Reel to real: How this content creator duo made a low-budget short film in 10 days

Ahsan Vazir in a still from The Pill

Content creator Ahsan Vazir plays Sehar, a struggling musician who is handed a pill that improves his focus. But, of course, as drugs have consequences, the pill plasters a smile on his face. And, what good is a performer who can't emote to his own tune?

The 30-minute short The Pill by content creators Ahsan Vazir and Priyanshu Modi is low-budget, shot on a camera that costs Rs 70,000, and made within a span of days. Set in Delhi, the film follows Sehar, a singer-songwriter whose artistic breakthrough comes at the cost of emotional authenticity.

The premise may sound high-concept, but the making of the film is rooted in something far more practical: two creators trying to move beyond the limits of short-form content.

Ahsan Vazir (left) and Priyanshu Modi

"For me, honestly, the reason I started doing Instagram in the first place was that I wanted to do filmmaking eventually," says Modi. Before the platform took off for him, he had already been making short films with friends, often with minimal resources. "They were pretty amateurish… but I had been doing that since 2020."

Vazir's trajectory was similar, but driven by acting. "I always wanted to become an actor more than a filmmaker," he says. Coming from a small town in Uttar Pradesh, he began by shooting basic short films on his sister's phone, "just scenes that I want to see myself in."

That shared instinct, to tell longer, character-led stories, is what eventually brought them together. Modi conceived the idea as a short film from the outset, knowing it would rely heavily on performance.

"This is an idea which is character-centric… He'd be on screen for 30 minutes," he says.

The production process reflects both the strengths and the limited budgets of creator-led filmmaking. "We didn't want to just straight up venture into a feature. So, we went with a short film," explains Vazir.

The film was mounted without a producer. After failing to secure backing, the duo decided to go ahead independently. "We decided that we're gonna shoot this only 10 days before we started." In those 10 days, they locked down locations across Delhi and cast supporting actors. The film was completed in four days with a small crew.

"I had been doing close to 70-100 reels, which I consider short films," Modi says. Years of writing, shooting, and editing short-form videos meant he could visualise scenes quickly and adapt on set. Vazir, on the other hand, could focus purely on performance. "For me, it was like a piece of cake… I don't have to worry about how the shot is being taken," he says.

The limitations were visible but intentional. The film was shot on what Modi describes as "a 70,000-rupee entry-level vlogging camera," with no specialised crew for focus or colour grading. He handled post-production himself. This choice reflects a broader shift within the creator economy, where access to tools has lowered barriers to entry.

However, the transition is not seamless. "One thing that I had to unlearn was taking myself too seriously," Modi says. He points to the pressures creators face to maintain a certain image. "You want your image to be as professional as possible." With The Pill, they chose to prioritise the film over perception. "You can either make a film or your own image."

That decision extends to how the film is exhibited. Instead of releasing it online immediately, the team opted for ticketed screenings. "We never wanted the film to be viewed on the phone, with people scrolling past it," says Vazir. It's why the two have been hosting screenings in Delhi and Mumbai and are working on more. "This is so close to our hearts… We have put in money, we are putting in too much effort," he adds.

The response has been encouraging. "The reaction that I see when I'm in the audience, is very different from what I have perceived while shooting it," says Vazir. The film has sold over 500 tickets in Delhi, hosted multiple shows in Mumbai, and has been selected as a semi-finalist at the Boden Film Festival in Sweden. It has also attracted interest for a wider screening tour. Vazir says, "I didn't know people were going to love it so much."

For a self-funded short, those numbers indicate a growing appetite for independent storytelling outside traditional platforms. At its core, The Pill is less about its central device and more about performance under pressure. Or, as Vazir puts it simply, "I just had to do my job."