Ultimate Frisbee, one of the many innovations of ’60s America, has some of its most dedicated players and supporters here in India, especially in Chennai. The city boasts the most number of teams in the country — all of seven. Its ever-accessible beaches are a prime reason for this, as Ultimate Frisbee is designed to be played on the sands.

Now there is a documentary, 175 Grams, charting the sport’s decade-old love affair with this coastal city, with a special focus on one of its more successful teams, Fly!Wild. Made by Bengaluru-based Yogensha Productions, the film shows how the game has proved to be not merely a recreation but also life changing for many of its players coming from underprivileged backgrounds. It is among the five winners at the Sundance Film Festival’s Short Film Challenge this year, shortlisted from a pool of 1,387 films from 89 countries. Bharat Mirle, 27, who co-directed the film, tells us what spurred the making of this documentary and what’s next.

How did the idea for this short film come about?

Aravind Iyer, my co-director, is an Ultimate player and practises with the Bengaluru-based team Airbenders. When one of our producers told us about Sundance, we decided to make a film on the sport. Aravind and Sudhanva, one of my business partners in Yogensha, knew the Fly!Wild team members and we reached out to them with our idea.

There are some great playing shots in the film. How well did the players adapt to being in front of the camera?

The Frisbee team seemed quite comfortable being on camera right from the start. They were really excited to be a part of it and they’d make a conscious effort to dive and play in a manner that looked good — hence the good-looking shots. We shot for a little over two days, and then the post-production process (editing, finalising sound and colour grading) took about a week.

You’re from Bengaluru, what was your impression of Elliot’s Beach and the Frisbee scene in Chennai?

It’s crazy! The beach is bustling with not only Frisbee teams, but also people playing all sorts of sports (rugby and football included). I had heard of Ultimate Frisbee through some friends from the US, but had no idea it had caught on like this in India.

Which are the other film projects you’ve been involved with?

175 Grams is the third documentary film I’ve worked on. Last year, we made a documentary called Lapses in Time, which was about a contemporary photographer, Kashyap Thimaraju, who uses a photographic process that was popular in the 1850s — the wet plate collodion process. We have made two other short films, Junction and Damned.

What’s next on your plate?

We have a couple more short films in the pipeline and I am working on a script for a feature film. The idea is to produce a lot more work and learn a lot more.

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