On January 25, 2007, director of films like Murder and Metro, Anurag Basu, visited Whistling Woods International to interact with the students for a master-class about his method of direction, with specifics from his film Life in a Metro.

He shared “Always look for a story from a situation that you have experienced – it could come about after reading a book or a magazine, seeing a painting or an interaction with a person. A film could entertain for 3 hours but have no lasting impact on the viewer, whereas a film with a message will stay with the viewer for a long time after he/she has walked out of the cinema hall. Both kinds of films are good, both are commercially viable – each director has to find his calling among these. Always try to see a real-life person in every character in the film – it makes it closer to the viewer.”

Talking about Films & TV, he added, “TV can very easily be a stepping stone to film. In fact writing for TV is harder than writing for film as you do not have a captive audience in TV – they will change the channel if they do not like what they see.”