"Everyone is fighting their own battle." A 22-year-old Shreyas Chowgule arrived at this conclusion after coming to Mumbai a year ago. After graduating from film school in Pune, for Chowgule, navigating through the city's film industry seemed to be a particularly daunting task in contrast to the community set-up that film schools provide.

In 2016, he made a short film called Vaarasa (The Inheritance) that touches upon the caste system, which made its mark internationally at the Washington DC South Asian Film Festival and the New York Indian Film Festival, among others. But being an independent filmmaker isn't easy; even exposure becomes expensive. "Your film might make it to international film festivals, but your team won't. We do not have the funds to go there, so there isn't scope for any audience interaction," he says.