The Hindu Business Line : Destitute kids do an autobiography on celluloid

PRECOCIOUS FILM-MAKERS: (From left) Riyaz Basha, Arunajyothy, Balakrishna, Sunitha and S.K. Moosa Pasha, the makers of the documentary Teen Channel, based on their own lives.

Hyderabad , Dec. 15

RIYAZ Basha, Balakrishna, S.K. Moosa Pasha, Sunitha and Arunajyothy, all teenagers, are no seasoned documentary makers. Yet, they came out with Teen Channel, a moving 20-minute documentary, with crisp editing, well-written script and natural locations.

They could do this because they were shooting their own lives!

"We sat down to write on our own lives. Together, we wrote the script and began to shoot, going back to our backyards," Sunitha, a domestic help-turned-teacher, told Business Line.

It just took eight days for the five-some to complete the documentary, says Moosa Pasha.Two of these fledgling filmmakers had made a documentary on street children some time ago.

Pasha wanted to become an entrepreneur. But his family could not afford to send him to school, let alone making him an entrepreneur. So, he dropped out of high school doing a menial job in a local snacks making unit. Then he came to know about learning centres run by Dr Reddy's Foundation.

Now he doesn't do his bakery work. He is attending an Entrepreneur Development Programme (EDP) organised by Teen Channel, an arm of the foundation. "I didn't know that the art of becoming an entrepreneur is that easy. Now I'm quite confident of becoming one. I will set up an automobile servicing centre," he says.

This would-be entrepreneur sees a huge opportunity in the automobile repair and service, thanks to the seamless arrival of new vehicles.

Like Pasha, Sunitha had a dream too. She wanted to become a teacher but she ended up joining her mother, a domestic help. "I used to start at home with my mother to do clean-up jobs," she says.

She forgot about her dream of becoming a teacher until she got to know about the learning centres run by the foundation.

Now she could rekindle her dream.

The story of Balakrishna is no different. He nurtured the idea of becoming an automobile engineer, but became a garbage picker. "I opted myself out of school because I needed to repay the loan my mother took for my sister's delivery," he says. Thanks to the Teen Channel, he is learning the nuts and bolts of automobiles.

"Teen Channel aims to shape responsible citizens out of such children by giving them access to high quality learning opportunities," Ms Nalini Gangadharan, Executive Director of the Foundation, explains.

She says the foundation's experiences of CAP (Child And Police) and LABS (The Livelihood Advancement Business School) gave them insights into issues of poverty and school failure.

More Stories on : Cinema | Children & Parenting | Andhra Pradesh

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