Just Words
Two social outcasts with hidden identities, who keep meeting in a coffee shop and talk in their childlike yet inconspicuous cryptic, find it difficult to express their love for each other.
The entire film is shot in a single room remodeled as a coffee shop with only two characters having a conversation about their ideas on love.
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Chanakya ReddyDirector
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Chanakya ReddyWriter
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Chanakya ReddyProducer
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Ravinder Reddy ToorupuProducer
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Avani MahaKey Cast
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Puneet SharmaKey Cast
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Project Type:Feature
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Genres:Romance, Drama, Experimental
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Runtime:1 hour 9 minutes 3 seconds
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Completion Date:May 5, 2019
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Production Budget:20,200 USD
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Country of Origin:India
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Country of Filming:India
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:Digital 4K UHD
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Aspect Ratio:2.4:1
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:No
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Diamond Film AwardsVia Aversana, 10 Battipaglia
Italy
Best Director, July 2019 -
52 Weeks Film FestivalThousand Oaks
United States
Best International Feature Film -
Starshine Film Festivalvia Aversana, 10 Battipaglia
Italy
Best Director, July 2019 -
Cult Critic Movie AwardsKolkata
India
Debut Filmmaker - Outstanding Achievement Award -
Culcutta International Cult Film FestivalKolkata
India
Debut Filmmaker - Outstanding Achievement Award -
Druk International Film FestivalVill : Pangsho, Geog. Toewang Punakha Paro
Bhutan
Debut Filmmaker - Outstanding Achievement Award -
L'Age d'Or International Arthouse Film FestivalKolkata
India
Critics' Choice Award -
Florence Film Awards - Monthly CompetitionFlorence
Italy
Special Mention
Chanakya 'Reddy Toorupu' (born 10th May 1995) is an aspiring filmmaker from Hyderabad, India. He is debuting with his independent feature film project "Just Words."
He did his early schooling from The Hyderabad Public School, Ramanthapur, and was fascinated by world cinema ever since his English teacher (Aloysius Das) gave home-work assignments that included watching English movies several times. He never learned Telugu formally in school, despite it being his mother tongue and picked it up by reading titles of movie posters in his home town. He consciously chose to become a filmmaker at the age of 15, after being inspired by the two-part film "Raktha Charitra" by Ram Gopal Varma.
However, owing to the middle-class family background that pressed him to pursue higher education, despite being selected to pursue mathematics in the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Chanakya chose to pursue his under-graduation in mathematics and computer science at the Chennai Mathematical Institute, under scholarship. He claims CMI had very few classes per week, and no attendance policy, which gave him a lot of free time to pursue movies. It was in his CMI days that he extensively watched movies from the college movie database, sometimes stretching himself to watch movies for 32 hours without a break.
It was in his graduation days at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, while pursuing Economics that sparked the idea of making "Just Words." He claims that it was one of his friend's handwritten letter that inspired him to pen the screenplay of Just Words. His dad has bought him a laptop and it was in IIT days when he learned to edit by extensively watching tutorials on youtube. IIT Roorkee had great internet facilities, that helped him explore movies all over, and discover modern methods of filmmaking.
Chanakya's home had an empty room (20ft x 15ft 6inches) which he thought would make the ideal location for his film. He, along with his bunch of school friends, remodeled the room into a coffee shop and he kept making the film over his semester vacations. He initially funded the project from his pocket money from his father, scholarship savings and by editing wedding videos as a freelance editor. His father began investing for the post-production after his seeing the quality of his son's work.
He successfully completed "Just Words", a feature film, shot in a single room, under a budget of 7300 USD ( around 500,000 INR) using high-end production sound, original background score, and a 5.1 surround sound mix. The cast and crew chose to work for free or minimal remunerations, as they believed in his vision and storytelling skills. He claims he never had to step out of his home to make the film.
Despite several rejections regionally, Chanakya desperately awaits to rewrite his fate and enter the world of mainstream cinema.
Just Words started with a handwritten letter from a heartbroken friend, who asked me "how does one differentiate between being in love and being in love with the idea of being in love?"
I would've brushed that question off, had I not been at a fancy coffee shop, the evening before I received that letter, wondering about the pretenses beneath coffee table conversations. We tend to hide our true intentions, as speakers through our words or as listeners through our reactions.
Somehow, I saw parallels between both concepts and instantly I knew the soul of the film.
I had never made a film before, nor did I know how, but I wanted to answer him and many who might have a similar question lurking in their mind on the idea of love.
I had written 16 scripts before and burnt them dissatisfied in agony. It was when I wrote Just Words, that I knew deep within that it would make itself.