our own community but even otherwise though I try to find humour in my irritation.”
“Most of the ideas that I have written have come from my own personal experience. For example in the ”˜Annoying Aunties’, the young girl who grows up being pestered by the annoying aunty ends up becoming one herself! Then obviously the question one poses ”“ should it become a cycle or do you break away from it. The video leaves the audience to ponder on it.”
“In the ”˜Ignorant Interview’ I just get mad and madder at the questions I am asked in response to my answers. I say to the interviewer that I speak ”˜Kannada’ and her response ”˜Oh! So you speak Canadian’. This happens to us on a regular basis. So I thought why not make a film on the experience.”
So how long does it take her to create one short, “It varies from video to video. Writing the first draft can take a week and perhaps another to polish it. And then sorting out the dates, the casting, the location, the costumes all takes time. I guess around two months in all. There was one which just took a couple of weeks to make.”
What about editing, “Oh that I am still learning. Actually a lot of comedy comes from good editing, for example the expressions, the timing.”
Divya has acted in an American series ”˜Deadly Women’ which is re-enactment of true murders with her having played different roles one as a murderer as well as a victim in another.
She is currently working on a short film which is based on an Australian Indian family. She says, “Australian TV audience has not yet seen a film on a typical Indian family as such. I plan to enter it in a festival and hope that it can be shown on some local channel here.”
Divya Murthy, a lawyer by profession, an actor by passion, is now a producer, director, writer, casting director all in one and uses all her friends and family to act in her short films which are watched by many on youtube. They are funny, some of the experiences we all go through in our day-to-day lives, only Divya has gone and made them by just using her smartphone, A smart and a talented girl she is.
Short URL: https://indiandownunder.com.au/?p=9387