MUMBAI: A carnival of powerful stories and storytellers united by the love for cinema – Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Film returns on Zee Café for the second time. An influential and celebrated platform for short films that recognizes the innate talent and skill of filmmakers truly deserves to be celebrated and Zee Café takes it a notch up by showcasing these masterpieces to a wider audience. Featuring a curation of finely-crafted short-films that promise to leave you in awe, the channel, available with the Zee Prime English Pack, enthrals its discerning audience starting every Fridays and Saturdays at 10 PM.

The series of original, powerful and inspiring short-films including ‘Tindey & Unread’, ‘Siblings & Anukul’, ‘The Lovers  & Everything is Fine’, ‘Gadhedo & Chutney’  among others were showcased in a 6-city tour including Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Pune, Delhi and Jalandhar. With a host of gifted filmmakers donning the director’s hat, the riveting short-films stand for meaningful and engaging content, truly leaving viewers in captivated.

In a specially curated panel discussion, the platform invited cinematic maestros like Anil Kapoor, Farah Khan, Jimmy Shergill, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Randeep Hooda, Vinay Pathak and Zoya Akhtar and many more from the industry who conversed around cinema, what makes films powerful and their own pursuit of excellence. The 6-part series explores the depths of Indian cinema in an engaging discussion with these maestros of cinema who are known for their craft. Giving viewers a deeper insight into what goes behind the making of a film, the series also features exclusive interviews of the makers as they unearth the many layers of the films.

Advertisement

ZEEL  chief growth officer Ashish Sehgal said, “Consumers have gradually warmed up to short-films as a content consumption format. Viewers are looking for meaningful experiences that these compelling short-films have to offer. Moreover, brands, who seek to engage with their audience in innovative ways, see it as a fitment. True testimony to its success is the countless cinephiles who gather year-on-year for the screenings along with loyal enthusiasts who are committed to witnessing the works of art on Zee Café. This truly reflects in our continued partnership with Pernod Ricard for the second year in a row. It brings us immense happiness to collaborate with Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films in the endeavour to recognize the works of budding filmmakers and amplify it with a wider audience.”

Pernod Ricard India  GM marketing Ishwindar Singh said, “Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films has pioneered a revolution in the field of filmmaking and has redefined movie-watching for cinephiles. To tell a compelling story in 15 to 20 minutes needs one to be a master in story-telling and filmmaking. The platform celebrates this pursuit of excellence as we bring together the finest storytellers from the world of cinema to create short yet impactful films. With the Zee network we endeavour to reach a larger audience with these insightful and powerful discussions on cinema.”

Wavemaker chief content officer Karthik Nagarajan said, “The journey of Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films is an inspirational one. To have captured the imagination of the audience and to have become such an iconic part of popular culture is a dream for every brand. It is easily the gold standard in India for content marketing and it has been a privilege for Wavemaker and GroupM to have been a part of this. Every year, the challenge is in making it bigger than the previous one and this partnership is an important part of this journey.”

Advertisement