I’m a geek; I sit at home and write, says Shirish Kunder

Shirish Kunder’s short film Kriti, which stars Manoj Bajpai and Radhika Apte just released online to mixed reviews. While the initial reaction was very positive, many on Twitter have started comparing the project with a Nepali short film BOB, which they say is the original story of Kriti. While the comparison gained a lot of traction, Shirish himself tweeted back clarifying: “To those comparing #Kriti with some short film released on May 12, 2016: #Kriti was shot in February, 2016. Hope this settles the matter.”

However, despite its controversies, the film has been doing well and has been getting good reviews. “I was always waiting to explore the digital space,” says Shirish on why he chose to do a short film. Telling us how Kriti happened, Shirish says, “The idea formed a few years back when 3G was just picking up in the country and people were starting to look at short films. I am a bit of a geek, so I sit at home and write; I don’t go out and sell my content or stories. So the story had just stayed in my head. One day Manoj Bajpai came for dinner and he told me that he wanted to do something in the web genre and I gave him the script. He was interested and he proactively found producers for it and everything fell in place.”

While he is not technically an outsider to the film industry, Shirish himself admits that he is a bit reclusive. And since his project explores a very new medium, his old contacts didn’t really come handy, he adds. “I belong to an edgy space within the industry. I have played to the commercial space with biggies like Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar, but since I am moving to a new space we had to make new contacts.” Shirish further adds, “Kriti is a prelude to the feature film that I am planning to make in the future.”

The director, who is quite popular for his jibes and funny remarks on Twitter has made a space for himself to express more online. “When people don’t know you they start judging you. So slowly I’ve started coming out on Twitter. I can’t really make a romantic comedy, but being funny on Twitter is something that comes to me.”