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Sep 24, 2024 | 
villagesquare.in | Kinshuk Ghosh |Kumar Gaurav |Aditi Sahoo
Sikur Padma Pao, a 24-year-old from the indigenous Mising community, was always drawn to music. A native of Gergeri village in Dhemaji district of Assam, he pursued music with an unparalleled passion. However, it was a tourism fellowship that made him see his heritage from a new perspective. Now he is on a mission to preserve the Mising culture through songs. Pao’s musical journey began when he was in class X. He got to know about a teacher who taught classical music in Dhemaji town.
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Sep 23, 2024 | 
villagesquare.in | Kumar Gaurav |Aditi Sahoo |Atiqur Rahman
A man from Bihar embarked on a cross-country bicycle adventure in 2016. A quest to know the heart of rural India and its people in a meaningful way. However, the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 brought to an abrupt halt his four-year tour that covered over 16,000 km across 10 states. “I wanted to understand India. I rode my bicycle and got connected to my country’s soil — for the first time, directly,” said Rakesh Rider.
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Sep 22, 2024 | 
villagesquare.in | Aditi Sahoo |Atiqur Rahman
Those of us who’ve had the experience of watching the majestic greater one-horned rhino, or Indian rhinoceros, in its natural habitat have been amazed by its size and power. However, this animal, resembling a prehistoric creature, was precariously poised on the brink of extinction at the turn of the 20th century. As per some estimates, there were just 200 living Indian rhinos roaming the wild during that time, the once-large population decimated by factors like poaching and habitat loss.
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Aug 6, 2024 | 
villagesquare.in | Smriti Mukerji |Suhail Bhat |Aditi Sahoo
Filmmaker and fashion designer Muzaffar Ali is famous for films like Umrao Jaan (1981), Gaman (1978) and Anjuman (1986). These are works with a cult following and his fans may have often wondered how Ali made the transition to being a designer and purveyor of the crafts after being a director in Bollywood. To that Ali has an answer.
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Aug 5, 2024 | 
villagesquare.in | Suhail Bhat |Aditi Sahoo |Smriti Mukerji
Conversations on rural India, cinema and the myriad issues concerning both flowed freely amid screenings of short movies at the inaugural edition of Chitrashaala Short Film Festival, organised by Village Square in the capital on August 3. The event also shed light on the challenges faced by artisans, and the impact of climate change on rural life.
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Aug 2, 2024 | 
villagesquare.in | Aditi Sahoo |Smriti Mukerji
JN: The Aravalli ranges originate in Gujarat, extend to Haryana, and traverse several more states en route to Rajasthan and also cross through Delhi and Haryana. My village lies in the Udaipur district, and I have seen these mountain ranges since I was a young child. Mining in this region has been going on for the past 30 years.
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Aug 2, 2024 | 
villagesquare.in | Smriti Mukerji |Aditi Sahoo |Worngachan Shatsang
The upcoming edition of Village Square’s Chitrashaala, being organised on August 3, has many firsts to it. Among them is the screening of the short film Bittu, which will be shown in Delhi for the very first time during the fest. The film was shortlisted among the top 10 in the Best Live Action Short Film segment at the 93rd Academy Awards. The film tells the story of friends Bittu and Chand, who live in a Himalayan village, and how their friendship is eclipsed by an accidental poisoning at school.
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Aug 1, 2024 | 
villagesquare.in | Aditi Sahoo |Worngachan Shatsang
Stenzin Tankong: Like many in our country, I started in Pune, then moved to Mumbai to seek work as a filmmaker’s assistant. The grind there is intense, and despite hearing about renowned filmmakers you rarely get to work with or even see them. After struggling for about a year, I decided to return to Ladakh and tell my stories.
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Jul 30, 2024 | 
villagesquare.in | Aditi Sahoo |Worngachan Shatsang |Sudip Maiti
It isn’t every day that you come across a woman in her fifties who decides to learn how to dive to explore corals and be inspired to paint them. This is the story of Uma, the protagonist of Priya Thuvassery’s Coral Woman, a movie that focuses on climate change. The film will be screened at the inaugural edition of the Chitrashaala short film festival being organised by Village Square in partnership with Transform Rural India (TRI) and the Film Critics Guild, on August 3.
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Jul 29, 2024 | 
villagesquare.in | Worngachan Shatsang |Sudip Maiti |Smriti Mukerji |Aditi Sahoo
Riah Taipodia grew up in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland before moving to Meghalaya to pursue her college education. It is these rich personal experiences she gained over the years in the northeast that the 27-year-old filmmaker, who is currently pursuing a diploma in animation cinema at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata, aims to bring to a wider audience through her movies.
