University of Florence student writes a thesis on Hellaro

It’s not often that a non-Gujarati speaking person, and a foreigner at that, writes his/her thesis on a Gujarati film or book. However, that’s exactly what

Anastasia Vulgaris

, a student of

University of Florence

, has done. Anastasia first saw

Hellaro

, which created history by becoming the first Gujarati film to win the prestigious Best Feature Film Award at the 66th National Film Awards, at the River to River Indian Film Festival in Florence in December 2019. Anastasia was one of the helpers at the film festival.

‘No other Indian film had portrayed women this way’
Ask Anastasia if it was an instant decision to do her final thesis on Hellaro and she is quick to respond, “I had never seen a regional Indian film before. I had only seen a few Bollywood movies like Devdas, but those movies weren’t really high on culture.” What impressed Anastasia about Hellaro was the way it portrayed the condition of women. She says, “I had never seen this in a Bollywood movie before. My thesis compared the women in Hellaro to the portrayal of women in other Indian films.”

It’s a different high when someone writes a thesis on your film: Abhishek Shah
Around March/April 2020, Anastasia got in touch with filmmaker Abhishek Shah, the director of Hellaro, and told him that she was interested in doing a thesis on the film. “She then sent me some questions regarding the film,” says Abhishek, who also sent the film through a link to Anastasia, who wanted to watch it a couple of times more. Abhishek adds, “It’s a different kind of high when someone wants to write a thesis on your film, especially when that thesis is in a different language. Anastasia wrote her thesis for University of Florence in Italian language on a Gujarati film and I feel happy and privileged about it.”

Talking about why Florence is a special city for him, Abhishek says, “Florence will forever be a special city for me. When the movie was showcased, I got a standing ovation. This festival screens movies from all languages but gives away only one audience award, and that award had gone to us.”