What is Lila about? The Yogas! (Behind the scenes)

"We're all connected", NO, not through our phones, not through emails or social media presences. We're connected on a deep, subtle and underlying level! But our experience of this is distancing away from us by the day.

Why? Our growing reliance upon technology to keep us connected makes many of us forget the heart warming feeling of eye contact and face to face communication.  We live in a stimulated reality... a maya (illusion) within the maya itself!  

Zoe Wood in Lila

Zoe Wood in Lila

Who is Lila? (The concept of the Movie)
Lila (played by the talented Zoe Wood), social media likes is her idea of 'true friends'. She is incapable of having a true conversation face to face and even if she does, that person is almost meaningless unless she can add them on Social Media. Because of her lifestyle, she has also become pretty lazy and generally inactive. Basically, she is just (a slightly exaggerated version of) the average person today. 

The story is essentially Lila's journey of coming out of her inactive bubble, thrown out of her comfort zone and following the path of becoming a hero. 

She meets a mysterious, wise and enchanting boy (played by the perfectly cast Ruben Whitter) who goes by the name Govin(d). He unknowingly becomes her guru or spiritual teacher and introduces her to the Yogas. 

Ruben Whitter & Zoe Wood in Lila

Zoe Wood & Tamara Thompson in Lila

Four types of Yoga
Upon mention of 'Yoga,' Most people think of the physical exercises (Hatha Yoga) which is actually body preparation. It's about bringing the bodily senses under control, improving the health and enhancing the energy around you. 

The actual Yogas come in 4 main forms, essentially different ways of connecting and spiritually elevating the self.

There is Bhakti Yoga, the foundation of every religion. Bhakti means devotion. That's praying not for personal needs but love of God with all your heart, mind and soul. For this Yoga, it is important to understand the philosophy of Pluralism, 'there are many paths and names to the same One God.'  Hence, Bhakti isn't exclusive just to it's root in the religions of India. A good analogy that presents this is that God is like an infinite ocean, formless, but freezes into a solid state for the love of a devotee.

Jnana Yoga, the path of knowledge. It is like a quest to understand our true Self by asking ourselves "Who am I?" beyond our material body and mind. This Yoga even works for an atheist. Anyone on a journey to understand life and the nature of the universe is pretty much already on this pathway. The deeper we understand the universe, the more we discover our connection to it.  

Raja Yoga, the path of meditation. This Yoga requires a lot of preparation work and hence is known to be the hardest. First one needs to practice many values such as non-violence, truthfulness, celibacy, purity and contentment. Raja Yoga is looking within, and discovering your connection to the universe. 

Karma Yoga, selfless service. (The focus of the full feature-length script of Lila) The idea is simple and straightforward. By serving and helping mankind without expecting any returns of your karma, you discover in through the eyes of fellow life, the divinity that underlies and connects us all. "Do to others what you would like to be done to yourself. Love thy neighbor as thyself." This Yoga also makes one a superhero, because a person on this pathway is essentially answering the prayers of one in need and hence is doing the Lord's work. 

Karma Yoga with Tamara and Zoe

Director of Lila: Saie S Surendra

Back to the Film
The concept of Lila is to show her journey from being disconnected to becoming connected. Zoe Wood performs the role especially well showing two extremes of Lila's character. A lot of research went into this project, and as a short we could only squeeze a small amount of that research into the film.

The film was on a tight schedule and much of it was improvised because of some of the locations used. Through words I can hardly express the amount of effort that Zoe Wood, Ruben Whitter and Tamara Thompson put in for scenes that they had no prior rehearsal for. The cinematography by me and Tamara Thompson was also handled on a chase. 

The Technology
We didn't film in 4K with a fancy camera, We had a moderate Nikon D5000 filming in 720p. Tamara Thompson who was the main cinematographer of most of the outdoor scenes has done a good job of making every shot look good.

Directed by Saie S Surendra, Cinematography by Tamara Thompson

Cinematography by Tamara Thompson

Follow Lila
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Official Website

Cast & Crew
Directed by: Saie S Surendra
Starring: Zoe Wood (as Lila), 
Ruben Whitter (as Govind),
Tamara Thompson (as Radha Rani)
Assistant Director: Jegani Guna
Cinematography: Tamara Thompson, Saie S Surendra
Behind the Scenes Photography: Dilo Guna
Special Effects & Editing: Saie S Surendra
Production Runners: Madhuri Pandit, Jiale Huang