Reel to real: How this content creator duo made a low-budget short film in 10 days

Content creator Ahsan Vazir plays Sehar a struggling musician who is handed a pill that improves his focus But of course as drugs have consequences the pill plasters a smile on his face And what good is a performer who canrsquot emote to his own tuneThe 30minute short The Pill by content creators Ahsan Vazir and Priyanshu Modi is lowbudget shot on a camera that costs Rs 70000 and made within a span of days Set in Delhi the film follows Sehar a singersongwriter whose artistic breakthrough comes at the cost of emotional authenticityThe premise may sound highconcept but the making of the film is rooted in something far more practical two creators trying to move beyond the limits of shortform contentAhsan Vazir left and Priyanshu ModildquoFor me honestly the reason I started doing Instagram in the first place was that I wanted to do filmmaking eventuallyrdquo says Modi Before the platform took off for him he had already been making short films with friends often with minimal resources ldquoThey were pretty amateurishhellip but I had been doing that since 2020rdquoVazirrsquos trajectory was similar but driven by acting ldquoI always wanted to become an actor more than a filmmakerrdquo he says Coming from a small town in Uttar Pradesh he began by shooting basic short films on his sisterrsquos phone ldquojust scenes that I want to see myself inrdquoThat shared instinct to tell longer characterled stories is what eventually brought them together Modi conceived the idea as a short film from the outset knowing it would rely heavily on performanceldquoThis is an idea which is charactercentrichellip Hersquod be on screen for 30 minutesrdquo he saysThe production process reflects both the strengths and the limited budgets of creatorled filmmaking ldquoWe didnrsquot want to just straight up venture into a feature So we went with a short filmrdquo explains VazirThe film was mounted without a producer After failing to secure backing the duo decided to go ahead independently ldquoWe decided that wersquore gonna shoot this only 10 days before we startedrdquo In those 10 days they locked down locations across Delhi and cast supporting actors The film was completed in four days with a small crewldquoI had been doing close to 70ndash100 reels which I consider short filmsrdquo Modi says Years of writing shooting and editing shortform videos meant he could visualise scenes quickly and adapt on set Vazir on the other hand could focus purely on performance ldquoFor me it was like a piece of cakehellip I donrsquot have to worry about how the shot is being takenrdquo he saysThe limitations were visible but intentional The film was shot on what Modi describes as ldquoa 70000rupee entrylevel vlogging camerardquo with no specialised crew for focus or colour grading He handled postproduction himself This choice reflects a broader shift within the creator economy where access to tools has lowered barriers to entryHowever the transition is not seamless ldquoOne thing that I had to unlearn was taking myself too seriouslyrdquo Modi says He points to the pressures creators face to maintain a certain image ldquoYou want your image to be as professional as possiblerdquo With The Pill they chose to prioritise the film over perception ldquoYou can either make a film or your own imagerdquoThat decision extends to how the film is exhibited Instead of releasing it online immediately the team opted for ticketed screenings ldquoWe never wanted the film to be viewed on the phone with people scrolling past itrdquo says Vazir Itrsquos why the two have been hosting screenings in Delhi and Mumbai and are working on more ldquoThis is so close to our heartshellip We have put in money we are putting in too much effortrdquo he addsThe response has been encouraging ldquoThe reaction that I see when Irsquom in the audience is very different from what I have perceived while shooting itrdquo says Vazir The film has sold over 500 tickets in Delhi hosted multiple shows in Mumbai and has been selected as a semifinalist at the Boden Film Festival in Sweden It has also attracted interest for a wider screening tour Vazir says ldquoI didnrsquot know people were going to love it so muchrdquoFor a selffunded short those numbers indicate a growing appetite for independent storytelling outside traditional platforms At its core The Pill is less about its central device and more about performance under pressure Or as Vazir puts it simply ldquoI just had to do my jobrdquo