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By Damiete Braide
Snehal Runwal’s journey in filmmaking has been shaped by production, storytelling and the experience of working across cultures.
With about five years of experience in the media industry, Runwal has worked across directing, writing, documentaries, feature films, web series and music videos. Her work combines cinematic storytelling with strong production organisation, independent filmmaking and cross-cultural perspectives.
One of the projects that contributed to this journey is Conversations in Transit, a heartwarming film that explores love, forgiveness and self-discovery. She worked as the 2nd unit director for the project.
Shot in 2022 and premiered in 2024, the film follows three couples navigating important conversations during a train journey, as unexpected revelations unfold along the way. Produced by Rogers Ofime and directed by Robert Peters, the film gave Runwal an opportunity to work with Nigerian professionals and gain a deeper understanding of different approaches to filmmaking.
For Runwal, the two-year gap between production and release also changed how she viewed the film.
“The time gap gave me the opportunity to see the film differently,” she said.
According to her, filmmakers are often too close to a project immediately after completing it because they remember every production problem, decision and setback. With time, however, they can look at the work more objectively.
By the time Conversations in Transit reached audiences, Runwal said she had changed as a filmmaker and could therefore see the film as a record of a particular stage in her creative development.
At the heart of the film, she said, is the idea of movement and transition.
“Being in transit is both physical and emotional,” she explained, noting that people may be travelling from one place to another while also experiencing personal changes involving identity, relationships, culture or different stages of life.
That idea of being between places has become increasingly important to her as a filmmaker.
Working with Nigerian filmmakers, she added, further expanded her understanding of cinema.
“Filmmaking is an art, and filmmakers are artists,” Runwal said, adding that exposure to different artists and artistic cultures makes filmmakers more aware of the possibilities within their own art.
Her Nigerian experience exposed her to different approaches to music videos, visual language, rhythm, performance and storytelling. Rather than seeing cultural differences as barriers, she began to see them as creative resources.
One of the major challenges, however, was working across different countries, teams and production environments with limited time and resources.
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Communication and coordination became important because the teams came from different filmmaking cultures and had different expectations about preparation, visual language and decision-making.
The teams addressed these challenges through planning, clear communication and sharing responsibilities according to their strengths.
“Instead of trying to make everyone work in exactly the same way, we allowed each team to contribute what they did best. That became one of the strengths of the project,” she said.
Love, kindness, connection and resilience remain recurring themes in Runwal’s work. She is also interested in belonging, identity, migration, cultural differences and how people find common ground despite coming from different backgrounds.
“Ultimately, I think I keep returning to one simple idea: what connects us as human beings despite everything that makes us different?” she said.
Runwal also believes independent filmmaking is often misunderstood. According to her, it is not simply about making a smaller version of a studio film.
Independent filmmakers often have to develop stories, raise or manage funds, organise crews, secure locations, solve technical problems, handle post-production and consider distribution, while protecting the original creative idea.
She said the limitations can be frustrating but can also encourage filmmakers to become more inventive by asking what is essential to the story and what can be achieved differently.
Her experience in production management has also influenced her approach to directing and writing. She now understands how one creative decision can affect an entire production schedule.
As a writer, she considers locations, characters, movement, time and production requirements, while as a director, she tries to find practical solutions instead of immediately concluding that something cannot be done.
Runwal identifies funding and distribution as some of the major challenges facing independent filmmakers today.
“Making the film is only one part of the process. You also have to find an audience, secure distribution and ultimately create a sustainable business around the work,” she said.
She values collaborations where professionals are confident enough to contribute ideas rather than simply follow instructions. For her, the best collaborations happen when cinematographers, production designers, editors, sound designers and actors bring perspectives that the director may not have considered.
At the same time, she values reliability, professionalism, communication and respect.
In working with cast and crew, Runwal said she first communicates the intention behind a scene before discussing technical details.
She wants the team to understand what the audience should feel. Once that is clear, each department can interpret the vision through its own expertise.
“A shared vision does not mean everyone doing the same thing. It means everyone moving towards the same purpose,” she said.
Her interest in cross-cultural filmmaking became stronger through Letter Across the Channels, a 2024 short film involving creatives from Nigeria, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Runwal said the experience changed her understanding of filmmaking, as she discovered that different teams could bring different skills, references and ways of thinking to the same project. She now sees those differences as creative assets.
