Anurag Basu, Vikramaditya Motwane to promote new filmmakers

Mumbai: Filmmakers Anurag Basu and Vikramaditya Motwane are set to guide 15 budding directors as part of a new initiative.

The duo will mentor 15 fresh filmmakers, who will get to show a 10-minute short film each as part of `Humara Movie Mentor Talent for Filmmaking` - a section at the Wassup! Andheri festival, which begins here Feb 28. Anurag Basu, who won awards for his film 'Barfi!', said he was jealous of the talents who will get a chance to showcase their work through the initiative. "Unfortunately, when we started off, we didn`t have anybody to guide us. We wanted to make films, but we didn`t get proper guidance. "I used to wait for many hours to meet the directors and I had a real tough time. These kinds of initiatives will help these new breed of talents," Anurag Basu told reporters here Wednesday. "I`m so jealous that we didn`t have this kind of stuff during our times," he added. Agreeing with him, Motwane, who got his first big Bollywood break with 'Udaan', said: "We had a bad time. Back then, it was not easy to make a mark. I wish we had these kind of initiatives in our times. We will take these talents under our wings." He said earlier it was difficult to make a short film, but the situation has changed. "Earlier, it was so tough to make short film... to hire cameras was so expensive! But now one can shoot a short film on a phone and get it edited. Things have changed, and for the better," said Motwane. Wassup! Andheri is a four-day fest which will celebrate the socio-cultural spirit of the city of Mumbai and serve as a platform for different art forms such as filmmaking, painting, photography, theatre, literature, fashion, culinary, music and dance. IANS