Raqesh Bapat turns producer with short film 'Ransom Handsome'

Mumbai, March 19 (IANS) 'Bigg Boss OTT' fame Raqesh Bapat, who is known for working in several TV shows and films, has turned producer. His first project is 'Ransom Handsome' which has won a lot of accolades at various film festivals including Dubai International Film festival, Cannes Shorts and Indian International Short Film Festival.

After going through several festival rounds, the short film will be released on OTT.

Raqesh started his own production house called Tathastu in collaboration with his childhood friend Sanket Bakshi's production house Saad films.

Speaking about his first production, Raqesh said: "My childhood friend Sanket Bakshi and I had recently been discussing a lot of potential scripts and wanted to work on something creative together. He lives in the U.S. and works with Microsoft but does a lot of other things. When we finally thought of this script, we put the whole plan into action by hiring a great team and even setting up a production house there. So we have a full-fledged one-stop facility to produce films in the US."

"His production was Saad films, my production is Tathastu productions and Fragic films, another partner we collaborated with, conceptualised the whole project, hired a great crew, and made this 20-minute short film called 'Ransom Handsome'. The purpose was just to see how we can push the boundaries for short filmmaking. Most short films shy away from the action due to budget concerns. We wanted to make a short film with some action and amazing visuals. In general, we had a lot of fun with our creativity and making a good product. Thankfully, the film came out really well. We sent it out to various film festivals," he added.

Elaborating on why he chose to set up this venture in the U.S., Raqesh said that the concept behind creating such a film there is to create a mix of global and local.

He said: "We have a lot of NRI talent across the world, and what happens is that these young people don't get the platform to showcase their talent. Be it actors, directors, or technicians, they only get small parts in big projects. A lot of times these small parts are also stereotyped. So, giving these young enthusiasts a platform to showcase their work."

He continued: "We set up the production house there with a plan to develop more scripts and get investors from here and get the team to create a product under our supervision in the US itself. Basically, the concepts are Indian, reflecting the values of the content we create in our country, or any relevant topics that are important in the now. It's also about giving these young talents a chance to show their talent in India as we are also pitching this content to Indian OTT platforms."

Raqesh is now interested in creating more projects after seeing the number of film festivals that have picked up his content and given awards for it.

"It has only increased our confidence to create more concepts and films like these. We are already working on our second project which is a sports documentary on Mallakhamb (a traditional sport originating from the Indian subcontinent). There is a lot of preparation going on for this one, and very soon I will reveal more details on this project as well," concluded Raqesh.

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