Smart City India

Budget USD 600,000 Financing in place USD 150,000 Production Company Andolan Films

Present at Film Bazaar Rohin Raveendran Nair Arya Menon Looking for Co-Producers Financiers Film Festivals/Programmers

Smart City

India | Hindi | Drama

Synopsis

Just a day after relocating to a remote developing city, Arun Damodaran (35), a shopping mall manager, finds himself trapped inside his new flat in a high-rise, due to Covid-induced nationwide lockdown. Dreading lonely days, Arun eavesdrops on a family of four–a middle-aged couple and their two daughters, staying a floor below his flat, made possible by the building’s thin flooring. He even devices a makeshift listening setup to hear them more clearly, thus soothing his nerves- strained by the lockdown. But his foray into this family’s life turns into a nightmare when Arun discovers something unnatural going on within the family. The nightmare merges with his own nightmarish past involving his father. It traps not only him but the entire apartment building into its frenzy as the family, with the matriarch Renuka (59) at its head, seeps into his life, as it does into the lives of others living there. And with that, he and the other residents start losing touch with reality, heralded on a journey together toward a non-existent new world, of which, Arun soon finds out he is the saviour figure. Until that voice of sanity returns and yanks him back to reality, compelling him to stop the wheel of fate, albeit at a great personal sacrifice.

I survived the Covid-19 pandemic by remaining holed up inside my apartment in Mumbai while the dread of this virus almost won over my mental faculties. Our flats became like mini-islands cut off from an invisible mainland and this forced detachment from our loved ones made me once again realize that sometimes the things we crave the most could be as simple as seeing the face of one’s mother or being able to attend the funeral of a dear relative, in person. With Smart City, I wanted to explore the extent to which a young man, cooped up inside his apartment at the height of the pandemic, would go to rekindle some connection with humanity, and thus reclaim his mental peace. But in my protagonist Arun’s case, his voyeuristic descent into the affairs of this family living on a floor below him takes him down on a nightmarish journey into the very heart of evil.

Director(s)’ Biography

Rohin Raveendran Nair is an independent writer-director based out of Mumbai. Till now, he has directed three short films and a feature-length brand film for the mobile group, One Plus. The latter, titled 2024 is a dystopian survival drama set in Mumbai of 2024, when a lethal virus wreaks havoc on this metropolis. 2024 is streaming in India on Disney+Hotstar. Rohin’s recent short film, The Booth, produced by Vikramaditya Motwane (Andolan Films) is currently streaming on MUBI after festival screenings at POFF Shorts, Iris Prize LGBT+ Film Festival, etc.

Rohin Raveendran Nair Director

(+91) 7838121343 rohin.raveendran@gmail.com

Producer(s)’ Biography

Vikramaditya Motwane is a writer, director and producer working primarily in Hindi films. He helms the Mumbai-based production house, Andolan Films. His filmography includes Udaan (2010) (selected for ‘Un Certain Regard’ at Cannes Film Festival 2010), Lootera (2013), Trapped (2016) and Bhavesh Joshi (2018) and was the showrunner and co-director on Sacred Games (2018). His next project is Jubilee, a web series for Amazon Prime.

Arya Menon has worked in film production at Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment and Equinox Films. She produced Famous In Ahmedabad (National Award for Best Non-feature Film 2015). She was a series producer on Sacred Games, and Decoupled. Other credits include Wade, I See You, The Booth. Arya is co-founder of Odd & Even Pictures, which has produced Kiss, and 2024.

Vikramaditya Motwane Producer

(+91) 9711277192 vm@andolan.com

Arya Menon Producer

(+91) 98330 52824 arya@oddandeven.com