‘Perhaps it is the sun in the belly.’

Look, what do you want to convey in this film?

Er, I don’t know. It’s a very difficult question. Er, I make films, to express myself, to show myself, to show other people, perhaps something more than myself. Perhaps it is the sun in the belly.

From And I Make Short Films.

This Bit of That India is less known than I am 20, which elicited much coverage when rediscovered on the internet many years later.

Sastry also produced more ‘official’ films (e.g. The Burning Sun, Our Indira). I rarely know what to make of the balance between his subversive tendencies (on display at least in the three films above) and the official side. I doubt either he or his superiors really knew either.

Sastry, S.N.S., director, And I Make Short Films, 1968.

— director, I am 20, 1967.

— director, Our Indira, 1973.

— director, The Burning Sun, 1973.

— director, This Bit of That India, 1972.

À propos.

Étiquettes.

India, Films Division, S.N.S. Sastry, films.

Mises à jour.

• J.P. Loo (14 juin 2025): Sastry.