By Joginder Tuteja

After Ram Gopal Varma and Sanjay Gupta, Onirban has turned out to be the third filmmaker in recent times to experiment with short story telling. The director is now looking at telling five short stories in a single outing though he is yet to title his venture.

"On my recent visit to Berlin, I started writing one of these short films. While writing I started getting more ideas that could be translated into short films. So I said to myself, 'Why not bring them all together in 20- minute format?' This way we could have an entire film for an audience with as many as five stories to be told, " Onir told.

The director is making sure that his series won't be relegated to film festivals.

"I want audiences to watch the film, not just film festival juries. This is why there would be a mix of known and new actors in the film. Each of the stories would have a combo made of one established actor and a newcomer."

While Varma had picked on horror genre for "Darna Mana Hai" and "Darna Zaroori Hai", Gupta had mixed genres ranging from drama to action in his ambitious "Dus Kahaniyaan".

Which genre is Onir looking at?

"Each of these films would be a dramatic affair, " said Onir who has excelled in this genre ever since he made his directorial debut with "My Brother Nikhil".

"Also, all the five stories would be based on real life tales. For example, one of the films would have child abuse as its central theme. I heard the story of this guy who had been abused when he was a kid. I got in touch with him and after hearing him out, I drafted his story. He was moved after I read it out to him."

Onir has already written the script for three stories and is in the process of finalising the other two. Titles finalised for the first three stories are "Abhimanyu", "Omar" and "Afia".

"Each of my short stories would be content-oriented rather than being gimmicky or trying to be overtly issue-based. I can promise though that all these subjects are the kind that have never been touched in Hindi films, " said Onir who also made "Bas Ek Pal" and "Sorry Bhai".

Onir would begin casting for the film in a week from now and start shooting in June. Unlike Varma and Gupta who chose different directors, Onir would be holding the megaphone himself for each of the five short stories.