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Basil Content cooks up indie agency BY LIZ SHACKLETON
Producer Vivek Kajaria (Fandry) has launched a film sales and representation agency, Basil Content, which aims to connect film-makers and producers with distribution and film festivals. The company is co founded by Sanjay Ram, a former festival programmer and production executive, and has also appointed Rajat Goswami as director of acquisitions. Titles on the company’s debut slate include Pulkit’s Maroon, Ananya Kasaravalli’s Chronicles Of Hari, Samit Kakkad’s Half Ticket, Brahmanand S Siingh’s Kaagaz Ki Kashti and Dnyanesh Zoting’s Raakshas. Basil Content is involved in festival strategy, PR, marketing and consultation, in addition to sales. It has also tied up with digital aggregator FilmKaravan to strengthen digital distribution of its slate. “There are no real support systems in place for indie film-makers; nobody is repping them or helping them explore international film festivals and distribution,” said Kajaria. “Our intention is to bridge that gap.” Ram added that the company will develop a unique strategy for each film-maker, working with theatrical, satellite and digital platforms, to ensure they recover the cost of production. The new outfit will also assist overseas festivals and government organisations in accessing the Indian market.
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Saregama plots indies BY UDITA JHUNJHUNWALA
Indian powerhouse music label Saregama is planning to produce 100 films in the next five years to build a significant library of indie Indian films with budgets of about $500,000 each. The slate will include mostly genre-based projects in a variety of Indian languages. Shooting now are Devashish Makhija’s Hindi-language revenge story Ajji; Samit Kakkad’s Hindi and English-language love story AscharyaFuckIt, about two
different strata of society; and Nikhil Bhatt’s Brij Mohan Amar Rahe, a satire of the legal system. Vikram Mehra, MD of Saregama, said: “We are interested in producing eclectic, niche and tricky topics where story is the key. While the story and budget are central criteria, we are looking at a model that’s not dependent on a theatrical release, which takes off the burden of a big P&A spend. Instead we will focus on festivals, SVoD, cable/satellite, etc.” Mehra added that the
Sherwin Crasto
company is open to a profitsharing model. “Like we have royalties for music, we are also open to a profitsharing model with the director, writer, actor, DoP, etc. The other big opportunity is that we can leverage Saregama’s rich music catalogue.” Agency Tulsea is a key stakeholder and is advising Saregama on packaging, talent and content strategy. On board are screenwriter Anjum Rajabali as script consultant and Guneet Monga as executive producer. “The process of narration is very helpful. If you catch yourself narrating your story with nuances in a certain way, you will see the edit of the film. I always shoot with a particular edit in mind,” said Imtiaz Ali, writer-director of films including Jab We Met and Highway, speaking at a Knowledge Series session here yesterday. “The important thing, however, is the story and not the technique.”
HP boots up with Nandita Das’s Manto Technology giant Hewlett Packard (HP) has taken its place as the primary funder of Nandita Das’s Manto, which was presented at the Co-Production Market here last year. HP joins independent Indian production company Movie Makers and France’s En
Compagnie des Lamas, which brings financing from French government agency CNC. “We are in serious talks with a studio partnership and Swedish producer Helena Danielsson. It has taken me more than two years to find the money and slowly things are coming together,” said
Indian actress and director Das, who plans to start shooting Manto in March. The biopic of IndoPakistani writer Saadat Hasan Manto will star The Lunchbox actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Qissa actress Rasika Dugal. Udita Jhunjhuwala
TODAY
Indie distribution, page 14
PROFILES Project launchpad Meet the film-makers in the Co-Production Market and Screenwriters’ Lab. » Page 10
FEATURE Road less travelled Indie films going directly to audiences in India and abroad » Page 14
IDrream says hello to Sir BY LIZ SHACKLETON
Following its return to film production with A Death In The Gunj, Studioz IDrream will produce Mumbai-set drama Sir, written and directed by Rohena Gera. The film, which marks Gera’s fictional feature debut, revolves around the relationships between the middle class and their domestic helpers in Mumbai society. “The story tackles Indian taboos but I want it to be understood outside of India,” said Gera. A scriptwriter with credits including Kuch Naa Kaho and Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic, Gera made her directing debut in 2013 with documentary What’s Love Got To Do With It?. Studioz IDrream CEO Ashish Bhatnagar said he wanted to produce the film because “our company aims to tell Indian stories that can resonate globally”. Bhatnagar and Gera are in talks with a potential French co-producer. Rakesh Mehra (Qissa) will serve as line producer, while the crew also includes French DoP Dominique Colin. Konkona Sensharma’s A Death In The Gunj is picking up accolades on the festival circuit after its Toronto premiere.
21/11/2016 20:47
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NEWS
Word is out on T For Taj Mahal Kireet Khurana’s T For Taj Mahal, which was selected for NFDC’s Screenwriters’ Lab in 2013, is now completing principal photography in north India for delivery by February. Abis Rizvi Films produces the Hindilanguage film, which is based on a story by Ashish Aryan with a screenplay written by Khurana and Aryan. T For Taj Mahal takes on the issue of illiteracy in a light-hearted manner, telling the story of a man who finds a unique way to bring literacy to his village. Rizvi said: “I was looking for a film set in India but with a wider appeal for an international audience. When Ashish approached me with his script, I felt the fit because literacy is a topic that is universally relatable.” The cast includes Subrat Dutta, Pitobash Tripathy, Manoj Pahwa, Bidita Bag and Ali Faulkner. Key crew includes Polish cinematographer Michal Sosna and Oscarwinning sound designer Resul Pookutty. Khurana, who has won multiple National Awards for his short films, recently co-directed documentary The Leftist Sufi. His most recent feature was 2010’s animated-live action Toonpur Ka Superhero. Udita Jhunjhunwala
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BY WENDY MITCHELL
Since India’s first Film Facilitation Office (FFO) was announced at last year’s Film Bazaar, 50 nodal officers have been appointed by various state and central government departments to act as filming contacts in their geographic regions or areas of expertise. There are 36 nodal officers at the state level, and then officers nominated to a range of ministries and departments including those that govern railways, the environment, archeological sites and animal welfare. “An international filmmaker or a domestic filmmaker can have a single contact to help deal with issues that confront filmmakers,” said Vikramjit Roy, head of the FFO. Many of the nodal officers are here at Film Bazaar
Sherwin Crasto
Kireet Khurana
FFO opens doors for producers, government
FFO chief Vikramjit Roy
attending today’s FFO workshop, which will include sessions from international producers who have previously shot in India, such as Hong Kong’s Philip Lee and Sweden’s Malte Forssell. Other topics at today’s invitation-only workshop include developing film tourism, the ideal role of a film commission, and lessons learned in Gujarat, the 2016 National Award winner for the most filmfriendly state.
The FFO is supported by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting under the NFDC, with the aim to create a one-stop shop for international film-makers, who can learn about Indian locations, the country’s talent pool and facilities, and clearances and permissions. Roy said: “We want the FFO to be a single-window mechanism to position and promote India as a filmfriendly destination and ensure there is a film-
friendly ecosystem developing within the county.” The FFO’s next big step will be launching a web portal in mid-2017. It will take the application process online and offer a locations database, detail filming policies and co-production treaty information, and provide a directory of crews and facilities. Since the FFO kicked off in earnest in late June, it has helped to facilitate 14 applications for film and television series, including Stephen Frears’ historical drama Victoria And Abdul starring Judi Dench, and Neil Biswas’s supernatural thriller Darkness Visible. ) 10:00-17:30 FFO Workshop: ‘Film in India — Creating a Film Friendly Nation’, Goa Marriott Resort. By invitation only.
Festival strategy ‘an art not a science’ BY WENDY MITCHELL
Think about your film first and your launch second, advised Thithi director Raam Reddy at Monday’s Knowledge Series panel about film festivals and markets. “Make the best film you can make, then position it and decide which is your best premiere,” he advised. After Thithi won awards at Locarno, Reddy turned down more than 50 festival invitations so he could take time to complete the final version of his film. “It’s more of an art than a science,” he said of navigat-
Raam Reddy
ing the world of film festivals and marketing. Chris Paton, a delegate for San Sebastian Film Festival and former acquisitions executive at Fortissimo Films, said that for filmmakers who do not yet have a sales company, expert
advice and networking somewhere like Film Bazaar can be essential. “Turn to the NFDC or Uma [da Cunha, festival expert and fellow panel member] to get advice about the festival route to go with,” he advised. “All festivals have their own finite rules and you need someone to guide you.” Paolo Bertolin, programmer for Venice film festival, agreed that with so many films now being made in India and around the globe, “it is difficult to get selected [for a major festival]… Whenever this very rare
opportunity comes, you have to grab it and not to waste this chance. The obvious advice is that you should get a sales agent… or at the very least a good press agent.” Titli director Kanu Behl recalled the “bizarre journey” of his film, which was scouted in the Film Bazaar Viewing Room. The UK’s WestEnd Films boarded international sales, and hired an international publicist, well before the film premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2014. “It was a massive difference that we had that team in place before we went to Cannes,” he said.
November 22, 2016 Screen International at Film Bazaar 5
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EVENTS TUESDAY 22nd
Ballroom, Goa Marriott Resort Trends in VR storytelling. Speakers Gitanjali Rao, film-maker and animator; Mirjam Vosmeer, co-ordinator of Interaction and Games Lab, Amsterdam Creative Industries Network
Queen
10:00 KNOWLEDGE SERIES INVESTOR’S PITCH — FILM BAZAAR RECOMMENDS PART 1 Duration 2 hours Location Ballroom, Marriott Goa Resort Film-makers in Film Bazaar Recommends present trailers of their movies to an audience of investors, producers, sales agents and distributors.
16:45
12:45 KNOWLEDGE SERIES QUEEN’S JOURNEY — FILMING IN THE NETHERLANDS See box, right
13:00 LUNCH Duration 2 hours Location Waterfront,
Goa Marriott Resort Hosted by Rajasthan
12:45 KNOWLEDGE SERIES QUEEN’S JOURNEY — FILMING IN THE NETHERLANDS Duration 30 minutes Location Ballroom,
Goa Marriott Resort Speakers Bas Van
der Ree, film commissioner, Netherlands Film Fund; Thomas Drijver, producer,
New Amsterdam Film Company; Vivek Bajrang Agrawal, producer of Queen The hit 2014 film Queen is just one
Indian film that shot in the Netherlands. Learn more from the Queen team and local experts about shooting in the Netherlands.
13:45 KNOWLEDGE SERIES VOD AS THE KEY DISTRIBUTION PLATFORM FOR INDIES Duration 45 minutes Location Ballroom, Goa Marriott Resort Speakers Orly Ravid, founder of The Film Collaborative; Suri Gopalan, CEO of Vista India Exploring VoD
Editorial office Room 170 Goa Marriott Resort & Spa
opportunities including data analysis, emerging business models, international trends and best practices. 14:45 KNOWLEDGE SERIES WOMAN PROTAGONISTS IN INDIAN FILMSCAPE — CHANGING DYNAMICS Duration 45 minutes
Location Ballroom, Goa Marriott Resort How female protagonists in the Hindi film industry have changed for the better in the last few years. Speakers Shoojit Sircar, filmmaker; Tannishtha Chatterjee, actor; Vani Tripathi Tikoo, actor, film-maker, screenwriter
Asia editor Liz Shackleton lizshackleton@gmail.com Dailies news editor Wendy Mitchell wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com Reporter Udita Jhunjhunwala uditaj@gmail.com Production editor Mark Mowbray mark.mowbray@screendaily.com
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15:45 KNOWLEDGE SERIES GOOGLE YOUTUBE: BUILDING COMMUNITIES AND ICONS Duration 45 minutes Location Ballroom, Goa Marriott Resort How communities on YouTube can be used by independent film-makers to market
and monetise their work. Speaker Satya Raghavan, head of content operations, YouTube India 18:00
19:00 COCKTAILS
KNOWLEDGE SERIES STORYTELLING AND NARRATIVES IN 360° VR Duration 45mins Location Grand
Photographer Sherwin Crasto sherwin@solarisimages.com Advertising Ingrid Hammond ingridhammond@mac.com Printer Anitha Art Printers, 29-30 Oasis Industrial Estate, Santacruz (East), Mumbai — 55 2665 2970, 2665 2954 printing@anitaprinters.com
KNOWLEDGE SERIES UNIQUE DISTRIBUTION MODELS — REACHING OUT THE INDIE Duration 1 hour Location Ballroom, Goa Marriott Resort Panelists Sandeep Mohan, film-maker; Sudevan Peringode, film-maker, PACE Trust; Vivek Paul, co-founder and CEO of Reelmonk With the help of case studies, the panelists look at the distribution of films through alternative channels, and also discuss how indie film-makers can gauge audience needs.
Location North
Central Lawns, Goa Marriott Resort Hosted by Akbar Travels and UFO Digital Cinema
Screen International UK office MBI, Zetland House, Scrutton Street, London EC2A 4HJ, UK Subscriptions +44 330 333 9414 help@subscribe.screendaily.com
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21/11/2016 17:24
SCREENINGS Edited by Paul Lindsell
» Screening times and venues are correct at the time of going to press but subject to alteration.
paullindsell@gmail.com
Selvaraj. Key cast: Sruthi Hariharan, Vicky, Sarvesh Sridhar. Languages: Tamil, Hindi. A tale of unrequited love and unexplored desires. A taxi driver meets his childhood love one rainy night in Mumbai. He longs to reconnect but finds only an abyss.
TUESDAY 22nd 09:45 6 MARKS: BATTLE OF EDUCATION (SAHA GUNN) (India) 116mins. Dir: Kiran Sabhaji Gawade. Key cast: Sunil Barve, Amruta Subhash, Archit Deodhar. Language: Marathi. A film about competitive schooling, where scoring in the first rank is considered more important than the mental trauma pupils are put through at the hands of their own parents. Qube 3
DAAGADI CHAAWL (India) 120mins. Dir: Chandrakant Kanase. Key cast: Ankush Chaudhary, Pooja Sawant, Makarant Deshpande, Sanjay Khapare. Language: Marathi. The story of a middle-class boy who unexpectedly finds himself part of a Mumbai gang war.
Qube 2
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12:00 AN EVENING (SAANJH) (India) 105mins. Dir: Ajay Saklani. Key cast: Aditi Charak, Asif Basra, Taranjit Kaur, Vishal Parpagga,
12:00 AN EVENING (SAANJH) See box, above
Qube 2
BLACK SHEEP (India) 72mins. Dir: Reshel Shah. Key cast: Reshel Shah, Mariya Jadhav, Sneha. Languages: Hindi, English. An emotional story about the transgender women of India, and understanding them as people rather than as a label.
TALKING OF MICHELANGELO (India) 62mins. Dir: Modhurima Sinha. Key cast: Sreenanda Shankar, Abhinandan Dutta, Siddharth Ghosh. Language: English. Story of a married woman trapped in a world of wealth and style, who discovers her soul and a new meaning to life through the city of Kolkata.
Qube 1
Qube 3
11:00
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Rupeshwari Sharma. Languages: Himachali, Dogri. A 16-year-old city girl is forcibly taken to a remote village to be a companion for her lonely grandmother.
Das. Key cast: Nihar Thakkar, Rekha Rana, Awadesh Mishra. Language: Hindi. Three strangers are kidnapped and held hostage in a bunker for several days.
Qube 2
Qube 3
16:00 MANTO’S WORLD (MANTOSTAAN) See box, below
NILA (India) 96mins. Dir: Selvamani
THE ADOPTED (DATTAK) (India) 120mins. Dir: Gul Bahar Singh. Key cast: Rajit Kapoor, AK Hangal, Kritika Desai, Anjan Srivastav. Language: Hindi. Sunil, a non-resident Indian, returns after 15 years to visit his father but is shocked to find out he passed away a few months earlier in an old people’s home. Qube 1
14:00 AKURI... AND A PINCH OF HOPE (India) 22mins. Dir: Jamshid Roointon. Key cast: Darshan Gokani, Sushant Kandya, Firdaus Mevawalla. Languages: Hindi, Gujarati, English. A humane and simple narrative of how an optimistic state of the mind can lead to positive outcomes and circumstances. Qube 2
BLACK SEPTEMBER (India) 104mins. Dir: Hemant Nilim
16:00 MANTO’S WORLD (MANTOSTAAN) (India) 92mins. Dir: Rahat Kazmi. Key cast: Shoib
Nikash Shah, Sonal Sehgal, Raghubir Yadav. Language: Hindi. Based on four short stories by legendary
writer Saadat Hassan Manto, Manto’s World tells of the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. Qube 3
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Goa gets the party started Where Film Bazaar and the 47th International Film Festival of India When November 20, 2016 IFFI opening ceremony and Film Why Bazaar’s welcome cocktails
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GUEST LIST
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1 Actresses Suhasini Maniratnam and Surveen Chawla at the opening ceremony of the 47th International Film Festival of India Veteran playback singer SP 2 Balasubrahmanyam at the ceremony Film-makers Nagesh Kukunoor and 3 Leila Kilani 4 Film-maker Ramesh Sippy with his wife, actress Kiran Juneja Keith Gomes, Starfish Productions, 5 with Karishma Sharma, Red Thread Productions, at the NFDC welcome cocktails
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amal Jain, Superfine Films, and K Saidah Jules, Lucid Films 7 Thomas Den Drijver, New Amsterdam Film Company, Monique Ruinen, Netherlands Film Fund, and Nienke Poelsma, Cinekid Festival 8 Aviva Silver, NEAcinema, and Celine Loop, What About Productions 9 Virtual reality lounge (room 184) at Film Bazaar 10 Olga Kolegaeva, Moscow Business Square, Anastasia Perova, BBP Alliance, and Yulia Lukashuk, Veles Media
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November 22, 2016 Screen International at Film Bazaar 9
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PROJECT PROFILES CO-PRODUCTION MARKET
CO-PRODUCTION MARKET
Joseph’s Son (India)
The Return (India)
Director Haobam Paban Kumar
Director Asad Hussain
Language Manipuri
Language Hindi
Imphal-based film-maker Haobam Paban Kumar scooped the Golden Gateway Award at this year’s Mumbai Film Festival for his debut narrative feature Lady Of The Lake. The film, about fisherfolk threatened with losing their homes on Manipur’s Loktak Lake, received its world premiere at Busan. An acclaimed documentarian, Kumar has won National Film Awards for three of this films: AFSPA, 1958 (2008), Mr. India (2009) and Floating Life (2014). He made the latter as a precursor to Lady Of The Lake. His second narrative feature, Joseph’s Son ( Josephki Macha), is set against the real ethnic clash between the Kuki and Naga tribes in Manipur. “In Indian cinema we talk about caste politics but ethnicity is unique to my part of the country. It is creating a lot of problems in the northeast,” says Kumar. Joseph’s Son is about a man who
reluctantly heads to the morgue on the very last day possible to identify a body he fears might be that of his missing son. The story explores his journey, the characters he meets along the way and his empathy towards those around him in his time of grief. “He meets an old friend from Nepal who asks him if he is a Kuki or a Naga. This is the first time he has to define himself,” says Kumar. He adds that the lead character does not want time to move on this particular day. “Cinematically I might play around with this idea of stopping time — that will be my challenge as a film-maker.” As with Lady Of The Lake, Kumar might work with non-professional actors and hopes to shoot in April 2017 in Manipur. His own production outfit, Oli Pictures, will produce and he is seeking finance and co-producers at Film Bazaar. Udita Jhunjhunwala
The directorial debut of screenwriter Asad Hussain, The Return (Wapsi) revolves around a migrant worker who is hastily called to return to Delhi from Dubai following the disappearance of his son. The story is inspired by many people that Hussain knows who, like the protagonist, have spent most of their lives away from home in an attempt to provide a better future for their families. “After years dreaming of returning home, the protagonist finds himself a stranger to the city and his own family. Where is home for someone like him? That’s a question The Return engages with,” says Hussain, whose script was selected for NFDC Screenwriters’ Lab last year. Hussain says the film is a love story about a long-married couple who are thrown together by trauma and discover each other for the first time. From being intimate strangers, they learn how to be companions while searching for
their son. A large part of the film is set on the fringes of Delhi, where new arrivals often find shelter. Hussain explains these densely populated areas have boomed with unplanned construction and have their own visual character, rich with cinematic possibilities. Hussain, a recipient of the MacDowell Colony Fellowship, writes for both theatre and cinema in India. His latest play, Naqqaash, was developed in collaboration with the UK’s Royal Court Theatre. His screenwriting credits include independent films Children Of War, Virgin Goat and Hotel Salvation, which premiered at Venice. The Return will be produced by Paandaan Films, a company founded by Hussain and producer Abbas Raza Khan for this project. Khan is an experienced assistant director, having worked on 10 feature films as well as commercials, music videos and shorts. Silvia Wong
Joseph’s Son
The Return
Producer Haobam Paban Kumar Production company Oli Pictures Budget $210,000 ($55,000 raised to date) Contact Haobam Paban Kumar haobampaban@gmail.com
Producers Abbas Raza Khan Production company Paandaan Films Budget $525,000 ($21,000 raised to date) Contact Abbas Raza Khan abbas.r.khan@gmail.com
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» Joseph’s Son p10 » The Return p10 » The Salt In Our Waters p11
CO-PRODUCTION MARKET
» The Sunshine p11 » Three Curve Bent p12 » The Umesh Chronicles p12
CO-PRODUCTION MARKET
The Salt In Our Waters (US-Bangladesh)
The Sunshine (India)
Director Rezwan Shahriar Sumit
Director Leena Manimekalai
Language Bengali
Languages Tamil, English, Thai, Sinhala
Set in Bangladesh’s southern coastal districts, The Salt In Our Waters (Nonajoler Kabbo) follows a sculptor who moves to a remote fishing island to work on his next project, but finds himself up against a force he has only read about in newspapers, as the local fishing community braces itself for a powerful cyclone. Bangladesh’s southern region, which has one of the world’s longest unbroken seashores, is constantly ravaged by cyclones that make international headlines with images of destruction and suffering. But the local fishermen always manage to return their lives to normal. “What is the source of their strength? Is it their deep sense of spirituality and togetherness with the ocean? Is it plain economics or is it their culture? These are the questions I’m setting out to explore,” says writer-director Rezwan Shahriar Sumit of his first
feature. A native of Bangladesh, Sumit is currently completing a graduate film programme at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. In January, The Salt In Our Waters won an award from the Spike Lee Film Production Fund, which provides completion funds to selected students for their thesis films. Zeng Jinwei will serve as director of photography on the film. His credits include Liu Yulin’s short film Door God, which won a Student Academy Award in 2014. The film will be produced by Gigi Dement, who became the first Filipina producer to win an Oscar when God Of Love won best liveaction short in 2011. Her feature producing credits include Macdara Vallely’s New York-set drama Babygirl, which won the Panavision Spirit Award for Independent Cinema at Santa Barbara Film Festival in 2013. Silvia Wong
» The Ward p13 » Unresolved p13 » Time To Go p13
“What it is to be a refugee in the age of genocide is a question that haunts me,” says Leena Manimekalai, a Chennai-based poet and film-maker devoted to the cause of social justice. She adds that during the 27-year civil war in Sri Lanka, the United Nations estimated that up to 100,000 Tamil civilians were killed and another 2 million were forced to seek refuge overseas. “I resolve to ensure these affected people are seen as people rather than statistics. Translating human trauma and displacement to film language can be a daunting challenge. But it is necessary, as behind the rhetoric are real people, each with a unique and often tragic story,” she says. Largely based on the experiences of co-writer Shobasakthi (aka Antonythasan Jesuthasan), The Sunshine follows a young Tamil refugee from war-torn north Sri Lanka who embarks on a perilous journey through India, Nepal and Thailand towards an uncertain destination.
Shobasakthi is a novelist who made his acting and screenwriting debut in Manimekalai’s first narrative feature, Sengadal, before landing the title role in Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2015. He will also act in The Sunshine. In 2011, Sengadal won the Network of Asian Women’s Film Festivals award at Tokyo International Women’s Film Festival. That film, about the plight of Tamil fishermen, was initially banned by the Indian censor board before being cleared for release. Manimekalai’s work also includes a dozen documentaries, short films and video poems. In 2008, Goddesses won the Golden Conch for best international documentary at Mumbai International Film Festival. The Sunshine is produced by Chennai-based Dream Warrior Pictures, founded by brothers SR Prakashbabu and SR Prabhu. Silvia Wong
The Salt In Our Waters
The Sunshine
Producers Gigi Dement Production company Laboratory NYC Budget $280,000 ($70,000 raised to date)Contact Rezwan Shahriar Sumit rss457@nyu.edu
Producers SR Prakashbabu, SR Prabhu Production company Dream Warrior Pictures Budget $3m ($300,000 raised to date) Contact SR Prabhu prabhu@dwp.in
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PROFILES CO-PRODUCTION MARKET
CO-PRODUCTION MARKET
CO-PRODUCTION MARKET
Three Curve Bent (India)
The Umesh Chronicles (India-Sweden)
Director Renuka Shahane
Director Pooja Kaul
Languages English, Marathi
Languages Hindi, English
Set in Mumbai from the 1960s to the present day, Three Curve Bent (Tribhanga) is a tale of three generations of women from the same family. The grandmother is an expert in Marathi literature, but her divorce has shattered the idyllic childhood of her daughter, who becomes a model-actress in the 1980s and gives birth out of wedlock. The semi-autobiographical film is very personal to writer-director Renuka Shahane. “I’ve used my own experiences growing up in a conservative Maharashtrian milieu as a child of divorced parents, which was quite unacceptable in those times,” she says. “As a feminist, I want to explore the struggle of the film’s three strong women with the insidious patriarchy that exists even today and their unique choices of how to live their lives. And despite the dysfunctionality of their relationships, how they support each other in immeasurable ways.” Shahane’s script was selected for
the Mumbai Mantra-Sundance Institute Screenwriters’ Lab in 2013. She also plans to serve as producer on the film, as she says it is not easy to find a suitable producer for a film that is women-centric and mainly in the English language. An award-winning film and TV actress, Shahane made her directorial debut in 2009 with Rita, adapted from her mother Shanta Gokhale’s novel Rita Welingkar. The film won best director for a Marathi film at the Star Screen Awards and best screenplay for a Marathi film at Pune Film Festival, both in 2010. Jabeen Merchant, who won the prize for best editor of a documentary with Invoking Justice at Mumbai International Film Festival in 2014, will reteam with Shahane on Three Curve Bent, following their collaboration on Rita. The film will be produced by Padachinnha Production, which Shahane launched in Mumbai last year. Silvia Wong
Based on writer-director Pooja Kaul’s experiences, The Umesh Chronicles stems from her observations of middle-class Indian life in the 1980s. Set in a small town, the story examines how personalities are shaped, focusing on the relationships between an eight-yearold girl and her school teachers, her extended family, a servant boy and later with a young ironing boy who lives down the street. “The Indian middle class rarely sees their stories told and almost never on film,” says Kaul. “I hope my story offers resonance and a space to both celebrate and question their values.” The Umesh Chronicles is Kaul’s debut feature and has already won script and project development support from International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund. Her short film Rasikan Re, which premiered at Rotterdam in 2003, was shot by Jakob Ihre and
edited by Helle Le Fevre. Both are on board for her new film. Ihre’s work on Joachim Trier’s Louder Than Bombs picked up the Kanon Film Award for cinematography at Norway’s Kosmorama, while Le Fevre is UK director Joanna Hogg’s regular editor. Kaul studied at the UK’s National Film and Television School. The Umesh Chronicles is her return to film-making after taking a break to raise her family. It also marks the first Asian project for Stockholm-based Charlotte Most, who is producing through Mostfilm, the production company she founded in 2000. Her credits as producer include Mans Mansson’s debut feature Roland Hassel and his latest film The Yard, as well as William Olsson’s Reliance, which picked up three awards (grand jury prize, best screenplay and best cinematography) at Shanghai International Film Festival in 2013. Silvia Wong
Three Curve Bent
The Umesh Chronicles
Producer Renuka Shahane Production company Padachinnha Production Budget $478,200 ($119,550 raised to date) Contact Renuka Shahane renukash@hotmail.com
Producer Charlotte Most Production company Saral Films (India), Mostfilm (Sweden) Budget $1.2m ($144,000 raised to date) Contact Charlotte Most charlotte@mostfilm.se
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SCREENWRITERS’ LAB PROFILES
SCREENWRITERS’ LAB
SCREENWRITERS’ LAB
SCREENWRITERS’ LAB
The Ward (India)
Unresolved (India)
Time To Go (India)
Writer-director Kris Suresh Rajan
Writer-director Vikram Singh
Writer-director Mansi Nirmal Jain
Languages Tamil, Malayalam, English, Hindi
Language Punjabi
Language Hindi
The Ward revolves around a young trainee nurse who seeks to outshine her peers for a full-time job at a government hospital, but soon realises her success depends on an ability to immerse herself in a work culture that is awash with moral ambiguity. “A drama that focuses on women in the workplace is not a topic that receives very much attention in Indian cinema,” says writer-director Kris Suresh Rajan. “I’ve observed my mother and sister as they forged their own careers in business and medicine. At a subconscious level, I take it for granted that women should be afforded such opportunities, but that is not the case in India, even across affluent segments of society.” Rajan studied film directing at New York University, where he was awarded the Technisphere Award for outstanding creative achievement in 2011. He also worked as an editor on US director John Sayles’ Go For Sisters and as a researcher, writer and editor on documentaries. Rajan, who grew up in Hong Kong and spent 15 years in New York, is based in both London and Chennai. Silvia Wong
Set in Chandigarh, Unresolved focuses on three characters whose lives are interconnected and blighted by an incident of violence in the past. The protagonist is determined to seek revenge when he discovers his girlfriend’s uncle is the inspector general responsible for his brother’s death. “The years of conflict in Punjab cast a very important backdrop for the film, although it is set in a time when peace was returning to the region,” says writer-director Vikram Singh, who went to college in Chandigarh in the 1980s when the Punjab militancy was in full swing. “The film deals with complex questions that don’t really have satisfactory answers for the characters,” he says. But he is certain that revenge is futile. “The power of forgiveness is far greater than revenge. It heals wounds that won’t otherwise mend.” Singh, now based in Mumbai, has written more than a dozen scripts, including UnIndian (2015), a Sydney-set romantic comedy directed by Anupam Sharma, and Beyond The Sun for US-based Sixth Sense Productions. His directing credits include children’s film Mastang Mama and nine-part children’s mystery series Chakkar 4. Silvia Wong
Time To Go is a comedy about a 57-year-old married man who is convinced there is a curse on his family that causes all the men to die suddenly before turning 58. His paranoia wreaks havoc on the family, including his underappreciated wife, who mistakenly thinks he is leaving her for a younger woman. “The film is a humorous take on a curse that some people believe exists in my family,” says writer-director Mansi Nirmal Jain, who set the story for her debut feature in her home city of Delhi. Sound designer Resul Pookutty, who won an Academy Award for Slumdog Millionaire, is attached to Time To Go, which is produced by Munish Bhardwaj’s production company Delhi Talkies. Bhardwaj recently directed crime drama In Greed We Trust, on which Jain was a co-writer and associate director. Jain has written award-winning scripts, including 42nd And Bombay, which took first place in the short film category at Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, and Everything Is Fine, her thesis short film at New York’s Columbia University, which won the Katharina OttoBernstein Grant. Silvia Wong
The Ward
Unresolved
Time To Go
Contact Kris Suresh Rajan kris.rajan@gmail.com
Contact Vikram Singh vikram.vsfilms@gmail.com
Producer Munish Bhardwaj Production company Delhi Talkies Contact Munish Bhardwaj munishbabhardwaj@gmail.com
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FEATURE FOCUS DISTRIBUTION
DIRECT TO THE AUDIENCE India’s independent film-makers are turning to alternative distribution strategies to reach audiences in India and overseas. Liz Shackleton reports
U-Turn
I
ndia’s theatrical market is notoriously tough for independent filmmakers to access. Both multiplexes and single-screen cinemas focus on mainstream Bollywood, or in the south of India, regional-language films. Many indie films also run into problems with India’s Central Board of Film Certification. And even if they manage to secure screens and a favourable release date, the costs of marketing an indie film can easily outstrip the initial budget. But over the past few years, India’s growing ranks of indie filmmakers have proved they are as innovative and entrepreneurial as they are creative. While some are exploring crowdfunding and digital distribution — through both local and international platforms — others are taking their films directly to audiences. Two developments have transformed the landscape for Indian indies over the past few years. The first is the emergence of TVoD (transactional video-on-demand) platforms such as Google Play, iTunes, Vimeo and India’s TVF InBox Office, which enable film-makers to sell their
films directly to audiences. The second is the entry of the global SVoD (subscription video-on-demand) giants. Netflix, which launched in India in January, and Amazon Prime Video, launching later this year, are aggressively buying indie films and in some cases paying six-figure sums.
Pawan Kumar
Audience participation Bangalore-based film-maker Pawan Kumar, who recently sold his third film U-Turn to Netflix, was one of India’s first indie film-makers to use both crowdfunding and online distribution to build an audience for his films. He explains the two activities are connected — in addition to raising finance, crowdfunding helps to build a fanbase on social media who will later pay to see the film online and even in cinemas: “It gives me freedom because now I can target my digital audience; I don’t have to think about a theatrical audience,” Kumar says.
(Right) Q’s Brahman Naman sold to Netflix
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‘Working like this gives us the freedom to explore all kinds of distribution’ His second film, trippy sci-fi drama Lucia, had a three-week theatrical release before being delivered online to the people who had helped to fund it. Kumar even allowed people who had contributed a certain amount via crowdfunding to set up their own digital stores and sell the film themselves using tools from Distrify. For supernatural thriller U-Turn, he decided that crowdfunding wouldn’t fly: “Crowdfunding only really works when the person pitching the project is an underdog — but I had become a hero after Lucia.” Instead he marshalled 65 of his more serious funders to jointly set up a company, Pawan Kumar Studios, to finance the $400,000 film. “Working like this gives us the freedom to
explore all kinds of distribution. We could delay the usual practice of selling all rights to a satellite broadcaster,” Kumar explains. After a lengthy theatrical release, he launched U-Turn across TVoD platforms and then sold it to both Zee Kannada and Netflix, marking the first time the digital and satellite rights of a South Indian film have been sold separately.
Target marketing Mumbai-based film-maker Amit V Masurkar took a similar route for his debut feature, slacker comedy Sulemani Keeda — a limited theatrical release followed by distribution through online platforms including TVF InBox Office (see box, right). He agrees that digital distribution gives film-makers more freedom — not just to make the films they want but also to market them in a way that’s more appropriate. “Every film deserves to have its own unique marketing strategy but the big studios have systems in place that determine which cities they’ll visit and how many mall visits they’ll do,” says Masurkar, whose second film Newton has been selected for Film Bazaar Recommends. “They very rarely come up with anything innovative in their marketing.”
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‘I wanted that market who don’t go to film festivals but appreciate good content’
‘Every film deserves to have its own unique marketing strategy’
The Great Indian Travelling Cinema meets its audience
Sandeep Mohan
Amit V Masurkar
Sulemani Keeda has also been sold to Netflix. While the SVoD giants can’t acquire every indie film that comes along, they are providing filmmakers with a much-needed additional avenue for international distribution. When Indian broadcasters acquire local films, they expect to take worldwide ancillary rights, but then rarely exploit the films outside of India. Kumar says he would have made more money if he’d sold U-Turn to a single TV network: “But Netflix has 70 million viewers worldwide and we wanted to reach that audience.”
utor, marketing agency or digital aggregator. Then there’s also that dilemma over giving up on the romance of a traditional theatrical release. Although it’s negotiable, the streaming giants are pushing to acquire worldwide rights to films they can then premiere on their platforms — the route taken by Q’s Brahman Naman when it was sold to Netflix earlier this year. This means India’s indies are in a position where they can disrupt two traditional distribution routes — the Bollywood studio system of theatrical release followed by satellite broadcast; and the international system for independent films of sales agents selling all rights on a territory-by-territory basis. “Film-makers are realising they can sometimes make more money by selling world rights to an SVoD platform,” says Apoorva Bakshi, head of original productions & partnerships for digital aggregator Film Karavan. Masurkar says he doesn’t have a problem premiering his films on a digital platform — but it depends on the title. His latest, Newton, tells the story of an election officer sent to a remote polling booth in the jungle: “It has the potential to connect with people that may not have access to the internet. But then if we’d released Sulemani Keeda 15 years ago, it probably wouldn’t have been seen.” As indie film-makers move forward they will have to make these difficult choices — take the traditional route of festivals and sales agents or take the easy money and sell to an SVoD platform. It’s likely many film-makers will strive for a combination of theatrical screenings followed by a digital release. “What I’ve learnt is that when I’ve explored the digital space you convert your audience for the next film as a theatre-going audience,” says Kumar. “It means you can reach s higher on each film.” n
On with the roadshow Mumbai-based Sandeep Mohan has taken a more direct route to audiences with his second feature, quirky comedy Hola Venky!. While he eventually did a TVoD release, he first travelled with the film for 14 months — screening it in 90 alternative spaces (such as homes, offices, libraries, cafés and bars) in the US,
India and Singapore. India has a long tradition of travelling cinema — recently film-makers such as Bardroy Barretto and Sudevan Peringode have taken their films to towns and villages — but Mohan is the first film-maker to extend this concept to urban spaces. Dubbed the Great Indian Travelling Cinema, Mohan’s journey involved Q&As after every screening and allowed viewers to pay what they wanted to. “I wanted to tap into that market of people working in IT or corporates who don’t go to film festivals but are sensible people who appreciate good content,” says Mohan, who is now in post-production on this third feature Shreelancer. “I’ve discovered there’s a huge audience out
Sulemani Keeda
there that’s not being addressed and they’re extremely polarised in their perception of cinema. They think it’s either mainstream Bollywood or hardcore festival films.” By getting close to his audience, Mohan has learnt more than studio marketing departments ever could about the mindset and preferences of his viewers. But being innovative can also be exhausting — not every film-maker is willing to sleep on sofas and wash in public restrooms as Mohan did while on the road. Digital distribution can also be hard work — complexities arise through windowing, holdbacks and certification, and the costs associated with encoding and subtitling. Sometimes it’s just easier to work with a distrib-
Hola Venky!
ROAD LESS TRAVELLED EXHIBITING INDIA’S INDIES ) Lucia Limited theatrical release through PVR Director’s Rare, followed by a TVoD release via the film-maker’s own website and crowdfunders using tools supplied by Distrify. Premiered at London Indian Film Festival.
) Sulemani Keeda Limited theatrical release through PVR Director’s Rare, followed by TVoD release on TVF Play and iTunes, and UK TV broadcast on Channel 4. SVoD rights sold to Netflix. Played at New York, Los Angeles and other international Indian film festivals.
) U-Turn Pan-India theatrical release through Drishyam Films and global release through Jolly Hits, followed by TVoD release on Vimeo, iTunes, Google Play and YouTube. SVoD rights sold to Netflix and satellite rights to Zee Kannada. Premiered at New York Indian Film Festival.
) Hola Venky! Screened through the Great Indian Travelling Cinema for 14 months in 90 alternative spaces in the US, India and Singapore, followed by a TVoD release on Vimeo and the now defunct Fliqvine. In negotiations for an SVoD deal. No festivals.
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