“Creativity is the process of having original ideas and they always work" : Lakshmi R Iyer

Director Lakshmi R Iyer

Seasoned with Love, a sixteen minute short film directed by Lakshmi R Iyer has crossed more than 90 million organic views on YouTube. The film has been receiving rave responses from the audience and critics equally.

It's an intriguing tale of love and betrayal and will keep you glued to your screens till the end. The climax is the USP of the film, completely unexpected and surprisingly unique just like it's title.

As the film has crossed 90 million organic views, director Lakshmi R Iyer and actors Flora Saini and Sudhanshu Pandey have expressed their gratitude and also shared insights from the film.

Sharing her thoughts about Seasoned with Love crossing 90 million organic views Lakshmi says, "Well as a director I always focus on working on the script and then shooting the film right and lastly getting it all together in post production.The effort of the entire team is to create good content. It's like a dream come true. 90 million organic views means a lot and I am absolutely thrilled and happy that the audience have showered so much love on this film."

Sudhanshu Pandey, who plays the male lead in the film, adds, "Well, 90 million views is absolutely phenomenal and it's something that obviously we did not expect for a short film and this is a big achievement. I would say 90 million is a huge achievement, it's an award in itself."

Actress Flora Saini who is the female lead in the film shares her excitement. She adds, "I am feeling on top of the world. It's a very beautiful feeling and I am so happy for Lakshmi. I love her for the kind of work she puts in not just to get the project together but to get the actors together, to get the work done. The way she makes you a part of the family. The way she promoted the film single handedly, I have not seen big production projects being promoted the way Lakshmi promoted this film. It's commendable.

I feel so happy. She deserves much more. She deserves to be doing much more work and this is just the universe rewarding her brilliance.

In a world and in an industry which is mostly dominated by male directors, it gives me so much joy that there is this one chic of a girl whose name is Lakshmi Iyer and she has beaten and left behind so many other talented people with this one short … socho agar yeh 15 minutes mein itni brilliant ho sakti hai toh yeh feature mein kya hi kamaal karegi."

The concept of Seasoned with Love is being appreciated by the viewers and many have been showering praises for it, expressing her gratitude towards her team and revealing one of the best compliments that she has received so far, director Lakshmi shares, "I should thank my writer Adithya Nair who wrote the story. It was his concept and screenplay is written by Saurabh Pandey who again complimented it equally well by writing some amazing dialogues. I think I have lost the count of praises. I make sure I read all the comments regularly, but I loved this comment by one of the viewers.moral of the story: ‘Never ever eye on others' meals'!"

The title of the short film, "Seasoned with Love" has garnered another fan base, revealing the secret behind coming up with such an apt and unique title, Lakshmi says, "Well the thing with titles is they just come in your head from nowhere...most of my titles people have loved whether it was Appa, Wrong Mistake, Seasoned with Love and even the one under production First Second Chance. I wanted a title that made 100 percent connect with the story and when you see the film trust me you will understand why it's so apt."

On a concluding note, Lakshmi revealed about giving a surprisingly unexpected climax to the short film and the idea behind it.

She says, "I always spend a lot of time on the story. It's a thriller and the end had to connect all the dots. I always discuss my scripts with my DOP M. Ravichandran and we keep brainstorming, we keep going and rework on drafts. We try to keep it entertaining as that's exactly why someone would want to spend 16 minutes on a short film so it has to keep you engaged till the last minute as people can lose interest very fast online. And I believe creativity is the process of having original ideas and they always work. I will end on that note."

Directed by Lakshmi R Iyer, Seasoned with Love stars Flora Saini and Sudhanshu Pandey and you can watch it on: