Shubhashish Bhutiani (almost) ran the Oscar race

"I’m a nerd. I have this notebook in which I scribble down names of films and directors that I like. Every now and again, I go back to update, shuffle and rearrange the list in alphabetical order. Yeah."

"I took some risks. To shoot a bus sequence, the cinematographer Mike McSweeney tied himself to the hood of a car. My father (producer, Sanjay Bhutiani) tailed the bus at 50kmph without insurance, fearing for [Mike’s] life. Investing in the equipment would’ve taken up the entire budget of the film."

"I grew up in Mumbai watching big Bollywood masala movies. But when I was 18, I saw these two movies, Bicycle Thieves (Italian) and The 400 Blows (French), and loved their truthfulness and simplicity. It made me want to make movies."

"I’m a sucker for everything a movie tells me. It happens quite often that people will talk to me about what’s believable in a film and what isn’t – for me, everything is."

Growing up on a daily diet of Bollywood, Shubhashish Bhutiani wanted to make movies that were nothing like Bollywood. For his thesis at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Bhutiani shot a 20-minute short film inspired by one of his old teachers, who fought to protect a young Sikh student from the violence of the 1984 riots. Kush quickly made its way to film festivals and was shortlisted as one of 10 live-action shorts in the Oscar nomination race.The film didn’t get a nomination in the end, but Bhutiani is only getting started. Here, he talks movie love.

Click through the gallery above for more