priyadarsh.sarwade
New Member
Hello! I am planning to apply to LFS for MA Screenwriting in 2021 and I need to submit a personal statement. This is my attempt. Please give your honest feedback and suggestions. Also, please help with the grammar.
In India, it is considered a privilege to have a male child. My father wanted a son, to carry the legacy of his name. However, my mother gave birth to a girl, who was loved just as much as they would a male child. They had to try again but, it was another baby girl. The obsession with having a male child did not end there. They tried yet again, and the result, a girl. My parents had three daughters because of which, my mother was looked at as a failure for not being able to produce a son. Naturally, they made one more attempt and would’ve tried again if they had failed to get a son this time as well. To save my mother any more trouble, the universe granted their wish for a son. Hence, I was born.
My father led a dynamic and volatile life in his prime since he was an active part of the Dalit Panther Movement in India. He would want to protect his loved ones, especially his only son. For majority of my adolescence, my father had prohibited me from moving too far away from him. I wasn’t even permitted to attend the school excursions. As I grew up, I felt confined by his insecurities and I found an irresistible urge seething inside me. I wanted to see the far end of the world. I did not know what it looked like, I could only imagine. Films became gateways to explore worlds I might not get to see otherwise.
Therefore, I immersed myself in films. All I’d want to talk about is films. A friend recommended a French film named, Amelie. I was too young to understand the nuances of the film, however, it proved to be an epiphany to me. I no longer wanted to simply absorb the experience created by this great bunch of people; I wanted to contribute to this magnificent service of creation. The only way I could make every dream into a reality was by making films. And to make films, I needed to understand the craft in a better way. That’s when I decided to join the Department of Media and Communication Studies (DMCS) in the University of Pune.
DMCS proved to be one of the most valuable learning experiences for me. My interactions with people from different social and economic backgrounds gave me a new perspective on things; an insight into lives I had only seen from a distance. I was given the opportunity to become the Student Head of the DMCS National Short Film Festival. It was a nationwide event and proved to be the most popular festival in the history of the University. I am eternally indebted to Prof. Samar Nakhate who taught us that in order to make a film, one must know how to really ‘see’ a film.
With the knowledge and confidence that I had developed at DMCS, I decided to submit my films to festivals. Fortunately, my short films, ‘The Thousand Rupee Tramp’ and ‘Paradox Fail!’ were selected in Student Art Festival (Florida), and in FINPRET (France) and Salair International Independent Film Festival (Russia) respectively.
I took up odd jobs to secure my future, so that someday I get to make the films I could only see in my head. I could see that my filmmaking dream was getting sidelined due to the pursuit of creating a secure future. However, when I revisited the film Whiplash during the Covid-19 lockdown, I realized that I had been focusing on weaving a safety net for so long, I forgot that the only thing that mattered was to not let go of the swing. Since then, I’ve realized that I can push myself to the zenith if I continue learning, keep creating and then learn some more.
Studying screenwriting at London Film School would help me understand what it takes to craft impactful and unforgettable experiences through films. LFS would prove to be an important step in my career as a filmmaker and the atmosphere would become the right tool to develop myself as an individual. In the long run, I wish to nurture and develop voices that want to be heard and create a healthy ecosystem for aspiring filmmakers. I wish to create films that would inspire people like me, to slip through the confines and become alchemists of the future.
In India, it is considered a privilege to have a male child. My father wanted a son, to carry the legacy of his name. However, my mother gave birth to a girl, who was loved just as much as they would a male child. They had to try again but, it was another baby girl. The obsession with having a male child did not end there. They tried yet again, and the result, a girl. My parents had three daughters because of which, my mother was looked at as a failure for not being able to produce a son. Naturally, they made one more attempt and would’ve tried again if they had failed to get a son this time as well. To save my mother any more trouble, the universe granted their wish for a son. Hence, I was born.
My father led a dynamic and volatile life in his prime since he was an active part of the Dalit Panther Movement in India. He would want to protect his loved ones, especially his only son. For majority of my adolescence, my father had prohibited me from moving too far away from him. I wasn’t even permitted to attend the school excursions. As I grew up, I felt confined by his insecurities and I found an irresistible urge seething inside me. I wanted to see the far end of the world. I did not know what it looked like, I could only imagine. Films became gateways to explore worlds I might not get to see otherwise.
Therefore, I immersed myself in films. All I’d want to talk about is films. A friend recommended a French film named, Amelie. I was too young to understand the nuances of the film, however, it proved to be an epiphany to me. I no longer wanted to simply absorb the experience created by this great bunch of people; I wanted to contribute to this magnificent service of creation. The only way I could make every dream into a reality was by making films. And to make films, I needed to understand the craft in a better way. That’s when I decided to join the Department of Media and Communication Studies (DMCS) in the University of Pune.
DMCS proved to be one of the most valuable learning experiences for me. My interactions with people from different social and economic backgrounds gave me a new perspective on things; an insight into lives I had only seen from a distance. I was given the opportunity to become the Student Head of the DMCS National Short Film Festival. It was a nationwide event and proved to be the most popular festival in the history of the University. I am eternally indebted to Prof. Samar Nakhate who taught us that in order to make a film, one must know how to really ‘see’ a film.
With the knowledge and confidence that I had developed at DMCS, I decided to submit my films to festivals. Fortunately, my short films, ‘The Thousand Rupee Tramp’ and ‘Paradox Fail!’ were selected in Student Art Festival (Florida), and in FINPRET (France) and Salair International Independent Film Festival (Russia) respectively.
I took up odd jobs to secure my future, so that someday I get to make the films I could only see in my head. I could see that my filmmaking dream was getting sidelined due to the pursuit of creating a secure future. However, when I revisited the film Whiplash during the Covid-19 lockdown, I realized that I had been focusing on weaving a safety net for so long, I forgot that the only thing that mattered was to not let go of the swing. Since then, I’ve realized that I can push myself to the zenith if I continue learning, keep creating and then learn some more.
Studying screenwriting at London Film School would help me understand what it takes to craft impactful and unforgettable experiences through films. LFS would prove to be an important step in my career as a filmmaker and the atmosphere would become the right tool to develop myself as an individual. In the long run, I wish to nurture and develop voices that want to be heard and create a healthy ecosystem for aspiring filmmakers. I wish to create films that would inspire people like me, to slip through the confines and become alchemists of the future.
Priyadarsh Sarwade
