Pickle September 2017 India@Toronto issue

INDIAN ENTERTAINMENT BIZ GUIDE SE PT E M BE R 2017

DECEMBER NOV 6-7 NEW DELHI NEW DELHI

www.picklemag.com

THE HUNGRY

LER

TO ON OMRETA

IND

IND

IAN

IA

RAW

PIC

THE MOST POWERFUL PLATFORM FOR M&E INDUSTRY POLICY MAKERS INTERFACE

KS AT 4

2N

vaishali.shrivastava@cii.in isha.miglani@cii.in www.ciibigpicture.in

OR

Towards $100 billion Indian M&E Sector

@T

M&E: THE DIGITAL TAKEOVER

The 42n India n Film d Toro spot l on Fest nto In ight a t not ival t e from ab (TIF rnati the l e o F cin Mum actin ) wil nal e l the ma -- bai’s g tale be n s i and pian led b ndepe t y N t Raj he m asee the s ndent kum uc ru ea ma h-ac ddin S sone Fou rR d ao. claime hah the r India d to m first-e n feat u v title ake i er As res, in t s s the addr to TIF ames cludin m inte es o essing F, and e film g f res t ar Subc press severa in e in ont l the inen g fes tal tiva l’s s late THE B

IFF

CII BIG PICTURE SUMMIT

DT

6th Edition

AZMAISH: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE SUBCONTINENT

Pickle_September_2017_Cover.indd 1

VILLAGE ROCKSTARS

30-08-2017 PM 12:58:56

Join the biggest names and the brightest minds

Industry registration now open tiff.net/industry Toronto International Film Festival

Pickle_September_2017_Cover.indd 2

September 7 – 17

30-08-2017 PM 12:59:23

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 1

31-08-2017 13:41:52

Join the biggest names and the brightest minds

Industry registration now open tiff.net/industry Toronto International Film Festival

Pickle_September_2017_Cover.indd 2

September 7 – 17

30-08-2017 PM 12:59:23

INDIAN ENTERTAINMENT BIZ GUIDE SE PT E M BE R 2017

DEC 5-6 NO-7 HOTEL LEELA PALACE NEW DELHI NEW DELHI

www.picklemag.com

THE HUNGRY

LER

TO ON OMRETA

IND

IND

IAN

IA

RAW

PIC

THE MOST POWERFUL PLATFORM FOR M&E INDUSTRY POLICY MAKERS INTERFACE

KS AT 4

2N

vaishali.shrivastava@cii.in isha.miglani@cii.in www.ciibigpicture.in

OR

Towards $100 billion Indian M&E Sector

@T

M&E: THE DIGITAL TAKEOVER

The 42n India n Film d Toro spot l on Fest nto In ight a t not ival t e from ab (TIF rnati the l e o F cin Mum actin ) wil nal e l the ma -- bai’s g tale be n s i and pian led b ndepe t y N t Raj he m asee the s ndent kum uc ru ea ma h-ac ddin S sone Fou rR d ao. claime hah the r India d to m first-e n feat u v title ake i er As res, in t s s the addr to TIF ames cludin m inte es o essing F, and e film g f res t ar Subc press severa in e in ont l the inen g fes tal tiva l’s s late THE B

IFF

CII BIG PICTURE SUMMIT

DT

6th Edition

AZMAISH: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE SUBCONTINENT

Pickle_September_2017_Cover.indd 1

VILLAGE ROCKSTARS

30-08-2017 PM 12:58:56

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 2

31-08-2017 13:41:52

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 3

31-08-2017 13:41:52

.

E R E H S T R IT ALLRSE.TCAONNECT. EXPLO DO BUSINESS. 018 15ïš» 23 FEB 2

WWW.EFM-BERLINALE.DE

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 4

31-08-2017 13:41:52

DISCOVER 2,000+ NEW FILMS & PROJECTS

American Film Market & Conferences

®

November 1 - 8, 2017 | Santa Monica AmericanFilmMarket.com/buyer

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 5

31-08-2017 13:41:52

INDIA @ TORONTO

INDIA: INCREDIBLE & INEVITABLE India is truly emerging a one-stop destination for global filmmakers, for the country, or sub-continent to put it apt, offers everything and anything needed for M&E sector. From talents (both on- and off-screen) to locales to an industry-friendly government, India can only be a dream destination for those with passion for cinema The Indian M&E industry is excited to see one of its home grown talents becoming the country’s new Information & Broadcast minister-Smriti Zubin Irani. The I&B ministry is in the process of revamping the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) with a new Cinematograph Act. It is also planning to formulate a national communication policy. Irani was best known for her lead role in the soap “Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.” Balaji Telefilms’ Ekta Kapoor-produced show on Star Plus made her a household name

India Media and entertainment (M&E) industry can help India become more resilient to fundamental changes in the global economy by adding more than $100 billion to the country’s economy annually, says Koan Advisory Group report “Promoting the Creative Economy: India’s $100 billion imperative”

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 6

The online video market in Asia is set to grow nearly three times over the next five years, reaching more than $46 billion by 2022, according to Media Partners Asia report, titled “Asia Online Video & Broadband Distribution”. It says advertising on Chinese video platforms will hit $13 billion by 2022. The market growth in India seems to be fluid

31-08-2017 13:41:52

atest Make in India is one of the gre ister Min e Prim the by initiatives taken ia & EnMed ers cov It i.

Mod ra end Nar tributor tertainment sector as a key con creative es mot pro and m gra pro the to and services, production, location ing hor offs

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has constituted a 40-member Preview Committee for the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2017 with Vivek Agnihotri as the Convenor. IFFI 2017, Goa will take place from from November 20 to 28

IFFI is India’s number one film festival.

Cinema events of this kind are also hosted by Kolkata, Mumbai and Kerala, among others, and they all take quality a world cinema to the people. But none can w match IFFI for size, scope and vintage m IIFFI is by far the oldest film festival iin Asia. It is steeped in history. It has witnessed numerous alterations in charw acter, nomenclature, location, dates and a duration but has remained steadfast in d iits strong emphasis on showcasing the diversity of Indian cinema as well as d iin its commitment to the celebration of excellence across moviemaking genres e Since 1965, the year of its third ediS ttion, IFFI has had ‘A’ category grading ffrom the Paris-based FIAPF (Federattion Internationale des Associations de Producteurs de Films). This puts IFFI P on par with the world’s biggest festivals o iin Venice, Cannes, Berlin, Moscow and Karlovy Vary K The Indian Panorama is one of the bigT gest draws of IFFI. No other festival in g IIndia provides as rich an assemblage of tthe best films made in the country. For anybody interested in the cinema of the a world’s most prolific film-producing naw ttion, IFFI is, therefore, the go-to event IIFFI also hosts a range of retrospecttives, tributes, master classes and speccial sections, which enhance the variety and depth of the event. The master a cclasses have emerged as a highlight of tthe festival, especially from the standpoint of film school students who conp vverge in Goa during the nine-day event

nal of IFFI, the Natio On the sidelines ga or t Corporation e Film Developmen th er ov s ha ich , wh e nizes Film Bazaar th r fo e ac dynamic sp years become a of ion at ub inc e , th exchange of ideas co-production opfor new projects and sed lm Bazaar is focu portunities. The Fi Asian talent and uth on promoting So of annel to the rest ch a em th g offerin rld the filmmaking wo

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 7

31-08-2017 13:41:53

SHOOTING LOCALES IN INDIA India is the most dramatic shooting location in the world: snowy mountains, pristine islands, plunging ravines, dusty plains--imagine the earth and get it.

With 29 States, 67 languages, 850 million people under the age of 35, 900 TV channels, three billion cinema ticket sales and no major restrictions, India offers immense opportunity for ďŹ lmmakers not only to shoot in India, but simultaneously work on an Indian version of a ďŹ lm that will get business access in India. Here are the top Indian locales.

8

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 8

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 13:41:53

GUJARAT

Gujarat offers beautiful landscapes of various natures, it is interspersed with culture, tradition and festivities. Gujarat has a diverse portfolio of landscapes, from the hills of Saputara, to the white desert in Kutch, from the jungles of Gir to virgin beaches. Such landscapes, coupled with some beautiful heritage structures, make Gujarat a unique destination for filmmakers. These locales cater to every mood for every canvas.

VARANASI

Its university is the seat of knowledge and ancient wisdom and the burning ghats along the river Ganga the apparent route to salvation and eternal peace. Spiritual and mystic moods meld with stark realities of everyday existentialism and the frolic of innocence.

Ang Lee’s Oscar winning film ‘Life of Pi’ was shot partly in Puducherry (in South India). That has transformed Puducherry into a paradise for filmmakers. A French colony until 1954, this coastal town retains a number of colonial buildings, churches, statues, and systematic town planning and is dubbed ‘The Europe of India’.

PUDUCHERRY

9

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 9

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 13:41:53

NEW DELHI

Delhi has been the capital of successive dynasties and was the ‘Jewel in the Crown’ of the British Empire. The city has a continuous living history of more than 3000 years and has been one of the most important cities of India. This eternal city offers a sumptuous banquet of history and heritage, seamlessly in tune with its transformation as one of the world’s fastest growing and largest metropoles today.

The Cannes of India. Currently known as the host city of International Film Festival of India. A land of sun, sea and sand; feni, fun and frolic. Beaches galore, churches and saints, music and dance, festivals and carnivals. Where people enjoy music and dance and raise a toast to celebrate every occasion.

GOA

India in microcosm, Mumbai, or Bombay as it was once known, provides an excellent backdrop for the race that always finishes in the future. Slick and bright urban exteriors that have dark underbellies interrupted by colours that connect across time. Busy bustling daytimes with brightly lit nights that blink and shimmer to a heady beat of people and machines, avant garde and artless, incessantly on the move.

MAHARASHTRA

10

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 10

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 13:41:53

MAKE YOURSELF VISIBLE IN PICKLEOCTOBER 2017 MIPCOM ISSUE Pickle reaches out to audio visual companies in over 50 countries; Targets global buyers and distributors; Film Festivals and markets; Animation production companies; Global companies looking at offshoring from India; Co-production seekers and location service providers. Pickle business guide tracks the entertainment business in India.

INDIA AND BEYOND 11

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 11

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 13:41:54

TIFF 2017

MUST

DO THINGS AT

TIFF

Storytelling Matters: Objective at TIFF Iindustry Conference. Speakers include Glenn Close, Larry Wilmore, Armando Iannucci, Graham Taylor Denis Côté, Luca Guadagnino, Morgan Spurlock, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Mary Harron GUEST SPEAKERS GALORE More than 150 guest speakers will take the stage including Tim Bevan, Timothée Chalamet, Glenn Close, Denis Côté, Cassian Elwes, Heidi Ewing, Eric Fellner, Rachel Grady, Luca Guadagnino, Armie Hammer, Mary Harron, Armando Iannucci, Franklin Leonard, Brett Morgen, Sam Pollard, Anna Serner, Morgan Spurlock, Syrinthia Studer, Graham Taylor and Larry Wilmore.

12

PC ON STAGE

Award-winning actor and activist Priyanka Chopra will be the guest of honour at TIFF Soirée, an annual fundraiser this year organized in support of Share Her Journey, a recently launched campaign to support female voices in screen industries. Chopra will talk about her prolific and globally multifaceted career in and outside of the entertainment industry during an exclusive onstage conversation to be moderated by TIFF Artistic Director, Cameron Bailey, followed by a celebratory cocktail party on TIFF Bell Lightbox’s scenic rooftop with live musical entertainment, gourmet food and beverages, and a few surprises. An ideal kickoff for the 42nd Toronto International Film Festival, the event will take place on Wednesday, September 6 at 6 pm.

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 12

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 13:41:54

339 TOTAL FILMS

Features — 255; Shorts — 84

TIFF: FACTSHEET

MASTER CLASSES AND MOGULS

238 Features that are World, International or North American Premieres: 147, 19 and 72 respectively

7,299 Total submissions: International — 6,166; Canadian — 1,133

Storytelling, satire, authenticity and equality are at the forefront of this year’s Master Class conversations, lead by some of the industry’s creative luminaries Emmy and Peabody Award–winning producer, actor, comedian and writer Larry Wilmore (Black on the Air, Black-ish) keeps it “100” with Jesse Wente, Director of TIFF Cinematheque and Armando Iannucci director, writer, creator (The Death Of Stalin, VEEP) on the Art of Political Satire. The Conference closes with renowned homegrown director and writer Mary Harron (Alias Grace, I Shot Andy Warhol) on her distinguished career in film and television, interviewed by celebrated Canadian filmmaker Patricia Rozema (I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing).

74 Countries 27 Screens used 13 Programmes 27,438 Minutes of film (32,320) 197 minutes Longest film: Ex Libris - The New York Public Library

GUARDIAN TIFF TALKS

2 minutes Shortest film(s): Catastrophe and some cities

28 Canadian features, including co-productions

Three intimate onstage talks and Q&As will be hosted

by Benjamin Lee and Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian: Luca Guadagnino, Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet discuss one of the year’s most acclaimed films, Call Me by My Name; Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner discuss decades of remarkable Working Title Films productions include their fast-paced indie hit Baby Driver, and upcoming Festival films Darkest Hour and Victoria and Abdul. Legendary actor of stage and screen Glenn Close talks about her career, notable for challenging performances and iconic roles, and about her latest Festival film, The Wife.

Join & Connect

Acce s s

B row s e

S h owc a s e

contacts & films

festivals & markets

your business

The essential B2B net working platform

13

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 13

w w w.cinando.com

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

Powered by Co -funded by the European Union

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 13:41:54

INDIA@TORONTO

IMPRESSIVE INDIAN TALENTS

AT TIFF 2017 This year too, India has an impressive lineup of films by experienced and young talents at the Toronto International Film Festival. Besides filmmakers, the focus will be on actors who feature in impressive roles in the Indian picks for TIFF 2017 – by Saibal Chatterjee he Indian spotlight at the 42nd Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will be on notable acting talent from Mumbai’s independent cinema (led by the seasoned thespian Naseeruddin Shah and the much-acclaimed Rajkummar Rao) and an array of socially and politically urgent subcontinental themes.

T

Cinema selection. However, four Indian features, including the first-ever Assamese film to make it to TIFF, and several titles addressing pressing themes of subcontinental interest are in the festival’s slate. In addition, TIFF also hosts a Special Presentation of British auteur Stephen Frears’ Victoria and Abdul, a film with a strong India connect.

Two TIFF first-timers Bornila Chatterjee and Rima Das have joined returning Mumbai directors Anurag Kashyap and Hansal Mehta among filmmakers whose work is being showcased in North America’s premier festival this year. The focus will concurrently be on actors Adil Hussain, Kalki Koechlin, Tisca Chopra, Ali Fazal, Sayani Gupta, Neeraj Kabi and Vineet Kumar Singh, who feature in stellar roles in the Indian picks for TIFF 2017.

Bornila Chatterjee will rub shoulders with Kashyap and Mehta with The Hungry, a drama that relocates William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus to the setting of a big fat Punjabi wedding in New Delhi. The film, like Kashyap’s Mukkabaaz (The Brawler) and Mehta’s Omerta, has landed a Special Presentations slot.

No Indian film has made it to the starstudded Gala Presentations, the competitive Platform section for “director’s cinema” and the Contemporary World

14

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 14

Made outside of the Bollywood mainstream, the three Indian films in TIFF Special Presentations feature off-mainstream Mumbai movie actors Vineet Kumar Singh, Tisca Chopra, Neeraj Kabi and Sayani Gupta, besides Rajkummar Rao. That apart, one of the two titular LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 13:41:55

RAJKUMMAR RAO, THE LEAD ACTOR OF OMERTA, PROBES THE MIND OF BRITISH-BORN TERRORIST AHMED OMAR SAEED SHEIKH, WHO KILLED WALL STREET JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT DANIEL PEARL IN 2002 Omertà Hansal Mehta

15

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 15

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 13:41:55

The Hungry

The Brawler

Bornila Chatterjee

Mukkabaaz

roles in Victoria and Abdul is essayed

by Fukrey star Ali Fazal. None of these actors is a conventional Bollywood star, having carved niches for themselves primarily in independent Hindi cinema.

Nobody more so than Rajkummar Rao, the lead actor of Omerta, which probes the mind of British-born terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who killed Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl in 2002. Rao’s reputation as an exceptionally gifted actor has grown steadily since he powered Mehta’s Shahid, which travelled to TIFF in 2013.

Pakistani single mother struggling to steady her life in the face of wobbly personal relationships, will compete against eleven other titles handpicked from across the world by TIFF artistic director Cameron Bailey for the festival’s Platform Prize.

Two other Indian actors of proven worth – Adil Hussain and Kalki Koechlin– will be in Toronto this year representing the Norwegian drama What Will People Say and the Pakistani documentary Azmaish: A Journey through the Subcontinent respectively. Hussain, who appeared in a supporting role in the 2012 TIFF pick English Vinglish and in a cameo in Angry Indian Goddesses (TIFF, 2015), plays a conservative Pakistani patriarch alarmed at the Westernised ways of his Norwegianborn daughter (played by Afghan-origin debutante Maria Mozhdah) in Iram Haq’s HvaVil Folk Si (What Will People Say).

Incensed at catching her in bed with her boyfriend one day, the father has the girl packs off to stay with his relatives in Pakistan. In what is an alien land, the female protagonist is forced to negotiate the demands made on her by her parents’ culture.

Adil Hussain, who was recently seen in a key role in Subhashish Bhutiani’s critically acclaimed Hotel Salvation, had significant parts in Ang Lee’s Life of Pi and Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

A Norwegian filmmaker of Pakistani parentage, Iram Haq was in Toronto with her assured debut film, Jeger Din (I Am Yours), in 2013. What Will People Say, which extends the theme that she tackled in her first film centered on a Norwegian-

16

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 16

In the highly anticipated documentary film Azmaish: A Journey through the Subcontinent, Dev D. star Kalki Koechlin joins director Sabiha Sumar (maker of the critically acclaimed Khamosh Pani and Good Morning, Karachi) on a voyage across India and Pakistan with the intention of grasping why segments of the population in the two neighbouring nations are increasingly falling into the trap of religious bigotry.

Sumar’s Khamosh Pani (2003) had dwelled upon the impact that the politicization of religion tends to have on common citizens. Azmaish is a continuation of the concerns that she underlined in the earlier film, made well over a decade ago. This will be Kalki Koechlin’s third trip to TIFF after That Girl in Yellow Boots (2010) and Margarita, With a Straw (2014), in both of which she played the lead role.

Mehta and Kashyap have, of course, both been part of TIFF before, the former with Shahid and the latter with That Girl in Yellow Boots and the two-part Gangs of Wasseypur. Omerta is Rajkummar Rao’s fourth collaboration with the director of Shahid. Rao played key onscreen roles in Mehta’s Citylights and Aligarh as well.

All eyes will be as much on Rao as on the film’s contentious theme.

Kashyap’s much anticipated Mukkabaaz is about a low caste pugilist in smalltown in the state of Uttar Pradesh struggling to find a foothold in the world of boxing. The film’s titular character is essayed by Vineet Kumar Singh, who had key roles in Gangs of Wasseypur and the director’s segment in the omnibus Bombay Talkies, where he played a

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 13:41:56

Azmaish: A Journey Through the Subcontinent Sabiha Sumar

Village Rockstars Rima Das

star-struck Allahabad lad who travels to Mumbai to deliver home-made pickles to Bollywood’s biggest superstar, Amitabh Bachchan.

The cast of Bornila Chatterjee’s The Hungry is led by veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah, one of the poster boys of Mumbai’s 1970s and 1980s ‘new wave’ films. The Indo-UK co-production, which probes the murky innards of Indian politics and big business, is about a woman seeking revenge for the wrongs meted out to her and her family. The cast of The Hungry includes Tisca Chopra, Neeraj Kabi and Sayani Gupta.

Chatterjee, who divides her time between Brooklyn and Kolkata, wrote and directed the 2012 film Let’s Be Out, The Sun is Shining. Kabi has had two films in TIFF in the recent past – Anand Gandhi’s Ship of Theseus and MeghnaGulzar’s Talvar.

Sayani Gupta was in the 2014 TIFF title Margarita, With a Straw. Likewise, this will be Tisca Chopra’s second Toronto film festival premiere. She had a starring role in Anup Singh’s Qissa – The Tale of a Lonely Ghost, which premiered here in 2013.

For Ali Fazal, who shares screen space with the Academy Award-winning Dame Judi Dench in Victoria and Abdul, international exposure is nothing new although this is his first film to make the TIFF cut. The Bobby Jasoos actor, who began his career with a cameo in 2008’s The Other End of the Line and had a role

in Furious 7 (2015), plays an Indian clerk Abdul Karim who becomes friends with an ageing Queen Victoria.

Among the most unusual films in TIFF this year is Rima Das’s Assamese-language Village Rockstars, selected for the Discovery section. Featuring amateur child actors from Das’ native Chhaygaon village, where it is set, the film tells the story of a poor but spirited girl who aspires to buy a guitar and make music.

At the heart of Village Rockstars is 10year- old Dhunu, a girl raised by a widowed mother. “Having growing up in poverty and facing repeated natural calamities, she is a tough soul,” said Das. “The influence of her tenacious, non-conformist mother serves to make her even tougher.”

For Das, who usually works out of Mumbai, Village Rockstars marks a return to her roots. “When I returned to Chhaygaon from Mumbai, these children helped me unlearn everything and reconnect with the soil,” says the filmmaker who has made history by making it to TIFF. In Contemporary World Cinema, Afghan filmmaker Tarique Qayumi’s Canadian production Black Kite takes the audience to his war-ravaged homeland to tell the story of a father and daughter who find solace in kite flying, a passion they pursue furtively as political shifts and social oppression place huge hurdles in their path.

Saibal Chatterjee is an independent New Delhi-based film critic and writer who has worked on the staff of several leading publications, served on the editorial board of Encyclopaedia Britannica’s volume on Hindi cinema and authored a biography of poet-filmmaker Gulzar.

17

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 17

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:22:31

OSCAR BUZZ AT TORONTO

OSCAR Crystal Ball Special Presentations

Darkest Hour

First They Killed My Father

Joe Wright

Angelina Jolie

Battle of the Sexes Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton

I, Tonya

Lady Bird

Craig Gillespie

Greta Gerwig

18

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 18

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:22:32

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Martin McDonagh Films, directors and stars that are likely to generate awards season buzz at the 42nd Toronto International Film Festival • Gary Oldman, who plays Winston Churchill in Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour • Director Susanna White and lead actress Jessica Chastain Woman Walks Ahead - Jessica Chastain for lead actress • Frances McDormand as a grieving mother of a murdered daughter in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri • Greta Gerwig for her first solo directorial debut Lady Bird • Emma Stone for her role as tennis champ Billie Jean King in Battle of the Sexes • George Clooney for directing Suburbicon, co-written by Joel and Ethan Coen • Angelina Jolie for directing the Cambodia-set First They Killed My Father • Elle Fanning for her titular role in Haifaa Al Mansour’s Mary Shelly • Margot Robbie for her part as controversial figure skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya • Jake Gyllenhaal, lead actor as the runner who lost his legs in the Boston Marathon bombing in Stronger

Stronger David Gordon Green

Woman Walks Ahead Susanna White

Suburbicon George Clooney

19

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 19

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:22:34

Dark Baran bo Odar

A FAIR SHOT A

GENDER P Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 20

31-08-2017 12:22:35

TIFF PLATFORM AND BEYOND

Committed to promote equal opportunities for female talent behind the camera and on the screen, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this year has chosen six women among 12 directors vying for prizes in the competitive section. Besides this, strewn across the various sections of the festival are promising cinematic stories about ordinary and not-so-ordinary women on personal quests against all odds – by Saibal Chatterjee

D

T AT

iversity has long been the cornerstone of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). North America’s leading annual celebration of the art and craft of cinema has now put gender parity at the top of its list of priorities. What the festival’s Platform programme, in its third year, has achieved is unprecedented. Of the 12 directors vying for prizes in the competitive section, six are women. The half-half men-women ratio is of a piece with TIFF’s avowed commitment to promoting equal opportunities for female talent behind the camera and on the screen, which is further manifest in the ‘Share Her Journey’ fundraising movement launched this year to give female storytellers the space they deserve.

Just as significantly, over one-third of the 339 films (including 84 shorts) picked by TIFF selectors for the festival’s 42nd edition are helmed by women, a remarkable statistic when one considers that of the top 250 films made in Hollywood in 2016, only 7 per cent had female directors. The gender skew in the movie industry is unconscionable. It is only natural that it is in the line of TIFF’s fire, nowhere more so than in this year’s Platform selection.

Granted that the section is bookended this year by films made by two men but that is, literally, only half the story.

Platform opens with Scottish-born director Armando Iannucci’s The Death of Stalin, a historical epic that dramatizes the days leading up to the demise of the Soviet dictator, and closes with Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton’s period western, Sweet Country.

Four other male-directed contenders are in the fray: FrenchMoroccan Nabil Ayouch’sRazzia, British director Michael Pearce’s feature debut Beast, Frenchman Xavier Legrand’s Custody and American helmer Mike White’s Brad’s Status.

Needless to say, all the 12 competing films will be in with a chance to bag the prizes on offer, but the six entries helmed by women will definitely, for reasons of both intrinsic merit and larger, long-term significance,be among the more keenly watched titles.

R PARIT Y Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 21

31-08-2017 12:22:35

A three-member jury has been assembled to judge the Platform films.It comprises Chinese director Chen Kaige, Polish filmmaker MalgarzotaSzumowska and German master Wim Wenders.

The titles that the trio will be watching includes Euphoria, the first English-language film from Swedishwriter-director Lisa Langseth. It is the first film produced

by Alicia Vikander, who made her feature debut in 2009, in Langseth’s maiden outing, Pure,and stars here with Eva Green. The two actors play somewhat estranged sisters who meet after many years and undertake a mystery trip that triggers a “meditation on life and mortality”. The cast of Euphoria includes veteran English actors Charlotte Rampling and Charles Dance.

Also in the Platform section is French journalist-turned-filmmaker Joan Chemla’s first feature, If You Saw His Heart, starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Marine Vacth as an emotionally scalded twosome whose paths cross at a time when they are at the lowest ebbs of their lives.

Adapted from Guillermo Rasales’ Cuban novel Boarding Home, the film, according to the TIFF website, blends gritty realism and expressionistic strokes to tell the poignant tale of a couple struggling to live down their dark pasts in an attempt to start over.

Austrian director Barbara Albert is in contention with her fifth feature, Mademoiselle Paradis, a drama set in 18th century Vienna. The film tells the true story of Maria Theresia von Paradis, a blind pianist, and her relationship with the controversial Dr. Franz Mesmer, the physician who worked to restore her sight. As the doctor, who is dismissed by some as a quack, helps the musician regain her vision, her life and playing style undergo dramatic changes.

Platform’s sole Asian entry is from Indonesia’s Kamila Andini. Her film, The Seen and Unseen, is described as “magical”. It takes the audience into a dreamscape conjured up by 10-year-old girl as her twin brother lies seriously ill in a hospital. This is how the TIFF website puts it: “Perfectly balanced and poised, filled with the sensuality of the Indonesian countryside, The Seen and Unseen enchants us by taking us, in the most wondrous of ways, directly into the headspace of childhood.”

The diversity of themes in the Platform selection is amply reflected in and significantly accentuated by British writerdirector Clio Barnard’s Dark River, her third feature following up on the critically acclaimed The Arbor and The Selfish

Giant. Set in the Yorkshire countryside, this portrait of a troubled sibling relationship stars Ruth Wilson as a woman who returns to the family farm to address unresolved issues following the death of her father. She runs into serious complications as old grouses and new tensions erupt and threaten to tear her and her disgruntled brother apart.

The sixth film by a woman director in the Platform competition is the Norwegian entry, What Will People Say, IramHaq’s sophomore effort. Starring Adil Hussain and newcomer Maria Mozhdah, the film is about a young girl who leads a double life – as a dutiful girl in a tradition-bound Pakistani expatriate family and a normal, fun-seeking Norwegian teenager to her friends. Keeping up the pretence, fraught with danger, is no cakewalk.When she is found transgressing the family’s strict moral code, her life goes into a tailspin.

Haq explores the social and cultural fissures in the father-daughter relationship with deep empathy and understanding.

Unveiling the TIFF Platform selection in early August, TIFF director and CEO Piers Handling said: “The films… embody our bold vision for the programme, and our ongoing commitment to showcase artistic and inventive directors that fearlessly push boundaries. The twelve titles exemplify bravery, dynamism and a unique voice in storytelling…” They certainly do.

The gender equality initiative extends all across the TIFF programme this year.

Three Hollywood actresses – Angelina Jolie, Greta Gerwig and Brie Larson – are arriving in Toronto with new directorial ventures. Jolie’s latest film as a director, First They Killed My Father, plays in the Special Presentations section. Co-written and co-produced by the Lara Croft star, the film is an adaptation of the memoir

by Loung Ung, which recounts the horrors that the author encountered – and survived – during the atrocities unleashed by the Khmer Rouge regime in 1970s Cambodia.

Gerwig’s first solo directorial effort, Lady Bird, the opening film of the Special Presentations segment, features Saoirse Ronan as a young woman grappling with the pressures and challenges of a Catholic school in suburban Sacramento and dreaming of escaping to a more exciting life.

Oscar-winning actress Brie Larson stars in her directorial debut, Unicorn Store, about a diehard dreamer who refuses to abandon her childhood fantasies. The film offers ‘a quirky perspective on exis-

Of the 12 directors vying for prizes in the competitive section, six are women

22

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 22

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:22:36

Mademoiselle Paradis

What Will People Say

Barbara Albert

Iram Haq

The Seen and Unseen

Euphoria

Kamila Andini

Lisa Langseth

tential crisis, a topic particularly dominated by male directors’.

Although a wide array of other films in the TIFF lineup are directed by women, the focus is by no means only on talent behind the camera. Strewn across the various sections of the festival are promising cinematic stories about ordinary and not-so-ordinary women on personal quests against all odds.

In Melanie Laurent’s French film Plonger, a restless photographer leaves her family and takes up deep-sea diving. TIFF also hosts a World Premiere Gala screening of Bjorn Runge’s The Wife, starring Glenn Close as a woman who decides to leave her husband on the eve of his Nobel Prize for Literature in order to pursue her own long-jettisoned ambitions as a writer.

In Dominic Savage’s British film, The Escape, which has its World Premiere in Special Presentations, Gemma Arterton plays a homemaker and mother who abandons her family “to find herself ”. At the other end of the emotional spectrum is Italian director Andrea Pallaoro’s Hannah, in which Charlotte Rampling is cast as a character who is left to fend her herself after her husband’s imprisonment.

British-Zambian filmmaker Rungano Nyoni’s I am Not a Witch, a film that premiered in Directors Fortnight in Cannes in May and earned unstinted applause, is a nuanced tale about superstition in an African community where a young girl

23

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 23

is banished from her village to live in a camp of exiled witches.

From Thai auteur Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s Samui Song, in which a soap opera actress adopts desperate means to rid herself of her cult-member husband, to debutante Colombian director Laura Mora’s Killing Jesus, a true story of a girl who has witnessed her father’s killing and draws the young killer into a romantic relationship, the programme is replete with tales of badass women who think nothing of throwing caution to the wind.

Tales of women up against an insensitive world form the spine of two Argentinian films – Anahi Berneri’s Alanis, in Contemporary World Cinema, and Diego Lerman’s A Sort of Family, part of Special Presentations. The former tells the story of a Buenos Aires mother and sex worker at the receiving end of laws that are meant to protect her; the latter homes in on a determined woman navigating the labyrinth of child adoption in a disadvantaged rural outpost in north Argentina.

The battles, as much at the personal level as in the societal domain, are intense. So, understandably, are the films that have picked these essential stories and put them on the big screen. By placing these tales upfront in its programme, TIFF has in turn amplified voices that need to be heard and predicaments that are crying to be comprehended.

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:22:36

Celebrating legacy of its 100th film, Thenandal Studios Ltd (TSL) had a massive connect with fans of Vijay for Mersal. Chennai’s Nehru Stadium was flooded with fans for the music launch of Mersal in the presence of top film industry veterans

TSL SCORES 24

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 24

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:22:36

ES CENTURY 25

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 25

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:22:37

The music album of Mersal being launched

Actor Vijay speaking at the audio launch of Mersal

THENANDAL’S GRAND

Oscar-winner A R Rahman at the event

Filmmaker Sundar C speaking at the audio launch

26

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 26

Vijay and Narayanan Ramaswamy of TSL sha

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK O

Actor-director S J Suryah

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:22:37

sal being launched

RAND MERSAL SHOW TSL: MANY FIRSTS IN 100TH FILM

maswamy of TSL sharing a lighter moment

h

27

The audio album of Thenandal Studios Limited’s 100th venture Mersal was launched at a gala event at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai.

The colourful function saw the participation of thousands of fans of south Indian top star Vijay, the film’s protagonist. The who’s who of Tamil cinema was present at the event, where Oscar-winner A R Rahman treated the audience with his music. Interestingly, Mersal is the first Rahman film to have four songs from four different genres. As the whole programme was aired live on Sun TV Network, millions viewed it across the world. In his address, Vijay thanked fans for their love and support. Directed by Atlee, Mersal, the first South Indian film to have record retweets and likes on announcement of title, features Vijay in a triple role for the first time- that of a doctor, activist and magician (for the first time, sleight of hand / magic has been incorporated in the script).. There are three heroines- Kajal Aggarwal, Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Nithya Menen and the cast includes SJ Suryah, Vadivelu and Kovai Sarala. Thus, Mersal is perhaps the first superstar hero film in these parts to have a stellar supporting cast Mersal also has the distinction of first South Indian film to have its own unique emoticon on Twitter.

Kajal Aggarwal and Samantha Ruth Prabhu, the lead ladies of the fllm

pickle ente entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 27

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:22:39

Mersal Atlee

28

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 28

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:22:40

TSL IN TRANSFORMATION

TSL has outlived many of its peers to join an exclusive club of Indian production houses which have celebrated their 100th film. The studio has plans to reposition its business to present-day needs and is working relentlessly to create new growth engines within the digital filmed entertainment space

T

29

henandal Studios Limited, which is making its presence felt as a global entertainment company from India, is celebrating its 100th film with Mersal, starring Vijay, directed by Atlee.

TSL recently celebrated a massive connect with fans of Vijay for Mersal. Chennai’s Nehru Stadium was flooded with fans for the music launch of Mersal in the presence of top film industry veterans.

The commercial entertainer flick, directed by twofilm old Atlee, has musical score by A R Rahman.

Interestingly, Mersal also marks the 25th year of both Vijay and Rahman in the film industry.

With Mersal, TSL has joined an exclusive club of just three or four active Indian film production houses which have produced 100 films under their banner.

Not just those in the stadium, but Tamil fraternity across the world too witnessed the event as it was aired live on broadcast leader Sun TV and the broadcasting group’s newly launched OTT app Sun Nxt. The event was simultaneously streamed live in YouTube, Facebook and Periscope.

“We are in a transformative phase. We are repositioning our business to today’s needs and work to create new growth engines within the digital filmed entertainment space,” says Narayanan Ramaswamy , Chairman and Managing Director of Thenandal Studios Ltd, who is steering the production and distribution studio to new growth avenues.

“We are in the business of arts. For close to four decades, we have breathed and lived cinema. Our focus is to achieve complete transformation not only for our studio but for the entire film industry of the South India.”

TSL is a market leader in India’s fastest growing filmed entertainment business. “With technology deeply influencing the industry, we at TSL believe in adapting ourselves to fresh and innovative content,” says Narayanan .

LIKERamaswamy PICKLE IN FACEBOOK www.picklemag.in

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 29

31-08-2017 12:22:40

Wh Inne

Wh Los

W yo Ev

W y I

Call it a rag(a)s to riches story. A R Rahman made heads turn to his new sounds and refreshing songs in ‘Roja’. After 25 years, heads across the world are still nodding to his music, and that’s the magic of Oscar-winner A R Rahman.

Everything has changed in these two-and-ahalf decades, but changed not is his simplicity and symphony Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 30

31-08-2017 12:22:40

-

25 YEARS OF RAHMANISM

n a m h a A. R. R n i h t i W c i g The Ma atest ink is your gre th u o y o d t a Wh l happinessss? a re f o a e id achievement? r What is you usic Passion for m Inner peace upation r? favourite occ a r u fe o st y te is a t a re h g mposer? r W en a music co Which is you e b t o n d a h rs f othe (if you Losing love o ingness n To be in noth re in lo p e d st o m ou you ortant trait y p im Which traits st o m e What is th yourself? nd? nd in your frie fi g in th ry e v E therrss f oth Integrity racteristics o a r ch e th re a value in you Which st o m u o y o ?

What d nt of you don’t like oin p ’s y d o b ry e v In e friends? ss.. e I don’t judge. lv se m e th nditional love od to co o n g U re a y e th view ction or you lie? our hero in fi y o d is n o o h iti W d n In what co rse or fun, of cou mythology?

To my wife. F s?

Karna times? r black most a e w u o y o l life? d Why ur hero in rea o it y in is ta o in h a W m It is easy to mirre My dad erson you ad p g in v li e th regret?

Who is our greatest y is t a h W ts the most? ave any regre h ’t n o d I My mom on? siio in life? d possssessssi re su a e tr is your motto t st a ful o h m W r u o y is ecial and use sp What y a d ry e v e ns To make Love of my fa ? e fe i if l to others love of your li st te a re g e Who is th Classified lf elf hing in yourss e th n o e g n a ch If you could at be? what could th Nothing

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 31

31-08-2017 12:22:48

PATH BREAKER

Baahubali: The Story of Courage and Self-Belief

Considered truly the first national film of India, Baahubali - 2 The Conclusion has shattered all the records by crossing Rs 1,700 crore in gross collection. As it inches closer to becoming the first billion dollar film from India in PPP terms, SS Rajamouli, the director of this great Indian epic film, gives insights into what it took to create this masterpiece, in conversation with Sudhanshu Vats, Chairman, CII National Committee on Media & Entertainment and Group CEO, Viacom 18 Media Pvt. Ltd. The discussion happened on the sidelines of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s National Council meeting in Mumbai.

How does it feel having shattered all records, broken all myths and set new standards for everyone to follow?

Breaking all myths is a very satisfactory feeling because I always believed that we might speak different languages and have different cultures across India, but if a film focuses on a story with basic human emotions I think it will be watched at every place. So, when Baahubali proved that point, it was the most satisfactory thing for me.

Where did the idea for Baahubali come from? Please tell us the story behind this film?

Since my childhood days, ‘Amar Chitra Katha’ was my favourite comic book series and everything originated from there. My mother would encourage me to read these comic books. I also drew my inspiration from Telugu classics like Maya Bazaar, Pataal Bhairavi,

32

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 32

SS Rajamouli Filmmaker

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:23:30

BREAKING ALL MYTHS IS A VERY SATISFACTORY FEELING BECAUSE I ALWAYS BELIEVED THAT WE MIGHT SPEAK DIFFERENT LANGUAGES AND HAVE DIFFERENT CULTURES ACROSS INDIA, BUT IF A FILM FOCUSES ON A STORY WITH BASIC HUMAN EMOTIONS I THINK IT WILL BE WATCHED AT EVERY PLACE. SO, WHEN BAAHUBALI PROVED THAT POINT, IT WAS THE MOST SATISFACTORY THING FOR ME

33

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 33

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:23:32

Baahubali - 2 The Conclusion

which dealt with mythological and folkore kind of stories. So, I always wanted to make these large scale war epic films. But what gave me courage to do this film were the larger than life characters that were created for this film that my father has written.

You invested about Rs 250 crore upfront in making this film, which is by far the highest investment in any film in India. So, where does the courage and conviction come from?

My producer, who invested money in the film, believed in the story. I would be lying if I say that everything was planned.

When we started the film, the budget was around Rs 130-140 crores for both the films put together. But by the time we finished the first part, the budget was touching Rs 220 crores, and by the time we finished the second part, it was touching Rs 480 crores.

We did one year of pre-production work and we thought we covered everything to the last detail. But when we stepped into the actual shooting part, we realised that how under-prepared we were. So, the cost kept on escalating. Of course, there was a bit of worry because there was so much at stake. But the courage came from the product that was shaping up. Everything that we created looked and felt fantastic.

34

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 34

Probably we had already passed the point of no return, so we had to do whatever we could do.

The film was not funded by any studio whether Indian or international. Did you not approach anybody?

Baahubali is one of a kind film. You cannot take it as a benchmark for all the films. Corporates work in a certain bandwidth and cannot go beyond it. This kind of film cannot be made if you think of the market and how much needs to be spent.

Of course, there is a high risk of losing money so corporates can’t undertake such projects.

When we do marketing of films, a lot of people think conventionally. But when we see Baahubali 2, it was just one line: ‘Why did Kattappa Kill Baahubali’ that worked wonders. What lessons marketing people can learn from this?

A great marketing strategy was taken up by the Baahubali team. We made the first film at Rs 200 crores, while the Telugu film market is worth only Rs 90 crores. So, we started expanding the market by making the film in multiple languages. We knew we were making a great product, but we needed to tell the people about it and we LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:23:33

I drew my inspiration from Telugu classics like Maya Bazaar, Pataal Bhairavi, which dealt with mythological and folkore kind of stories. So, I always wanted to make these large scale war epic films.

But what gave me courage to do this film were the larger than life characters that were created for this film that my father has written

did not have a budget for that. So, we made use of social networking platforms.

We started making videos highlighting the story and the scale of the film, and we took them very-very seriously. We made special music, special shots and special visual effects for the videos and started releasing them online. We also started tracking them online to know the areas where those videos were getting maximum traction.

The first online video didn’t do so well in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, so we started making videos with more body building shots and scenes of war mercenaries, and we started getting more traction. We

showed the Google Trends of the video to Karan Jauhar in Mumbai. At that time we were on par with PK. The moment Karan came on board, we started making more press.

We also made use of all the international film festivals like Cannes and Berlinale.

Using the traction we had here, we invited reporters from Hollywood and we got articles published in foreign publications, and that gave us more traction. We kept the momentum on and the day Baahubali released we hadn’t spent a single rupee on posters or creating advertisements.

So, for the biggest film ever made in India the publicity budget was zero.

Join & Connect

Acce s s

B row s e

S h owc a s e

contacts & films

festivals & markets

your business

The essential B2B net working platform

35

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 35

w w w.cinando.com

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

Powered by Co -funded by the European Union

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:23:33

THE SONG OF SCORPIONS

A ROOTED NOMAD

Anup Singh introduces his new ďŹ lm in Locarno

36

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 36

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:23:34

Geneva-based Anup Singh is a leading light of the alternative Indian cinema with films like Ekti Nodir Naam (Bengali) and Qissa – The Tale of a Lonely Ghost (Punjabi) under his belt. In conversation with film critic Saibal Chatterjee, Anup Singh shares his views on the universe of his cinema A leading light of the alternative Indian cinema that draws inspiration from the films of Ritwik Ghatak, Geneva-based Anup Singh has built a slow and steady but distinctive directorial career. With two critically acclaimed feature films – Ekti Nodir Naam (Bengali) and Qissa – The Tale of a Lonely Ghost (Punjabi) – behind him, he has now completed his third, The Song of Scorpions, starring Irrfan Khan, Golshifteh Farahani and Waheeda Rehman. The film premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and earned glowing critical notices, confirming his status as a director with a unique vision of life and art.

Here, Anup Singh shares with film critic Saibal Chatterjee his views on the universe of his cinema, on dealing with a world in turmoil, and on the thrust of his new film, slated for release in India in 2018 You are a filmmaker who, by your own admission, is at home in the world despite having been uprooted from the land of your birth. The cinema of Ritwik Ghatak, on the other hand, is steeped in the pain of deracination.

Would you agree that, at least in this respect, you are a bit different from your ‘cinematic guru’?

AS: No, I disagree. I don’t see Ghataks’s cinema like that at all. In our time, we take it for granted that cinema as such is only possible as long as it serves the narrative.

But Ghatak’s cinema, deliberately and ceaselessly breaks through the boundaries of the narrative. We can say Ghatak’s narratives are of loss, of the closing of spaces and identities, of the fraudulence of the self and the state. But they are also of the courage to resist, protest and challenge everything and everyone that limits the human spirit’s independence. His narratives are scintillating in their ability to condemn human virulence while, simultaneously, affirming compassion.

Moreover, his wide-angle expansion of spaces, his ability to sculpt vulnerability in even the most heinous of faces, his ferocious rhythms that, paradoxically, bring things and people and spaces and histories together in luminous dignity - all this is beyond the demands of the narrative. Here is a cinema constantly

37

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 37

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:23:35

Golshifteh Farahani in Song of the Scorpions in process - when it ends in the cinematheatre, it continues within us! And it will continue within us all our life. Why? Because it never accepts any one of the multiple ‘truths’ it presents as the ‘truth’.

By bringing everything and everyone in dialogue with each other, he allows for the possibility of growth and change.

That is what has been the gift of all my teachers to me. They’ve all shown me in their practice and in their life that we are all vulnerable to change, we are all possibilities. That’s what I learn from Ritwik Ghatak. His cinema always escapes all attempts to limit it in any way.

How easy or difficult is it for Indian filmmakers like you who refuse to follow the crowd to get their stories funded in an era when commercial viability is a constant requirement?

What are the specific strategies that you need to devise to keep making the kind of cinema you believe in?

AS: I’ve never thought of cinema in terms of commercial viability or strategy. I try and be as honest as possible to one question in all my work: how can I live without being ashamed of myself in our world today?

In one way or another, this question is aflame in all of us. When I meet a producer that’s the question I bring to the fore in the very beginning. And all the producers I’ve worked with so far have whole-heartedly joined me in my experiments to answer this question. That is the question that drives us, and we try and be worthy of this quest in each other. This might not sound humble at all, but it’s what my producers and I believe in: as much as com-

38

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 38

mercial viability, we seek in our work to be viable to the fullness of life.

You set Ekti Nadir Naam in Bengal, Qissa in Punjab and The Song of Scorpions in Rajasthan. Is the wide cultural and social palette that you’ve worked with a conscious choice? Is being a man of journeys one of the reasons why you do not instinctively confine yourself to any particular geographical space?

AS: I am very uneasy with the way we’ve chosen to recognise ourselves as human beings -- citizens of one country, members of one community, defined by narrow notions of gender. We seem now not only to reject but to actively resent being thought as belonging to the human race. That saddens me profoundly as, to me, it seems the primal cause of the dying of our planet.

In my cinema, my attempt is to celebrate all that we are. If not in the world, at least in the world of our imagination we can acknowledge, honour, learn from each other and, together, live life creatively and in peace.

Is the fable-like, mystical quality of Qissa also an element in The Song of Scorpions? How is the new film different in terms of tone, texture and philosophy from your previous two feature films?

AS: The questions are the same, but perhaps I’m being able to articulate them better as I grow from film to film. What is truth? What is the body or mind’s relationship to the other: to water, to fire, to wind, to the earth?

This question for me finds its fullest exLIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:23:37

Irrfan Khan in Song of the Scorpions pression in The Song of Scorpions. Given the world of violence we live in, every moment of our life we are breathing in some kind of poison into ourselves. The critical question for all of us today is: when we breathe out, do we want to breathe out the same poison we have taken in? Or do we choose, instead, to breathe out a song?

What explains your incredible rapport with Irrfan Khan?

AS: I don’t really know what to say. Perhaps it’s something as simple as that we never gossip. When we meet, we only talk about our work. And, it’s obvious to each one of us, that we’ll fight every fear and limit to encourage and help each other to go for the furthest reaches of our imagination.

What does Golshifteh Farahani bring to The Song of Scorpions? When did you first feel that she should play Nooran?

AS: As you know, Golshifteh is a person living in exile. She lives in the constant pain of separation from her country, Iran, and her family. However, instead of allowing this pain to embitter her, she followed it to the end where it showed her that finally we are all strangers to ourselves.

She has taken this insight to fearlessly open herself to the other possibilities within her. This is what makes her the exciting, multi-dimensional actress she is.

We met at an international film festival where Qissa was being screened and we spent the next two days talking non-stop about films and acting. Talking to her, I soon realised that Golshifteh’s journey as a person and artist in many ways mirrors

39

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 39

the journey of Nooran, the female protagonist in The Song of Scorpions. Nooran too has to journey into an exile from her own body and identity, fight her primal instinct to seek vengeance and, finally, learn to celebrate herself.

At the end of those two days, I knew Golshifteh was the ideal actress to play Nooran.

Waheeda Rehman has come out of retirement to play a role in The Song of Scorpions. What prompted you to cast her and was it difficult to convince her to be a part of your film?

AS: There is a role in The Song of Scorpions that carries the primal impulse from which the film emerged. It’s a role that holds my deepest beliefs and hopes.

Obviously, I needed an actress whose very presence, whose every gesture would give breath to this secret source of the film.

Once I started thinking of the casting, Waheeda ji kept recurring in my thoughts.

The gentleness and insight with which she looks at you, the grace of her movements were very important to me -- she’s like the incarnation of a song of yearning that we all carry within ourselves.

The song that fills us with the desire to live more fully.

So, I approached her for the role, but was very much aware that she had been saying ‘no’ to everything for the last eight years. Luckily, she had seen Qissa and simply asked me to tell her about the role.

I said to her that the role was about a woman who, when she sang, could bring flowers to bloom in a desert. And that was enough! Her imagination immediately understood the role and she said, “yes”!

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:23:37

THEY BREATH LIFE INTO CINEMA

FROM BEYOND THE FAMILIAR A brief introduction to eight exceptional Indian filmmakers who have created their own dynamic cinematic spaces in a Bollywood-obsessed culture that can barely grasp anything that does not stick to the conventions of popular cinema and its many spinoffs.

ASHISH AVIKUNTHAK

One of India’s leading experimental filmmakers, Kolkata-based Ashish Avikunthak, an associate professor in Film/Media at the Harrington School of Communication and Media of the University of Rhode Island (URI), has over the years had his work screened in festivals, art galleries and museum.

He has been making experimental films since the mid-1990s. His films are underlined by rigorous experimentation with form and content. He has made half a dozen short films and five feature films, including Shadows Formless (2007), Katho Upanishad (2011), Rati Chakravyuh (2013) and Kalkimanthankatha (2015).

A cultural anthropologist with a degree from Stanford University, Avikunthak previously taught in Yale. The Bengali-language AapothkalinTrikalika (The Kali of Emergency), his latest feature-length cinematic essay, became the first-ever Indian film in Berlin’s Forum Expanded. The film poses the question: during social and political turmoil, what is the manifestation of divine intervention?

In the filmmaker’s own words, AapothkalinTrikalika “is not a report but a philosophical comment of the world we live and inhabit, which is deeply vitiated and highly divisive.”

40

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 40

ASHIM AHLUWALIA

Working outside mainstream Bollywood system, the Mumbai-born Ashim Ahluwalia, 45, made a series of experimental short films in the 1990s. These were screened in Tate Modern, Centre Georges Pompidou and the Venice Biennale. In 2005, he completed the feature-length documentary John and Jane. It premiered in TIFF and went on to be screened in the Berlin Film Festival. Ahluwalia cemented his place in a space all his own with Miss Lovely (2011), a delightfully genre-breaking work that probed the underbelly of the 1980s Mumbai movie industry that thrived on C-grade porn-and- horror films. Miss Lovely mirrored the look and feel of the Hindi sexploitation flicks of the period even as it liberally borrowed elements of classic noir, conventional melodrama and docufiction to deliver richly layered cinematic experience. Ahluwalia’s latest film, Daddy, his first project featuring a Bollywood actor (Arjun Rampal) in the lead, brings to the big screen the life and times of Mumbai gangster and politician ArunGawli, shunning the bells and whistles usually associated with Mumbai genre films. Daddy is slated for release in September.

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:23:39

AMIT DUTTA Away from the hustle-bustle of both commercial and independent films in India, there exists a tribe of cinema experimentalists who employ the medium’s infinite possibilities in pursuit of a higher artistic purpose. One of the leading exponents of this fascinating stream of filmmaking is Amit Dutta, 39, whose austere but evocative style draws sustenance from India’s timeless aesthetic dynamics and deep personal concepts and conceits to craft exquisite images in time and space in which the visuals and the sound design merge imperceptibly, achieving awe-inspiring cohesion. The Jammu-born Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) alumnus enjoys a formidable reputation on the global stage as a filmmaker with a pure vision unsullied by the desire to be embraced by the masses. Dutta has been received with enthusiasm in festivals worldwide. He won the FIPRESCI Prize in Oberhausen for Kramasha (2007), bagged the Orizzonti Jury’s Special Mention in Venice for Aadmi Ki AuratAur Anya Kahaniyan (The Man’s Woman and Other Stories, 2009) and was feted in Rotterdam for Sonchidi (The Golden Bird, 2011). Dutta’s 2010 film, Nainsukh, travelled to numerous festivals after premiering in Venice.

Ashim Ahluwalia’s latest film, Daddy, his first project featuring Arjun Rampal in the lead, brings to the big screen the life and times of Mumbai gangster and politician Arun Gawli, shunning the bells and whistles usually associated with Mumbai genre films ANUP SINGH Anup Singh’s cinema is rooted in a distinctive tradition that owes its genesis to the seminal, deeply political and personal work of the late filmmaker RitwikGhatak, a Satyajit Ray contemporary, and his two most notable spiritual successors, Mani Kaul and Kumar Shahani. The 56year-old Dar-es- Salaam born director went to the Pune-based Film and Television Institute of India, completed his course there in 1986, and has since made three feature-length fiction films, including this year’s The Song of Scorpions, which premiered recently at the Locarno Film Festival. Ekti Nadir Naam (The Name of a River, 2003), his first feature-length film, was a widely acclaimed homage to Ghatak. It took Singh a decade to mount his next film, Qissa – The Tale of a Lonely Ghost. The wait was worth it.

The dark and mystical film, which premiered in TIFF in 2013, was an intensely engaging fable that examined the effects of the Partition of India on a Sikh family through the prism of patriarchy and the wounds inflicted on minds and souls by a cataclysmic historical event.

Anup Singh has since completed The Song of Scorpions, starring Irrfan Khan and Golshifteh Farahani.

41

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 41

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:23:39

GURVINDER SINGH Another FTII graduate mentored by the late Mani Kaul, Gurvinder Singh is only two feature films old as a director but he has already earned a name for himself as one of contemporary Indian cinema’s most notable pathbreakers. The two Punjabi-language fiction films that he has made – AnheGhorey Da Daan (Alms for a Blind Horse, 2011), which premiered in Venice, and ChauthiKoot (The Fourth Direction, 2015), which made it to the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes – are uncompromisingly naturalistic portraits of life in the northern state that has been through much turmoil in recent decades. While the former delved into the disruption of village life by indiscriminate industrialization, the latter was set in the days of the Sikh separatist movement in Punjab.

After graduating from FTII at the turn of the millennium, Singh spent several years travelling around Punjab with folk minstrels and balladeers and explored the state’s oral traditions. It yielded the documentary film Pala. He continued to make experimental shorts until Mani Kaul invited him to FTII to be his teaching assistant. The association changed the course of Singh’s career.

SANAL KUMAR SASIDHARAN

One of the most exciting new voices in contemporary Malayalam cinema, lawyerturned- filmmaker Sanal Kumar Sasidharan has taken next to no time in attracting global attention to his unique approach to storytelling.

He is also the founder of a film society in Kerala that enabled him to make his first feature film, the crowd-funded Oraalppokkam (Six Feet High), in 2015. He already has three critically lauded films behind him. His second film was the disarmingly simple but disquieting Ozhivudivasathe Kali (An Off-Day Game), which was a stunning achievement in terms of both form and substance.

Sasidharan’s latest work is Sexy Durga, about an eloping couple who hitch a ride to the train station only to find themselves in the clutches of potential predators.

At the International Film Festival Rotterdam this year, Sexy Durga won the Tiger Award, the first Indian film ever to bag the trophy. His cinema is marked by a certain restlessness, which reflects itself in the socially contentious themes he addresses and the pace at which he works, which lends a sense of urgency to his stories.

42

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 42

VETRIMAARAN

Not one who would be described as an experimental filmmaker in the strictest sense of the term, the 41-year- old Chennai screenwriter-director has a carved a unique niche as a storyteller of substance.

Making his independent directorial debut a decade ago with Polladhavan (Ruthless Man), which also marked the beginning of his association with Tamil actor and producer Dhanush, Vetrimaaran burst on the national scene with Aadukalam, a film set in the world of cock-fighting, in 2011. The film bagged a clutch of National Awards, including one for lead actor Dhanush. Last year, he made Visaranai (Interrogation), a grim, gritty film about victims of police excesses. It premiered in the Orizzonti section of the 72nd Venice Film Festival.

Vetrimaaran also produced the 2015 Kaaka Muttai (Crow’s Egg), which had its world premiere in TIFF. He is currently working on Vada Chennai (North Chennai), a gangster thriller top-lined by Dhanush.

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:23:40

One of the leading exponents of this fascinating stream of filmmaking is Amit Dutta, 39, whose austere but evocative style draws sustenance from India’s timeless aesthetic dynamics and deep personal concepts and conceits to craft exquisite images in time and space in which the visuals and the sound design merge imperceptibly, achieving awe-inspiring cohesion HAOBAM PABAN KUMAR Manipuri documentary filmmaker HaobamPaban Kumar’s first narrative feature Loktak Lairembee (Lady of the Lake), marked a felicitous transition to fiction filmmaking. It is the first feature-length fiction film from Manipur to be selected for a major international film festival (Berlin 2017) since Aribam Syam Sharma’s Ishanou was screened in Cannes in 1991. Loktak Lairembee is about a fisherman who lives in a hut on a phum (floating biomass on a river) under the constant threat of officially sanctioned eviction. One day, he finds a gun and his life changes forever. The film has a rhythm that reflects the pace of life in Paban Kumar’s native state while capturing the urgency of the people faced with the prospect of dislocation. The life of Loktak Lake was also the subject of Phum Shang, a 52-minute documentary film that the 41-year- old director made a couple of years ago.

Paban Kumar was in TIFF over a decade ago with the unflinchingly combative documentary AFSPA, 1958.

Join & Connect

Acce s s

B row s e

S h owc a s e

contacts & films

festivals & markets

your business

The essential B2B net working platform

43

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 43

w w w.cinando.com

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

Powered by Co -funded by the European Union

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:23:40

CREATIVE CONNECTIONS OF CANNES

MIPCOM Opportunities Unlimited Under One Roof The world’s entertainment content market, MIPCOM takes place in Cannes, France from 16 to 19 October 2017, with the over-arching conference theme being, “The Global Race For Creative Connections”.

44

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 44

Britannia premiere The major new original drama series “Britannia”, the first co-production between Sky and Amazon US, will have its World Premiere TV Screening at MIPCOM 2017. Written by multi-award-winning Jez Butterworth, the series stars Kelly Reilly (“True Detective”), David Morrissey (“The Walking Dead”), Zoë Wanamaker (“My Family”), Nikolaj Lie Kaas (“The Killing”) and Eleanor Worthington-Cox (“The Enfield Haunting”). “Britannia” was shot on location in Prague and Wales and will air on Sky Atlantic in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Austria and will be available on Amazon Prime Video in the US in 2018.

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:23:41

Demand on a high Teeming With Opportunities Not only is MIPCOM the place to source and sell the freshest content globally, it is teeming with opportunities to help you create new business, green-light partnerships and lift-off to co-production projects at the earliest stages of development.

Get your new shows in front of key buyers: launch, promote and sell your shows. Kickstart your projects, connect with producers and co-production partners to early-stage finance, cement deals and partnerships.

The content market is in the midst of a global race for creative connections that is shaking the foundations of the industry. Demand for awe-inspiring shows has never been higher, global opportunities never greater. Fierce competition is driving global players to devise multi-local strategies and local players to power up global ambitions. The end goal is to unite players with the best partners, create the best content, nurture the best talent.

Top Guns’ Talk MIPCOM in Figures

45

13,979

1,967

PARTICIPANTS

EXHIBITING COMPANIES

1,600+

4,702

PRODUCERS

REGISTERED COMPANIES

100+

1,600

COUNTRIES

VOD & DIGITAL BUYERS

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 45

Domingo Corral, Head of Original Programming at Movistar+, and Facebook’s Ricky Van Veen, Head of Global Creative Strategy, and Daniel Danker, Director of Video Product, will deliver keynote speeches at MIPCOM 2017.

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:23:41

WHAT NEW A

T ta a m

The American Film Market has announced that it will introduce an online screenings platform, AFM Screenings On Demand, in advance of this year’s market.

The new platform will allow sales companies to screen their films privately for buyers before, during and/or after the American Film Market

AFM has announced the launch of its new ‘Writers Workshops’ series, which will have its inauguration at this year’s market.

These immersive workshops, with instructors from top Universities including USC and UCLA, will take place on Sunday, November 5 and Monday, November 6

46

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 46

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:23:41

W t F p a C a

J M

AT’S W AT AFM 2017 The 38th edition of American Film Market will take place November 1–8 in Santa Monica. Here are some interesting pieces of information about the much awaited event AFM 2017 will witness the launch of LocationEXPO , which will provide both a face-to- face and online platform to connect Film Commissions, production facilities and services with 7,000+ producers, distributors and industry professionals during the AFM, and more than 100,000 film and television professionals year-round

The AFM Conferences deliver tremendous knowledge, insight, access, value and a rare opportunity to hear from the industry’s global thought leaders, decision makers and experts who all converge at AFM annually

We are launching LocationEXPO to serve the growing number of Film Commissions that participate at AFM as well as provide access to AFM attendees for Film Commissions that are unable to attend.

AFM Screenings On Demand will make it easier for buyers to see every film they are interested in.

And with online screenings starting a week before the market, Buyers will now be ready to make offers on completed films when they arrive on opening day.

Film industry professionals from more than 80 counties will be on one platform at AFM. AFM Screenings On Demand, which is free for invited viewers, will begin screening films one week before AFM, and conclude one week after Hong Kong Filmart.

‘Writers Workshops’ will serve as a platform and learning haven for screenwriters

AFM BY NUMBERS

Jonathan Wolf Managing Director of the AFM

47

Jonathan Wolf Managing Director of the AFM

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 47

7000+ Industry Professionals

2000+ New films and Projects

1000+ Production Companies

500+ Screenings

400+ Distributors

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.in

31-08-2017 12:23:42

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

W

e are happy to present the latest issue of Pickle for the delegates at the Toronto International Film Festival and sales and industry representatives. TIFF is unarguably the biggest festival and market in North America.

For India, and now increasingly to South Asia, Toronto has become a hub for discovery of talent. Toronto is a great place to be in especially young Indian filmmakers who are visibly changing the face of Indian cinema. Being discovered at Toronto opens them a new path to their cinematic techniques and excellence.

Toronto leads the global film festival outfits to bring into limelight excellence and best minds in Indian cinema.

TIFF 2017 will premiere Anurag Kashyap’s The Brawler (Mukkebaaz), Hansal Mehta’s Omerta and Bornilla Chatterjee’s The Hungry. Among the most unusual films in TIFF this year is Rima Das’s Assameselanguage Village Rockstars (selected for the Discovery section). Featuring child actors from Das’native Chhaygaon village, where it is set, the film tells the story of a poor but spirited girl who aspires to buy a guitar and make music. In the documentary film Azmaish: A Journey through the Subcontinent, Kalki Koechlin joins director Sabiha Sumar on a voyage across India and Pakistan.

India’s Priyanka Chopra will be the Guest of Honour at TIFF Soiree -- a fund raiser in support of “Share Her Journey” campaign to support female voices in the cinema industries. Priyanka Chopra will speak and discuss about her career in and outside of the film industry during an on stage conversation to be moderated by TIFF Artistic Director, Cameron Bailey.

2017 also marks a special year for India as Canada will be `Focus Country’ at the International Film Festival of India, Goa from November 20-28, 2017.

The Indian media ecosystem is changing fast. There are few markets in the world where you could see both traditional and new media flourishing. The Over-theTop (OTT) space is gaining attraction in the Indian market with the presence of Hotstar, Voot, ErosNow, Ditto TV, HOOQ and Sony LIv. Amazon Prime and Netflix are expanding market presence in India.

If you have plans to visit India, schedule it around end of November and be part of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s The Big Picture Summit (November 24-25, New Delhi). The objective is to grow Indian M&E industry towards US$ 100 billion.

Pickle’s October print issue will focus and reach out to delegates at MIP Junior and MIPCOM -- the world’s biggest audiovisual market at Cannes, France. Feel free to email your thoughts and suggestions.

n vidyasagar pickle media nvidyasagar@picklemag.in, www.picklemag.com

Pickle Volume XI 1st edition Published by Pickle Media Private Limited Email: natvid@gmail.com O Mumbai O Chennai No.2, Habib Complex Dr Durgabhai Deshmukh Road RA Puram CHENNAI 600 028

Printed by Bon Graphics New #7, Arumugam Nagar, Dayalan Garden, Chinna Porur, Chennai – 600 116 Mobile: +91 9884816263 Email: bon_graphics@yahoo.co.in

Editorial Coordinators : M Sai Email: natvid@gmail.com

For advertising: natvid@gmail.com

C

48

Pickle Business Guide 2017 Copyright 2017 by Pickle Media Pvt Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Pickle is an ad supported business guide tracking the filmed entertainment business in India.

pickle entertainment biz guide

Pickle_Toronto_Sep_2017_Inner_Pages.indd 48

Layout Design: M Agnes Julie

LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

www.picklemag.com

31-08-2017 12:23:42