Private Project

Wordsmith

Tejas is an adopted child who has a deep sense of duty towards his parents, Tejas also has a gift of writing stories. In a strange turn of events, fate has it that a door of Tejas's room suddenly opens to another world - Abhay's. Abhay deeply resents his dad who never once appreciated his achievements - a stark contrast to Tejas’s duty bound relationship with his own father.

As Abhay and Tejas’s worlds meet, the story takes a ‘Midnight in Paris’-esque turn. In the realm of magical realism, drama unfolds where we don’t know if the story is telling itself, or if there’s a writer writing it. Wordsmith is an indie coming of age tale that reflects a book reading experience in many ways - laden with metaphors and pop culture references.

How do you find closure to your story if someone else is writing it?

  • Surya Vasishta
    Director
  • Surya Vasishta
    Writer
  • Ravi Kashyap
    Producer
    Badmaash (Kannada)
  • Ramakrishna Nallam
    Producer
  • Surya Vasishta
    Key Cast
    "Abhay"
  • Sruthi Hariharan
    Key Cast
    "Maya"
  • Deepak Subramanya
    Key Cast
    "Tejas"
  • Shweta Gupta
    Key Cast
    "Raksha"
  • Aasif Kshatriya
    Key Cast
    "Narayan Pandit"
  • Ravi Bhat
    Key Cast
    "Rajeev"
  • Shruthi Pradeep
    Key Cast
    "Aishwarya Pandit"
  • Ram Manjjonaath
    Key Cast
    "Gundu"
  • Satish Kumar
    Key Cast
    "Soundu"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    ಸಾಲುಗಾರ (Salugara)
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    Drama, Magical Realism, Coming of Age
  • Runtime:
    2 hours 9 minutes 46 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 16, 2022
  • Country of Origin:
    India
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.38:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Surya Vasishta

Surya Vasishta is an actor-filmmaker from Bengaluru. He makes his feature film debut as director with ‘Wordsmith’.

He has earlier been part of projects like Tamassu (as Assistant Director), Lucia (Best Film - Audience Choice, LIFF 2013), U Turn, Badmaash, Satyavati (Hindi), Gantumoote (Best Screenplay Winner - NYIFF 2019) and Shivaji Surathkal as an actor and other capacities. He also played the titular role of Shirdi Sai Baba in Bukkapatna Vasu’s directorial that aired on Kasturi TV in 2011.

He runs a studio called Astu Studios. Having also directed many corporate and short films, Surya has experience handling post production of international talk shows that have telecasted in over a hundred countries on Star Plus and Colors. Astu Studios was also involved in the post production of Roopa Rao’s Gantumoote and visual promotions of Vinay Bharadwaj’s Mundina Nildana.

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Director Statement

A lot of decisions we make in life are influenced by what we think is the right thing to do, or what we think is expected of us. For me, Wordsmith is a film that explores if one can embrace being vulnerable for their own good. And a father-son relationship - one that's almost always complicated for no reason and staunchly built on the foundation of 'being strong', as against 'being vulnerable', made for a compelling narrative.

When I was part of the casting process on another project, I found it fascinating how we passionately spoke of characters like they're our friends, or people we know closely. I realised that 'characters' are not entirely imaginary for a writer, but their reality through their journey of story telling. That gave birth to the angle of a writer and his character coming face to face.