Gurpal Singh (IN)

A graduate from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, Gurpal Singh has worked on several films, documentaries and television shows in various capacities – as an actor, director, as well as a casting director. He is the co-founder of BYOFF (Bring Your Own Film Festival, Puri), and frequently organises several small gatherings and festivals for independent musicians, filmmakers and occasionally folk musicians. Gurpal is also an avid traveller.

Bring Your Own Film Festival (BYOFF) is an annual event held in February every year on Puri beach, Orissa, Eastern India.

BYOFF is a film festival without hierarchy, competition, juries or awards, where filmmakers as well as artists from other disciplines (music, theatre, painting, sculpture, dance, literature and photography) are encouraged to participate, and show their work.

An informal and intimate gathering of artists with films in the backdrop, BYOFF screenings go on early into the morning hours – first, inside make-shift tents, and then in the open air after sun down.

BYOFF has been an alternative platform for filmmakers ever since its first edition in the year 2004, whose basic idea has been to move away from the oppressive atmosphere of bureaucratic control in big cities, to a space where just about anybody – with or without films – can participate.