The ten-day workshop was conducted by established film producer and director Pankaj Roy. It was aimed at imparting theoretical as well as practical knowledge in the craft of filmmaking to enable the youngsters to make their own low-cost short films. The films screened at the event were also made by the 52 youngsters.

“We are encouraging independent filmmakers, and Vadodara being the cultural capital of Gujarat, becomes a hotbed of emerging ideas,” said Roy.

Roy and his team, all former students of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), had suggested the participants choose their own themes and scripts. He himself is trained under renowned filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta and has also produced a movie based on Ruskin Bond's novel, called Andar Ki Baat.

While some of the films were tributes to old masters like Lumiere Brothers, who introduced the art of cinema to the world, others like To Late to Apologise were on a more personal front depicting urban isolation and small town dilemmas.

For the workshop, the participants were charged a nominal fee for equipments and were asked to find stories in and around the city.

“We initially taught the participants about the visual communication, the creative processes that go into film making, including the budgeting and the post-production, followed by the screening of the films,” Roy said.