Abhishek Parija

The AI4Bharat project at the Department of Computer Science Engineering at IIT Madras, Chennai is built with an interdisciplinary team of researchers, language experts, and software developers. We share a passion for building open-source content and tools for Indian languages, hence the name of the initiative: "Artificial Intelligence for Bhārat". My role here as an Odia annotator and language expert was to translate and edit vast amounts of data in both English and Odia, that concerned various disciplines, such as Science, Technology, History, Art, Culture, etc. The work atmosphere was intense, and I was able to deliver results within strict deadlines set by the organisation.

My role here was to primarily work on the existing screenplay of the film, and enhance its dramatic and aesthetic appeal from an objective point of view. Using my experience as a student of cinema, I delivered on this responsibility to the best of my ability. Afterwards, as the film's shoot began, I took on the responsibility of an AD, a responsibility that demanded a lot of energy and rigour. As part of this, I rehearsed and explained scenes to actors, helped with scheduling and to ensure that the shoot wraps up on time, coordinated with all other departments to keep the set active and functioning at all times, and lastly, assisted the director at all possible steps so they could achieve their vision.

As Chief AD for the second schedule of the shoot working on a shoestring budget, I was responsible for managing the sets, costumes, and scheduling with respect to the availability of resources, and working closely with the director, cinematographer, actors, and other crew members.

As Assistant Editor, I was responsible for accumulating, tagging with metadata, and arranging 40 hours of footage to be delivered to the Editor for the final cut of the film.

• Writer, Producer, Editor, and Director of an independent short fiction film, Al Kabirah (2017), Hindustani/Odia, 28 minutes.

• Writer and Director of a commissioned non-fiction film, Whose Dreams, Whose City? (2021), Odia/English, 39 minutes.

I have been working as a freelance translator, audio transcriber, and copy editor for the past two years. The projects I have worked on include both fiction and non-fiction literature by Odia authors, op-eds, interviews, and transcription jobs for NGOs, media consulting firms, and ad agencies.

• Core Committee member for 5 national fiction and non-fiction film festivals organised by the society. Namely, Indian Documentary Film Festival of Bhubaneswar (2018, 2019) and Indian Film Festival of Bhubaneswar (2019, 2020, 2023).
• Film Curator for Students' Competition section for the non-fiction festival in 2018, and the fiction festivals in 2019 and 2020.
• Curation and organisation of the monthly screenings conducted by the film society.
• Handling overall presence on social media platforms, involving the planning of aesthetics, design, and logistics.
• Moderating interviews, talks and workshops with filmmakers and scholars.

Apart from writing for the magazine, my responsibilities include copyediting articles and working on the design and layout aspects pertaining to the Magazine's thematic goals.