Literature Fest To Be Held In London

Lit O Fest’ Mumbai, India’s premiere festival of Literature, Art & Culture is all set to spread its creative wings by taking the fest international. The 5th edition of the fest will be in London on 6th Sept, 2018.

“We are excited to be a part of this wonderful cultural initiative by Smita Parikh & Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC). It is doing whatever it can to support the event, said Anup Jalota who would be present during the London Chapter of Lit O Fest in Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan London & House of Lords, British Parliament, London on 6th & 7th of Sept, 2018.

“We are happy to be a part of this Lit O Fest & we will showcase Maharashtra culture & tradition averred Vijay Kumar Gautam, Principal Secretary Tourism.

Tourism Minister, Maharshtra Jaykumar Rawal wished all the best to Lit O Fest.

“We are also felicitating some dignitaries from the field of Art, Culture, music & literature in the House of Lords, British Parliament on 7th Sept, with the “Innoventure Awards” for their contribution in their respective fields during the fest. Mumbai is possibly the 1st ever such fest in india to adopt a village named Dahigaon and is taking care of the education, hygiene & skill development of the rural girls,” stated Smita Parikh, the founding Director.

Other dignitaries along with Amrita Fadnavis, Smita Parikh & Pankaj Dubey to attend the fest are tourism minister of Maharashtra Jaykumar Rawal, Lord Daljit Rana, Mahendra Singh Jadeja, Anup Jalota & Bond Girl from Hollywood Zara Adams, Parikshit Thorat, Dr Radha Krishnan Pillai & many more.

Mumbai On the ocasssion of Janmashtami on Monday, Bollywood celebrities like megastar Amitabh Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor and Shilpa Shetty Kundra sent out wishes to their social media followers.

Here’s what they tweeted:

Amitabh Bachchan: Janamashtami ki anek shubhkamanayein.

Shilpa Shetty Kundra: Jai Kanhaiya Lal ki. My little kanhaiya, Viaan Raj trying his hand at breaking the Dahi handi.

Suniel Shetty: “If you don’t fight for what you want, then don’t cry for what you lost, “says Lord Krishna. Follow the righteous path and he will help you achieve glory. Believe in Yourself. Happy Janmashtami

Farah Khan Kunder: Happy Janmashtami. At the shoot of ‘Radha teri chunri’… seven years ago… Diva was visiting after playing Radha in her play school Janmashtami function.

Sajid Khan: Happy Janmashtami to all

Pooja Batra: Believe in Yourself – Lord Krishna, Happy Janmashtami

Rishi Kapoor: Wishing everyone a Happy Janmashtami

[IANS]

The relationship between literature and cinema is mutually sustaining, say authors and filmmakers, who are sure the search for new and good content will lead to books.

The 20th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival with Star brought the third edition of “Word To Screen Market” here aiming to become a common platform for authors, publishers, writers, directors and producers to exchange ideas and explore business opportunities.

“It is a win-win situation where the authors and publishers who are struggling to get a wider reach with their stories, get a chance to pitch stories to film studios as potential film story material.

“On the other hand, content creators are always struggling with new and good content for their projects, whether it is a film or web series. Word To Screen Market is bridging that gap. Also, publishers get an acquisition cost and the book gets huge mileage if a film is made out of it,” Filmmaker Kiran Rao, chairperson of Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) Mumbai Film Festival, told IANS here.

Author Anita Nair cannot but agree. “With the growing digital platform that demands good stories and content, the possibility of adaptation of books into audio-visual story — be it film or web series — is increasing. I see it as a mutually sustaining relationship between authors, publishers and filmmakers.”

Nair feels when a story is selected from the framework of a book as opposed to a story of a film for scripting, the scriptwriter gets a lot more details of the world of the story.

“The picture is much clearer… already in the story,” said the writer of books like “The Better Man”, “Ladies Coupe”, “Mistress”, “Lesson in Forgetting Idris” and “Cut Like Wound”.

Filmmaker Kabir Khan, too, agrees. “We are almost getting a ready story that needs to be just scripted if (the story) has the potential to make a film. And a story cannot be limited to a region… If it has a universal appeal, it will travel,” he said.

However, he also pointed out the challenges.

“Since it is a change of medium, an adaptation of a book into a film comes with a challenge. Two storytellers are involved in the process — one who wrote the book and the one who is translating that into a film.

“The challenge is to maintain that essence of the story in the film,” said the “Bajrangi Bhaijaan” director.

Nair stressed that while there is an “intangible element” that intrigues a filmmaker to make a film, an “artistic integrity” needs to be maintained.

“If you lose the essence of the story in the film, that is tragic for the author, really,” she added.

While books offer good stories to filmmakers, the process of translating it to film is not as simple as it sounds. Said Rucha Pathak, the Chief Creative Officer of Fox Star Studios: “Turning a book into a script is really time-consuming and, as a studio, we really invest in writing. The process is not as easy as it looks just because we are getting a ready story.”

Citing an example, Pathak said: “We took four years to write the script of ‘Kizie Aur Manny’, the Hindi remake of ‘The Fault In Our Stars’ to get it right. But I must say that an initiative like Word to Screen Market is really bringing the world of cinema and literature together, and I am enjoying how it’s growing with each passing year.”

Does the dazzle of cinema overpower the world of literature in such collaborations?

Emphasising on the aspect of mutual respect, Nair said: “Since the idea is to complement each other in the collaboration, I think respect for the book is important.

“The filmmaker and actors should aim to make the best possible film out of the book rather than overpowering the book with commerce and marketing. If the story gets respect, the author gets her due.”

[IANS]

Anil Kapoor Attends A Special Screening “Once Again”

Anil Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Renu Namboodiri, Mrs. Madhur Bhandarkar & Sunita Gowariker attended the Special Screening of Once Again held in Mumbai suburb recently.

The cast Neeraj Kabi, Shefali Shah, Bidita Bag, Bhagwan Tiwari were also present along with the crew, director Kanwal Sethi, producers Sanjay Gulati & Neeraj Pandey, Mohandas VP (Sound Designer) & Ajitpal Singh (dialogue writer).

The independent film fest programmer, film curator & South Asia Consultant Berlin, Meenakshi Shedde introduced the cast & the crew before the screening.

The film will be out on Netflix on 1st Sept, 2018 & will also be simultaneously releasing in Metro Cities through 1018 MB.

The love story features Shefali Shah & Neeraj Kabi in the romantic lead & stellar cast Rasika Dugal, Bidita Bag, Bhagwan Tiwari & Priyanshu Painyuli in supporting roles.

Witten & directed by Kanwal Sethi, Once Again is an unusual & mature love story of Tara, a widowed mother who runs a small restaurant & one of her customers, a popular film actor Amar, who she delivers his daily meals. Tara has never seen him, except on the big screen. A chance phone conversation becomes a ritual. They spend hours on the phone, unable to muster the courage to meet. Aware of the reality of an impossible relationship & afraid to transcend the boundaries both have drawn around themselves they live within their safe bubbles. Until one day, when Amar sets out to meet Tara What follows is a poetic journey of the two lonely hearts in Mumbai, a city of 15 million souls.

Anil Kapoor present at the special screening quipped, “When Shefali & Neeraj are in a film together it has to be good”

The music composer, Talvin Singh, who has been at the helm of fusion music & has played with the likes of Madonna creates an enchanting & melodious soundtrack.

The Indo-German film is produced by Crawling Angel Films, Jar Pictures, Neufilm in collaboration with ZDF/ARTE & is presented by
Sanjay Gulati & Neeraj Pandey.

ZDF/ARTE are the powerful channels behind films like Lunchbox, Masaan & Qissa.

Kanwal Sethi was born in Amritsar, India. After finishing school, he founded a theatre group & began to stage at varied independent theatres. He shifted to Germany & studied Political science & Economics in Dresden. Followed by his own stage productions and parallel to this he started work on his own film projects. His short films & docu dramas were screened at varied international film festivals as well as the Museum of Modern Art New York. Junction Point was his debut feature film & premiered at Max ÖphulsPreis & MAMI.

Since Neu Films successfully started producing films a decade ago, they are constantly confronted with the phenomenon of a separation of art & commerce. Arthouse & mainstream seem to be often incompatible in the industry. The aim of Neufilm is to connect these 2 poles & make the author film accessible to a broader audiences.

Crawling Angel Films is a film production company based in India that aims to tell the world unique stories through films, which have the quality to capture human emotions through their strong narratives. The dedicated team of Crawling Angel Films is all set out to dissolve the boundaries between the varied nations of the globe by getting them well versed with 1 universal language, the language of Cinema. They have produced award-winning films such as, Lajwanti (Berlin International Film Fest 2014), Ashwatthama (Busan International Film Fest 2017), Mehsampur & The Shepherdess And The Seven Songs (co-production lab in Film Bazaar & Hong Kong International Film Fest) is currently under the process of shooting.

Anmol Rodriguez, an influencer, a role model & an Instagrammar with over a hundred thousand followers makes her short film debut with Aunty ji.
Most known for her inspiring story of being an acid attack survivor she steps into a character, very much like her own self.

Aunty ji is a slice of life story of Parvin (Shabana Azmi) & Geetika (Anmol Rodriguez). It’s a story of a day in their lives where Anmol is playing the struggles of an acid attack survivor. Commenting on her experience of working with Shabana Azmi. Anmol Rodriguez Avers, “I was nervous as I am starring with a veteran actress like Shabanaji and also this is my debut film. This means a lot to me as I had never imagined something like this. Each time I shared frames with Shabanaji, I used to get even more nervous. Even though Shabanaji is so senior, she was so supportive & always motivated me. She would give me one “jaadu ki jhappi” and boost my confidence.”

Aunty Ji is directed by Adeeb Rais & has been released on YouTube on 29th Aug, 2018.

Filmmaker-producer Imtiaz Ali who is gearing up for the release of his forthcoming production ‘Laila Majnu’ feels that most of the times intense love stories become successful when you have new actors in the film.

Imtiaz Ali was interacting with media to promote the film along with his filmmaker brother Sajid Ali on Thursday in Mumbai.

Avinsh Tiwary and Tripti Dimri are making their Hindi film debut. Asked what prompted him to work with new star cast in this film, Imtiaz said, “If you look in the past, you will see that intense love stories have been successful with new cast, be it in films like Ek Duje Ke Liye, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Maine Pyaar Kiya and Ashiqui series, the characters of that film are young and actors who are playing that part is also young so, it’s a plus”.

“I also think established actors have certain kind of reputation onscreen, therefore, we wanted to cast new actors because audience should feel that they are watching the characters rather than any star in the film without any preconceived notion,” he added.

Imtiaz Ali has earlier worked with actors like Shahrukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Ranbir Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor. Asked whether he observes any difference in working with new actors and established ones, he said, “I don’t think there is any difference because each actor has been new at some stage.

“If the actor suits the character, then it becomes easier and I have enjoyed working with all the actors in the past because they were so much interested in filmmaking process. So, I can’t differentiate between new and established actors when it comes to working with them.”

Set in Kashmir, ‘Laila Majnu’ is a story that revolves around Kais (Avinash Tiwary) and Laila (Tripti Dimri) whose journey of love is filled with insurmountable obstacles.

Based on the classic story of Laila Majnu, this contemporary take on the tale has been penned by Imtiaz Ali.

The film is directed by Sajid Ali and produced by Balaji Motion Pictures and Pi Films.

It will hit the screens on 7th September.

(IANS)

Mumbai, “Road to Sangam” director Amit Rai is working on a neo-noir thriller “Mansuba”.

Produced by Addiva Films, “Mansuba” will explore the subject of how victims of triple talaq become prey to social anarchy.

“‘Mansuba’ underlines the weakening social fabric of the nation. It also presents a perfected version of the truth as it gets venomously distorted, perversely manipulated and then suddenly turned over on its head,” Rai said in a statement to IANS.

Explaining the rationale behind the film, writer-producer Naghma A Qaiyyum said: “‘Mansuba’ is shocking and thought provoking. The film is also in line with our endeavour is to produce good cinema and back strong content driven films.”

To this, Kahkkashan Firoz, Managing Director at Addiva Films, added: “It’s a story that people will bond to, created in a genre which is becoming extremely popular with Indian moviegoers. We are very confident the film will be appreciated for its entertainment appeal as well as strong substance.”

Creative Producer NM Pasha said: “The aesthetic and design language of the film is of utmost importance to truthfully bridge the rich historical, political and cultural ethos of this story.”

On the film’s cast, co-producer Viren Thambidorai said: “We are roping in A-list stars for the film to ensure that the film reaches its intended impact and audiences.”

However, no names have been announced yet.