Aditya Kapur, Film-Making Prodigy Owns Production House at 18

The film industry in India has long been saddled with the baggage of nepotism where pedigree, connections and lineage have mattered a lot more than talent. Super stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna and actors in more recent times like Nawazuddin Siddhiqi have taken years to reach the limelight. Aditya Kapur too has begun this long climb to bucking the trend starting as a school student of sixteen. Having been an actor for as long as he can recall, theatre and acting had always come naturally to Aditya, but that was only until he was asked to act in a film. He found himself lost beyond the stage,and left with a yearning to peek through the lens, to go beyond just acting.

After years of winning several awards in theatre at school, doing multiple plays on a professional level, working with renowned theatre group TINCAN, while performing in plays for the Bengal Club Kolkata, he finally knew what he wanted to do in life.Aditya, now 18 years old, has his own production house called autorickshawproductions. The team consists of a wide array of school and college students.

“Even though we’re all school students, we believe in providing films high on production and aesthetic value for all our viewers,” says Aditya. He had no formal training in the field of film, and his life was filled with people who had planned and thought out his future for him. Yet he knew that his films would speak for him and his loved ones would see them and appreciate their beauty. “From then on it was countless hours on the internet, and detailed research on everything it would take for me to make films,” shares Aditya.

Aditya made his mark with his debut film ‘ikolkata’ by taking his audience through the very things that define Kolkata, through the eyes of a school boy, who is sick of the daily classroom routine, and escapes into the city.

‘ikolkata’ won best film awards at Spicmacay Kolkata and at the Spirit of Kolkata film festival. It also received an official selection at the Kolkata international children’s film festival. In order to take his dreams and visions further, he set up his own production group, ‘autorickshawprductions’ which is now a formalized production house. Studying in his first year at St.Xaviers College, in the mass communication and Videography department, Aditya couldn’t have done it better.Autorickshawproductions in collaboration with cinnamonk, has made a cancer awareness film for the Tata Medical Center called 'ctrl+alt+del' which hopes to take the message of tobacco abuse and its negative effects to school and college children. Aditya is also working as an assistant director in the company 'cinnamonk', and with directors like Dibyendu Bose.

Autorickshawproductions has made trailers for the plays 'ahlyat' , produced by nine point blank, and ‘seven deaths and a funeral’ produced by the theatre group MAD(Mad About Drama). The trailers played to a full house, winning a lot of critical appreciation. They have produced music videos for Virender Singh, and Joel both of whom are dedicated and talented upcoming artists in Kolkata.

The emergency video for the league of Arab states in LMCMUN 2012 was also an autorickshawproductions venture. Apart from their film related pursuits, they host and organize events for the youth providing young artists with a platform to showcase their talent. Their event called ‘Showcase’ will also have an acappella group performing which Aditya started and is a part of.

autorickshawproductions, has its own office now at 25, marquis street, Kolkata 700016. “After two years of the team coming together, I am very happy with how things in my life and the sphere of film have turned out till now. And I hope that someday I too can become an Indian filmmaker of some prominence who people look at, and are proud of,” concludes Aditya.

Want a video made? Take a look at autorickshawproductions

Author credit: Anna Dias