Parwana

About the Fellowship

Faasana, meaning ‘tale’ or ‘romance’ in Urdu, is our attempt to offer artists, creators, and thinkers an opportunity to explore and express Indian folk traditions in unique personalised ways, for the screen. Through this programme we strive to bring together our two loves — the richness of Indian oral traditions, and contemporary visual storytelling. 

This idea was piloted in mid-2025, with a month-long interactive online workshop titled Principles of Filmmaking, led by filmmaker Omkar Phatak, culminating in a series of four short films. From initial cuts to final edits, each film embodied the ideald of a community-driven, collaborative effort to revive the treasure trove of generational tales calling out to us. 

This project is our experiment in shaping folklore and oral preservation efforts effectively in a digital world.

Going forward, we want to build the fellowship into annual cycles. Every year, a cohort of 5 to 6 participants from non-urban (rural, semi-rural, semi-urban) backgrounds, with passion for storytelling/filmmaking and folk culture, will be selected for six months of focused training. The programme requires no prior filmmaking experience — just interest in stories, basic tech literacy (if possible), and an idea for a film which the participant wants to develop during the course of the fellowship.

A core idea behind Fasaana is to bring together authenticity and community voices with technical polish — to support grassroots storytelling.