Studying filmmaking in UK, Akshuna Bakshi returns to start up Travelista
Dilli Haat was abuzz last weekend with activity even more than usual. Amidst the organized chaos, you could see one young lady moving around ensuring the things are in order. I walked up to her and came to know that she is the founder behind Travelista, the ongoing festival.
The whole concept of Travelista is to bring travel, photography and filmmaking together. Akshuna had been a travel filmmaker in the UK where the concept is widespread. "Indians travel a lot and click a lot of pictures but somehow filmmaking and travel never got together for an average joe here," says Akshuna. The aim of Travelista is to bring this aspect into play and encourage people to make travel films. Along with this, the festival also intends to encourage upcoming designers and entrepreneurs by giving them a platform to showcase their product.
We earlier covered Wearmates which was one of the participants at the Travelista festival. Into its second edition, Travelista also brought Akshay Chuggani-founded The Indian Backpacker as an official partner. Joining forces, the festival was able to bring in a large footfall throughout the three days (October 11 to 13) and more than 30 entrepreneurs and designers showcased here. Travelista also received more than 200 travel films in the first edition from across the globe and thus there was a lot more emphasis on it by the means of screening films during the second edition.
Dilli Haat INA is a place owned by the government to promote rural art and craft and thus there was some opposition in the beginning towards Travelista but Akshuna was able to convince the officials to extend the opportunity to others for some time. "Travelista abides by the ethics and the whole idea is to promote India-made goods. Specifically for Travelista, all the products need to have a connection with travel," says Akshuna.
Organizing festivals is the primary role for Travelista and going forward Akshuna intends to take it to different cities and increase the frequency as well. Visit the website Travelista Productions for more details.