№ 01Kochi
Aisha Menon
Co-founder · Director
Writes and directs. Grew up two lanes from a single-screen theatre and has been trying to get back inside it ever since.
Independent film company · Mumbai, India
Small films.
Close attention.
Micro Lens Films makes short fiction from India — in Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Marathi and English. Films that begin in a sentence, finish in under twenty-five minutes, and leave a detail you cannot stop noticing.
Now: Sugar & Salt in post · The Last Matinee on tour
05Shorts in-house
20Festival selections
09Awards
05Languages
Festival selections include MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, Dharamshala International Film Festival, International Film Festival of Kerala, IFFLA Los Angeles, Busan International Short Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market, Bengaluru International Short Film Festival, Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.
01 — Selected work
Made small.
Sent far.
5 short films, made between 2021 and 2024. The rest of the slate is in the room next door.
All films01
The Last MatineeMalayalam · 18 min · 2024Malayalam18 min · 202402
SaltwaterTamil · 22 min · 2023Tamil22 min · 202303
A Small SunHindi · 15 min · 2023Hindi15 min · 202304
Departure LoungeEnglish / Malayalam · 12 min · 2022English / Malayalam12 min · 202205
The Weight of MangoesMarathi · 19 min · 2021Marathi19 min · 2021
The Last MatineeMalayalam · 18 min · 2024Malayalam18 min · 202402SaltwaterTamil · 22 min · 2023Tamil22 min · 202303A Small SunHindi · 15 min · 2023Hindi15 min · 202304Departure LoungeEnglish / Malayalam · 12 min · 2022English / Malayalam12 min · 202205The Weight of MangoesMarathi · 19 min · 2021Marathi19 min · 2021Every film here began as a one-line note. Some took four years. None took less than a year. We are not in a hurry, and it shows.
02 — The studio
Mumbai · Kochi
Founded 2019
Independent, by design
“We make short films the way you'd study a photograph — up close, unhurried, and looking for the detail that changes the whole picture.”
Micro Lens Films was started by a director and a producer who kept returning to the same question: what happens when you stay with a moment long enough? We live between Kochi and Mumbai, and stay small on purpose — small crews, long conversations, and enough time to get the last ten per cent right.
Aisha Menon
Rohan Kulkarni
Founders
05Shorts in-house
20Festival selections
09Awards
05Languages
Since 2019 · Mumbai, India
Short fiction · Documentary · Commissions
20 selections and counting
03 — How we work
From a sentence
to a screening.
The long way, on purpose. Four stages, one continuous conversation, and no handover until the film is in the room with an audience.
01
The read
We start with a page, not a pitch deck. Send the script, the treatment, or the sentence you cannot shake. The first conversation is about the story, never the budget.
Script · Treatment · One-line
02
The room
Two weeks around a table: budget, crew, locations, and the one question every scene must answer. We plan for the shot we mean to get, not the one we hope for.
Budget · Crew · Locations
03
The shoot
Small units, available light where it is honest, and a schedule that protects the performances. Everyone on set knows what the film is about.
Production · Direction · Sound
04
The finish
Grade, mix, subtitles, DCP, and a festival plan that begins before the first submission. A film is not finished until it has been watched properly.
Post · DCP · Festival release
04 — The people
Four people,
many collaborators.
№ 02Mumbai
Rohan Kulkarni
Co-founder · Producer
Runs the slate and the spreadsheets. Believes a good schedule is a form of kindness to the crew.
№ 03Chennai
Meera Iyer
Development · Festival strategy
Finds the sentence inside the draft. Has a spreadsheet of every festival deadline until 2029.
№ 04Kolkata
Arjun Das
Editor · Colourist
Cuts to the rhythm of a room, not a beat. Keeps a notebook of endings that almost worked.
Regular collaborators: Nayantara Bose · Faisal Khan · Tara Pinto · Sanjay Warrier · Anoushka Rao
05 — Field notes
Things we keep
learning.
12 August 20262 min read
Why we still cut on a Sunday
The edit is the only part of filmmaking that rewards being unhurried. A note on empty rooms and the cut you find at 4 p.m.
Read the note2 July 20262 min read
A short film is not a smaller feature
The runtime is not the form. On the specific grammar of the short, and why we stop at eighteen minutes.
Read the note18 March 20262 min read
Notes from a festival queue
What we learnt standing in line at MAMI and Dharamshala — about audiences, subtitles, and the films people describe to strangers.
Read the noteNext
Have a story worth
a closer look?
Send the script, the treatment, or the detail you cannot shake. We read everything that reaches us, closely, and reply to most things within four working days.