Prashant makes waves on film making reality show

Gangtok (UNI): He shares his first name with the Indian Idol 3, but this Prashant is making waves on yet another reality show on the television. Prashant Rasaily, a budding director from Sikkim, has entered the top ten of the first Indian reality show based on film making Gateway presided over by Ashok Amritraj, the chairman and CEO of Hyde Park Entertainment.

Prashant became the third person from the Hills in recent times to have made it at the top of reality shows after Indian Idol Prashant Tamang and Chhote Ustaad aspirant Prakriti Giri. This achievement means that the talent pool from the Hills is making a presence yet again on the small screen.

The twelve week episode is being presided over by Amritraj and being shot at Subash Ghai's film school in Bombay Whistling Woods. The acting talent has been arranged by Anupam Kher's acting school, Talent Company.

At the end of the series, Amritraj will select a winner for the grand prize: an intern ship in Hollywood where the winner will have to spend six to eight weeks with the Hyde Park Entertainment in Los Angeles working on the development and pre-production of a Hollywood film. The winner will then get a chance to rise from obscurity to an international director to direct a Hollywood film produced and financed by Hyde Park Entertainment, and distributed around the world. Prashant, a multi-talented boy from Sikkim is a singer, musician, Disc jockey, photographer and a director.

He has directed Myth, a 24 minute short thriller, the first English movie from the state. The movie is based on Wildlife and the Environment. Prior to its screening, during its post-production phase in Calcutta, the movie had won praises from renowned names in the Indian film industry. He was also part of the documentary Mahakala Chaam shot at the Rumtek monastery.

Prashant has two more movies lined up, one in Sikkimese called Karma and a silent film Liaison. He also has a music album Awaaz to his credit. Recently he has written the script for Kagbeni, a Nepali thriller produced from Kathmandu which is to be released soon.

Prashant was unavailable for comments since he is busy with the episodes and has been barred from speaking to the press till the contest is over. He had sent a three and a half minute film called 'Mother' as an entry to the contest, which secured a berth for him in the final 18 hot contestant's seat.

Well known Bollywood directors like Subhash Ghai, Karan Johar, R Balakrishnan, Sanjay Gupta, Shriram Raghavan, Manish Acharya and many others are expected to appear as guests in the episodes. The show puts the contestants through a rigorous exercise of tasks to test their creativity and film making abilities. The jury members include film makers Rajat Kapoor and Anurag Basu. Prashant's bid for the top ten came in his favour with the short film prepared as a task for the contest Two Worlds.

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