BYOFF encourages short, no-frill films, mostly shot on shoestring budgets and by modest equipment, even handycams. Friends can also be invited to be the stars.

The themes may emerge from personal histories, but are ones that hold sway over a larger imagination. Sanjeev Jha, all of 23, has shot an eight-minute film called Mukti which deals with the country’s most recent heartburn — migration. Jha’s take on the sentiments of migrants is culled from his own experience of being a Bihari boy in the Capital. Jha, a graduate from Jamia Milia, says, “The film is about Raju, a Bihari barber, who faces numerous prejudices because he is from a poorer state. Ultimately, things get so bad, that he takes the most brutal decision.”

Twenty-six-year-old Amit Tiwari translated his concern for street urchins and stray dogs into a four-minute film called Wandering Souls. “I would often see children and animals scavenging in dustbins for food and stray dogs drinking water from the drain behind AIIMS. All this disturbed me greatly,” says Tiwari, a mechanical engineer, who works as an assistant manager for the Tata Group.

Satya Vivek (34) is the only professional in the group, and his film Power For All tackles the issue of nuclear power. “The protagonists are a couple who decide to prove that the Bermuda Triangle myth is imaginary. While they are there, a nuclear experiment goes horribly wrong. Do they return alive? You have to watch the film to find out,” he smiles.

The only woman participant from the city is also the most prolific. Nupur Mathur, who recently graduated in films from the Shristi School of Art design and Technology, Bangalore, has sent three films for the festival — Silence (5 minutes), Middle Life (20 minutes) and 1 Minute Uma (10 minutes). She collaborated with Mandira Sharma in the last film. “Silence deals with the harassment of women. I travelled widely by bus in Bangalore, studying postural tensions as the women sat and the men stood. This is an issue every woman in India will relate to,” she says.

The youngest of the lot, who has also been chosen but will not be able to make it personally, is 21-year-old Rohit Dhuliya. PVR Saket is the backdrop against which Dhuliya’s film Life unravels, exploring human existence in modern society through dialogue between two protagonists. “Though I can’t make it to BYOFF, I will be eager to know the response of the audience to the film,” says Dhuliya, who was part of the group that made Ahwaan, which won the 4th CMS Vatavaran film festival last year.