Exclusive! Upal Sengupta on Mirage: I intend to reach out to as many people as possible with the film

OTTplay has already reported that musician Upal Sengupta forayed into filmmaking and created a short animation film, Mirage, with his friends. After showcasing the film on a number of global platforms, the animation has now been dropped on YouTube on January 1. Upal conceptualised the story and directed the film while Pushan Chakravarty and his team created the animation. National Award-winning music director Prabuddha Banerjee composed the background score. 

Mirage is a brief story of a boy – an animated character – who walks across a desert while playing on his mobile phone. At one point, he needs to take an important life call. The 4.10-minute-long film points out that one gets the life they chose. The film is produced by Upal, along with his friends, Udayan Bhattacharya, Debaditya Chatterjee, and Pushan. 

Also read: Upal Sengupta forays into filmmaking, creates an animated short film, Mirage 

“The film has no intention to pass any judgement. It simply shows a person’s decisions when he is offered options,” Upal tells OTTplay. Talking about his ‘sudden’ decision of filmmaking, he says, “Creating an animation film is one of the three dreams of my life. The other two dreams are to sing and perform on stage and create a cartoon character. The first two got materialised and now the last one is here.”

Also read: Upal Sengupta on Harry Belafonte: His activism for a better world, music, and swag will remain untouched 

What about the reception of the film since its release? “Many of the people who watched it and called me. A lot of conversation took place regarding the resolution of the story. This conversation is all we wanted. It is an independent effort by us with the intention of reaching out to as many people as possible. I am glad that people are watching it,” he says.