TFA Award winner Naveen Tejaswi: ‘Privilege has a lot to do with making art’
The Hindu
Winner of the TFA Award for Creative Writing in Kannada, Naveen Tejaswi talks about his attempts to be heard in a language he understood
“If someone asks me ‘Why do you make films?’ I tell them it’s because it has everything I like — music, photography and acting,” says Naveen Tejaswi. Naveen may have won an award for Creative Writing in Kannada from TOTO Funds the Arts, but behind that unassuming mien lies a creative soul who expresses himself through theatre, photography and films.
Hailing from Hosabale in Shivamogga, Naveen is a first generation student from his family and after completing his primary education from his village, came to Bengaluru to pursue a BSc degree from St Joseph’s College.
“I wanted to become a scientist, but after a while I realised that though I was good at it, I did not enjoy it.“
“I was doing theatre in college and had started watching films. I had come to Bangalore in 2014, and would watch English movies everyday with subtitles to learn the language. Soon, I fell in love with the media.”
His stay in the city brought him exposure to world cinema, literature and photography, which only fuelled his creativity as he used to write poems, essays and short stories in Kannada, even as a youngster.
Naveen used to work part-time jobs in college and when he was gifted a second hand DSLR camera, he began taking photographs, eventually gaining a proficiency in it.
Today, Naveen writes and directs films casting people from his village. So far, Naveen has directed four short films and all of them done the festival circuit. Bidugade (Redemption) was a finalist at KIKSFF at California in 2019 and The Sicklehook was the official selection for EFF, Khanty Mansi in Russia for 2018.
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