Chandigarh based filmmaker premieres his film at the ongoing festival

At the second edition of a film festival in Chandigarh, Chandigarh's Ankur Singla is also premiering his film, Ghich Pich. An story of three 17-year-old boys and their complicated relationships with their respective fathers, Ghich Pich revives the Chandigarh of the late nineties as it delves deeper into the lives of these three friends, entangled in rebellion, insecurities, and bound by tradition and their families’ typical middle-class lives.
“This is the first film I’ve written and directed under our production house. It captures an important part of my growing up years here in Chandigarh and is inspired by the people, architecture, culture and ways of this beautiful city,” says Ankur.
After leaving his career in law, and selling his tech company, Ankur dived into his dream of “being creative,” which was catalyzed by the pandemic. “I was based in Bengaluru and was in the transition phase of handing our company. During that time, I took a number of courses in cinematography, in filmmaking, editing, and explored everything there was about this art form,” shares Ankur, who also ran a film club at National School of Law, Bengaluru.
He adds, “It was like hitting a refresh button and you realise there is so much locked in our mind’s storehouse.” Over a year and a half, he churned out multiple drafts of his story, of growing up in Chandigarh, of these boys who are on the cusp of adulthood. “We were young and restless, desperate to break free, to own our own space and voice. There was a set way of parenting, in the late nineties. Most fathers were dominating, hard taskmasters and disciplinarians - even most grown men still feel a little uncomfortable sitting alone and having an elaborate dinner with their fathers! Mothers were the mediators, the caregivers. Thankfully, parenting styles have changed a lot since those days!”
Ghich Pich is also Ankur’s dedication to the talented late actor Nitesh Pandey - who is known for his stellar work in Khosla Ka Ghosla, Om Shanti Om and TV serials like Anupama. The film captures the architectural excellence of Chandigarh which Ankur experienced all over again through a new lens. “As kids we didn’t have the slightest clue about how magnificent, historically important Chandigarh, its design and architecture were and that our house had been planned by a Frenchman (Pierre Jeanneret) assisting Le Corbusier. When I revisited the city with a director’s mindset, it felt like I had a new pair of eyes: walking down the Capitol Complex, or revisiting the classrooms and corridors of my school, GMSSS-16, or the Sector 23 nursery, and even Gandhi Bhawan in Panjab University was so surreal. There is an amazing balance, beauty and functionality to everything in this city - a city I have such fond memories of but I had never really looked at.”