Panini Pandit, who is the son of late actor Raajkumar, is an avid filmmaker. He is set to start work on his first commercial release soon. Talking about it, he says, "My first commercial short film project produced by my banner Pa Pa pictures, is going on the floors this August. I will release the film online in a big way.The film is short in Rajasthan and Mumbai and is titled Ishq Ka Rock. The plot is a love story set in the world of India's biggest rockstar. It is all about the trials and celebrations that love brings and how it affects people." The film stars Gautam Sharma and Natasha Singh.
Besides this, Panini, who has done a film course from New York Film Academy, has made 19 short films, the most recent one being Naked and Silent (produced by Neyork Film Academy, written and directed by him). The film is a tale of friendship and ambition. The thriller stars Gautam Sharma, who is known for his film Bhindi Baazaar Inc. and Gautam Kapur, nephew of the late superstar Vinod Khanna. He event kept screening at a suburban theatre at Andheri (West) on Sunday.
The main motive of his films is to make the youth feel empowered enough to be able to bring a change in society, says Panini. "I wish to empower them with this thought by the time I am done with my work here. If I can convince my audience to believe that even they can be Dhirubhai Ambani, Amitabh Bachman or Sachin Tendulkar, then I have succeeded and would be satisfied at the end of my life and film making journey," he says.
Panini goes on to add that he never had a particular inspiration in life and all that he does is self learnt. "I was without a mentor. After my father passed away, I had no idea about the Hindi film industry and how the business works. I started managing my family estate, which we have in the north, the south and outside of Mumbai. I sold some land and bought some. However, it was only later that I realised that I was meant to make films. All I knew is that I loved to watch films. The films I loved are Titanic, Terminator 2 and braveheart. Now I have no other distractions in my life and I concentrate on making films. This is blissful," he says, adding, "In fact, I celebrated clearing decades old litigations on my land with multiple parties with my family. Of course, along with satisfaction, this also lead to put on some weight."
The filmmaker adds that this is the perfect way to carry on his father's legacy. "In this state of joy, I wish to celebrate what my father did all his life and what the others from the industry have been doing gloriously. After all it is true that success is not the key to happiness but it is happiness that is the key to success," he says, adding, "Had my Papa been around he would have been proud. He would laugh joyously and open a bottle of champagne from his collection to celebrate my winning championships and breaking records in sports and studies and encourage me to ascend greater heights, which he always believed I was born to do. I expect to repeat that"
