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CII Big Picture Summit October 25-26, 2016 New Delhi

CII Big Picture Summit

Convergence the New Multiplier for M&E’s $100bn Vision October 25-26, 2016, New Delhi

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Convergence the New Multiplier for M&E’s $100bn Vision Confederation of Indian Industry presents 5th Edition the fifth edition its annual Confederation of of Indian Industryflagship presentsevent 5th Edition - The Picture for the Media the fifthBig edition of itsSummit annual fl-agship event sector.- Join keyMedia decision -and The Entertainment Big Picture Summit for the makers, strategists andJoin visionaries driving and Entertainment sector. key decision makers, strategists and visionaries driving digital change.

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Get the Best Out of Toronto

The Toronto International Film Festival, in its 41th year, is unveiling a slew of exciting titles with the potential to generate serious Oscar buzz that could last all the way to the day the nominations are announced – and beyond.

In fact, weeks ahead of the festival, several contenders had already elbowed their way into the public consciousness, enthusing TIFF watchers to begin their favourite guessing game looking ahead to Hollywood’s big night.

TIFF BY THE NUMBERS 397 Total:

Features — 296; Shorts — 101

266 Features that are World, International, or North American Premieres: 138, 31, and 97 respectively

6,933 Total Submissions: International — 5,693; Canadian — 1,240 83 Countries 28 Screens Used 16 Programs 32,320 Minutes of film Number of visitors expected at Festival Street: 100,000 Opening night film: The Magnificent Seven Number of best picture Oscar winners that have screened at TIFF: 11 (Chariots of Fire, American Beauty, Crash, No Country for Old Men, Slumdog Millionaire, The Hurt Locker, The King’s Speech, The Artist, Argo, 12 Years a Slave, Spotlight)

Vying for Honours GALA PRESENTATIONS

PLATFORM

The Secret Scripture

Moonlight

Directed by Jim Sheridan

Directed by Barry Jenkin

GALA PRESENTATIONS

LBJ Directed by Rob Reiner

GALA PRESENTATIONS

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GALA PRESENTATIONS

American Pastoral

Arrival

Directed by Ewan McGregor

Directed by Denis Villeneuve

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The Birth of a Nation Directed by Nate Parker

GALA PRESENTATIONS

La La Land Directed by Damien Chazelle

GALA PRESENTATIONS

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GALA PRESENTATIONS

Manchester by the Sea

Snowden

Directed by Kenneth Lonergan

Directed by Oliver Stone

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A platfo south

The films by South Asian directors in the com International Film Festival manifest the grow

Land of the Gods Dev Bhoomi Directed by Goran Paskaljevic

MASTERS

orm for h asia

mpetition section of the 41st Toronto wing depth of cinema from the region.

By Saibal Chatterjee

The latest from Serbian director Goran Paskaljevic is a visually stunning fable set in a remote Himalayan village, where the return of a native who has been wandering for 40 years (Victor Banerjee) stirs dark memories and old grudges

I

t is significant that it isn’t an Indian filmmaker but Bhutanese lama and director Khyentse Norbu who is leading the contingent from the subcontinent at the 41st Toronto International Film Festival.

His fourth feature, Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait, is one of 12 films in the festival’s competition section, introduced last year and named Platform. Khyentse Norbu’s presence in the competition with a film that combines spiritual depth with dazzling visual flourishes is a testament to the growing depth of cinema from the south Asian region.

The maker of The Cup, Travellers and Magicians, Vara: The Blessing will be vying with the likes of Pablo Larrain (Jackie), Bertrand Bonello (Nocturama) and Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Daguerrotype) for the $25,000 CAD Toronto Platform Prize.

The three-member Platform jury is made up of American filmmaker Brian De Palma, Chinese actor Zhang Ziyi and Chadian-French auteur Mahamet-Saleh Haroun.

Nepalese filmmaker Deepak Rauniyar will be registering his country’s presence in TIFF’s Contemporary World Cinema with his second feature, White Sun. Rauniyar, a 2013 TIFF Talent Lab alumnus, presents a social drama that revolves around a former Maoist rebel’s struggle to re-integrate with his community and live down his turbulent past.

A quartet of India-centric

Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait Directed by Khyentse Norbu

PLATFORMS

White Sun Seto Surya Directed by Deepak Rauniyar

This film chronicles a sacred jungle ritual whose masked, anonymous participants seek after complete self-knowledge — or descend into thievery, violation, and murder

A former Maoist rebel struggles to reintegrate with his unwelcoming community and move beyond a painful past, in this social drama from Nepali filmmaker and TIFF Talent Lab alumnus Deepak Rauniyar

Mostly Sunny Directed by Dilip Mehta

TIFF DOCS

Veteran filmmaker Dilip Mehta (Cooking with Stella) returns to the Festival with this documentary portrait of Bollywood starlet Sunny Leone

documentaries, on subjects ranging from the emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party and its leader in Delhi (An Insignificant Man) to the surprise career achievements of Bollywood actress Sunny Leone (Mostly Sunny), will offer social and political vignettes of the world’s most prolific filmproducing nation.

An Insignificant Man and Mostly Sunny are joined in the TIFF 2016 selection by IndianCanadian director Richie Mehta’s India in a Day and Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya’s The Cinema Travellers, which had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

TIFF 2016 will also screen the latest films of two of India’s most feted directors, Adoor Gopalakrishnan (Pinneyum) and Buddhadeb Dasgupta (Tope), and host the world premiere of actress Konkona Sen Sharma’s first behind-the-camera cinematic outing, A Death in the Gunj.

An Insignificant Man is a 100minute film directed by firsttimers Khusboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla and produced by Anand Gandhi, whose directorial debut Ship of Theseus had dropped anchor in Toronto a few years ago.

An Insignificant Man was filmed over a period of a year during which the makers followed the activities and speeches of AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal and his volunteers at rallies, party meetings and the anti-corruption hunger strike.

“More than a portrait of Kejriwal, Ranka and Shukla have created a portrait of a country with 29 languages and 1.3 billion people struggling to achieve real democracy…”

TIFF’s artistic director Cameron Bailey writes in the festival’s official catalogue.

Also in TIFF’s documentary programme this year is the Canadian entry Mostly Sunny, photojournalist-turned-filmmaker Dilip Mehta’s 90-minute cinematic sketch of one of the most unusual Bollywood actresses in the business today.

In his introduction to the film, TIFF programmer Steve Gravestock lauds Mehta for laying out “the contradictions and complications that (Sunny) Leone’s career has revealed in both domestic and diasporic Indian societies”.

Toronto-based Deepa Mehta, too, has a film in the TIFF selection. Mehta’s Anatomy of Violence, which will be screened as part of the festival’s Masters sidebar, probes the shocking dimensions of the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder.

The film seeks to understand the sick minds and horrific impulses at work behind the crime, allowing the actors in the cast to improvise and “envisage possible sociological and psychological backgrounds and pasts for the perpetrators and the victim”.

Another TIFF 2016 documentary of subcontinental interest is Erin Heidenreich’s Girl Unbound, a portrait of Pakistani squash player Maria Toorpak-

The Bait Tope Directed by Buddhadeb Dasgupta

MASTERS

The latest film from Buddhadeb Dasgupta, one of India’s mostcelebrated directors, is a lyrical and at times comedic three-part portrait of rural Indian life

Once Again PINNEYUM Directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan

MASTERS

Pinneyum is the first feature in eight years from South Indian master Adoor Gopalakrishnan who has just completed 50 years in Cinema

ai Wazir, who has defied threats to herself and her family to pursue her passion in a part of the country where the Taliban bar women from participating in sports.

Girl Unbound, Heidenreich’s documentary feature debut, moves from Toronto, where Maria practices with squash champion Jonathan Power, to Pakistan, where life is anything is anything but a cakewalk for her family that has stood up to obscurantist forces.

Another Pakistani family is at the heart of Belgian director Stephan Streker’s Noces, which plays in the festival’s Discovery section. The film focuses on a teenage girl who has grown up in a conservative family milieu in Belgium, a reality that inevitably impacts the fate that life has in store for her and the choices that she makes to tide over it.

Among the more unusual south Asia-set films in the TIFF programme this year is Serbian director Goran Paskaljevic’s Dev Bhoomi, which tells the story of an ageing man who returns to his remote village in the hills of Uttarakhand after a 40-year absence only to find himself confronting long dormant and unresolved grudges.

The cast of Dev Bhoomi (English title: Land of the Gods), co-written with the director

by Victor Banerjee, includes the veteran actor in the pivotal role alongside Geetanjali Thapa and Uttara Baokar.

India is under the spotlight in the Australian film Lion, star-

ring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara, tells the incredible true story of Saroo Brierley. He was adopted by an Australian couple after being separated from his family in India at the age of five and then rediscovered his original home in Kolkata using Google Earth 25 years later.

Directed by Garth Davis, Lion has been adapted from Brierley’s book A Long Way Home.

Several Indian actors – Tannishtha Chatterjee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Priyanka Bose among them – are in the cast of the film that is expected to be up for popular applause in Toronto and some pre-Oscar buzz.

Adoor and Dasgupta’s films are in the Masters lineup. While the former’s Malayalam-language Pinneyum (Once Again) has already been released in India, Bengali director Dasgupta’s Tope (Bait) will have its world premiere in Toronto.

Bailey describes Pinneyum as “a scintillating contemporary noir”, saying that “despite the ugliness that it reveals, the film remains light and graceful, its widescreen images composed with an eye both to visual harmony and to relaying the shifting power relationships among the characters”.

Dasgupta’s seventh TIFF Masters entry, Tope, tells the stories of three different characters to elliptically reveal not-soedifying aspects of rural India in the director’s trademark poetic style.

“Its lush cinematography may

A Death in the Gunj Directed by Konkona Sensharma

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

Anatomy of Violence Directed by Deepa Mehta

MASTERS

Award-winning actor Konkona Sen Sharma makes her feature debut as a writerdirector with this coming-ofage story about a shy young Indian student who quietly and fatefully unravels during a family road trip

Celebrated filmmaker Deepa Mehta investigates one of India’s most notorious crimes — the 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23year-old woman on a Delhi bus — in her angry, impassioned and essential new film

Girl Unbound The War to Be Her Directed by Erin Heidenreich

TIFF DOCS

Filmmakers Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla follow Arvind Kejriwal, “the Bernie Sanders of India,” as he shakes up the complacent and corrupt status quo of Indian politics as the head of the Common Man’s Party

An intimate portrait of Maria Toorpakai, who defies threats to herself and her family from Islamic fundamentalists in order to represent Pakistan as an internationally competitive squash player

An Insignificant Man Directed by Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla

TIFF DOCS

revel in the scenic splendours of India’s countryside, but Bait takes an unflinching look at how the country’s weakest and most vulnerable are used by the rich,” Bailey writes in the festival catalogue.

Konkona Sen Sharma’s A Death in the Gunj has been selected for the Special Presentations section. Described as a “coming-of-age story about a shy young Indian student who quietly and fatefully unravels during a family road trip”, the film has a cast that includes Vikrant Massey, Ranvir Shorey, Kalki Koechlin, Tillotama Shome, Tanuja and Om Puri.

India in a Day is a non-fiction film that has been executive produced by Ridley Scott and Anurag Kashyap. Powered by Google, it uses footage shot by millions of Indias on a single day.

On October 10, 2015, people across the country turned on their cameras and smartphones, filmed their lives, and uploaded the footage to a website. Toronto-born Richie Mehta, whose feature films Amal and Siddharth have screened in TIFF, and his edi-

tor Beverley Mills then edited the available footage to carve out a 86-minute film that shines a light on the diversity of India.

Nothing on view in TIFF this year would probably be as magical and startlingly entertaining as The Cinema Travellers, which documents the disappearing tradition of Maharashtra’s mobile tent theatres and the last men standing in this fading trade that still casts a spell on people in parts of the state.

Saibal Chatterjee is an independent New Delhibased 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.

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STUDIOZIDRREAM AT TORONTO

It’s All About Passion

The production team of A Death in the Gunj

Directed by debutante director Konkona Sen Sharma and produced by StudioziDrream, A Death in the Gunj has received the honor to be screened at the Toronto Film Festival in special representation category. Pickle chats with Ashish Bhatnagar, CEO StudioziDrream, StudioziDrream’s A Death in the Gunj (directed by Konkona Sen Sharma) has been selected as part of special representation at Toronto. How do you see its journey going forward from the festival as well as business perspective?

From the festival perspective, we have been selected at the Busan Film Festival in Mongolia to be held in October. We have also been approached by other film festivals in Australia, Switzerland and many other countries, but we are waiting for the Toronto Festival to get over to see how it goes there. Our target is that at least in the first leg we are at key major festivals as we want to maintain a certain level of exclusivity. We want to get appreciated by a larger audience who come to major festivals. Then after that we can visit smaller festivals. As far as business

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pickle entertainment biz guide

is concerned, we have appointed Mumbai-based Filmistan, who have offices outside India as well, as our sales agent to sell our films in overseas markets.

How has been the comeback for you as a producer in the film industry after a long gap? What has changed for you in all these years?

It’s a great return back to passion play.

It’s all about passion that was compelling enough for me to leave a very lucrative career as an investment banker in 2001 to become the CEO of a film production company that is so very different from what I was doing. I did it for nearly 12 years and then I took a break so that I can take stock and add something to our business in terms of workforce. I am very pleased with the way we have collaborated. It is the way we make the film and LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

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the people we are associated with which make the difference.

In a way it had been a great return for me personally as a producer. We have been working now in a very collaborative way.

Earlier we did most of our productions on our own and we generally collaborated with the director and rarely did we collaborate with co-producers to make a film. So, in a way I am very happy to start the new innings with good quality people.

What made you venture into A Death in the Gunj? How was your experience of working with a talent like Konkona who is also making a debut as a director with this film?

If you see our legacy, we have done 1517 films since 2001. I think we were impressed by the quality of Konkona’s writing. Our inspiration starts from good stories and good screenplay. Her writing was phenomenal and the screenplay was so terrifically written that we were compelled to take it through. Konkona was also open to the idea of collaborating.

Our co-producers Honey Trehan and Abhishek Chaube, whom we collaborated with on this film, helped in shaping up the film in terms of creative backup so that Konkona delivers her best.

Working with Konkona had been superb.

So was with Honey Trehan who helped us put together the project. Abhishek would bring creative inputs and energy to the table.

When is A Death in the Gunj slated for release in India?

We are looking at a January 13 release of the film in India after we are through with the first round of film festivals. We decided on January 13 because we don’t have any major films coming up around that time.

Can you share with us the future plans of your production outfit?

We would like to make a couple of films every year. We have developed a bunch of very good ideas. We are collaborating with Honey and Abhishek on some other films as well and hope to make good quality cinema like our first film. Personally for me, I want to create great cinema that can cross borders. I believe the world is one market and right from the beginning we have produced the kind of cinema that has potential to cross over different cultures, countries and audiences. From Monsoon Wedding, we understand how such films do internationally. We have sold 20 odd films in 56 different countries worldwide. There is a bigger market out there for Indian films. In the last few years, Indian films have started doing well starting from My Name is Khan

27

pickle entertainment biz guide

“We were impressed by the quality of Konkona’s writing. Our inspiration starts from good stories and good screenplay. Her writing was phenomenal and the screenplay was so terrifically written that we were compelled to take it through.”

Ashish Bhatnagar, CEO, StudioziDrream

which did phenomenally well outside the India diaspora. Lunch Box was another such film that did good business. I am very inspired by Chinese and Iranians.

We need to make cinema that anybody can watch and not only Indians.

What is the state of Indian film industry today?

The Indian film industry is in a very interesting phase where good quality cinema like Lunch Box and Udta Punjab have done very well. There is an audience that want to see good content, good characters not necessarily driven by star power. We all like to see a star, but at the same time we also want to consume different kind of cinema so that it appeals to the creative intelligence that we have as viewers. I think the number of such viewers was small in the 80s, but that number has increased substantially now to make such films with good budget a viable option. If we are able to sell such cinema internationally as well then we have a very good opportunity of making money.

What’s your objective at Toronto International Film Festival and Market?

It’s a very rare instance for a debutante director like Konkona to get selected at a major international festival. Toronto is among the top three major film festivals of the world and to get selected there is a rare honor. Ultimately it’s not just about business, it’s also about making sure that the message the film has got is seen by many more people. Although it’s a thriller, it has an underlining message that has come out beautifully in the film.

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Sri Thenandal Films (STF)

All Set for Global Journey

murali ramaswamy Sri Thenandal Films

28

pickle entertainment biz guide

Quick to adapt and capitalize on emerging trends, Sri Thenandal Films -India’s fastest growing filmed entertainment company — is open to explore new collaborations in international markets LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

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We see huge opportunity in the growth of Indian cinema. With technology influencing every part of the industry, we at STF believe in adapting ourselves to newer and innovative content — Murali Ramaswamy

C

hennai-based Sri Thenandal Films (STF), the fastest growing filmed entertainment company in India that is currently working on its new larger than life film, has now set its eyes on expanding its global footprints by exploring new co-production opportunities with like-minded studios in North America and China.

“We see huge opportunity in the growth of Indian cinema. With technology influencing every part of the industry, we at STF believe in adapting ourselves to newer and innovative content,” says Murali Ramaswamy, who steers the leading production and distribution studio of South India.

STF has a firm foothold in the film distribution business — both for domestic and overseas films. They have distributed big blockbuster Hollywood films in Southern part of India.

“Right from genres to mediums, we pride ourselves to aim higher, transcend boundaries and break all barriers,” Ramaswamy adds.

Starting off with Goddess Amman-centric movies to capitalize on the religious sentiments, the banner went on to produce films that were high on humour.

Now STF has moved on to horror films —

the current flavour of the season — and has been able to find a firm foothold in the genre with films like Aranmanai (2014), Kanchana 2 (2015), Demonte Colony (2015) and Maya (2015).

The success formula of STF includes catering to “all sections of the audience” and “centres”. The production and distribution house’s recent hits Dhilluku Dhuddu and Maya clearly indicate that it knows the pulse of the viewers.

Founded by veteran director-producer Rama Narayanan, a household name in South India in the 80s, STF distributed Tamil version of Baahubali-The Beginning, one of the biggest blockbusters of India in 2015.

The banner’s new larger than life film, tentatively titled Sanghamitra, has roped in top talents both from creative and technical side.

In addition to this, Thenandal Films recently tested new waters with their venture Chillu, which is studio’s first production of a stage play.

With several interesting projects lined up, such as Kaatru Veliyidai helmed by ace director Maniratnam, STF is excited to work with international studios to help Indian cinema attain new heights.

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The Complete Hero

Kamal Haasan has added yet another feather to his cap — a feather indeed decorated in French style. The multi-faceted star has been recently selected for the prestigious Chevalier de L’Ordes Arts et Lettres (The Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters).

B

eing one of the most prolific actors of this era, here is a brief look at Kamal’s illustrious career that makes him the Ulaganayagan that he is. The 10 points used here to describe him are based on his popular movies.

Birth of the Kalaignan (Birth of an artiste) The year 1959 was a watershed period for Tamil cinema. For, it introduced a cherubic little face, one that would go on to mesmerize the audience for the next six decades. With Kalathur Kannama, Kamal announced his arrival on the film scene with a bang. He has not just survived in the industry for this long, but has actually ruled it with his consistent knack to learn and re-learn.

Sakalakala Vallavan (Master of all arts) Be it any department of film-making: acting, direction, production, choreo­ graphy or even make-up, Kamal has the nuances of all these up his sleeve.

Bringing a whole new meaning to the term multi-talented, the actor has consistently proved his mettle in almost all fields related to the world of cinema.

Probably the man himself knows this too, for, a dialogue in one of his films goes

like this: Raja kaiya vacha, adhu wrong ah ponadhilla. It loosely translates to “if our star tries his hands at something, it can never go wrong!”

Aalavandhan (Here to conquer) An actor known to be ahead of his times, Kamal has never shied away from experimenting with the latest technology in his films. Be it the Dolby Surround Sound in his cop thriller Kuruthipunal, the motion control camera that he put to use in his Aalavandhan or the Auro 3D in Vishwaroopam, the actor is truly a trend setter. His latest experimentation with DTH may very well revolutionize the whole concept of film viewing. So can the Red Eye camera that he wishes to use in his dream project Marmayogi.

Dasavatharam (Ten Avatars) It seems near impossible for other actors to emulate Kamal when it comes to playing diversified roles in films. From playing a ruthless vigilante, to a dwarf, a psychotic killer and even a woman, he has aced them all. An actor par excellence who is known to breathe life into his characters, it takes only a Kamal to move his viewers to tears with his portrayal of a father in

harsh circumstances in Mahanadi or to tickle their funny bone in movies like Panchatantiram and Sathi Leelavati. This giant of an actor can play George Bush or a bumbling doctor will equal ease!

Unnal Mudiyum Thambi, he says (You can do it, he says) They say it takes an auteur to recognize another as one. So is the case with Kamal who is blessed with the uncanny ability to identify the potential of seemingly ordinary actors. And he does not stop there. He goes a step further to provide them platform to showcase their talent.

Recent examples being his long-time associate Rajesh Selva, who directed Thoongavanam and subsequently Kamal’s next, Sabaash Naidu.

Music director Ghibran, who cemented his place in history by scoring for three back-to-back films of the actor, is another such example.

Kamal is an inspiration to several top actors of today, including Suriya who confesses that it is Ulaganayagan who is his role model in tinsel town.

Avargal (They) While Kamal himself is an asset to the Indian cinema, several of his family members too have made a mark in the industry. Kamal’s brother Charu Haasan and niece Suhasini Maniratnam are veteran actors and his daughters too have proven their mettle. While his elder daughter Shruti is one of the most sought-after actresses today in the Tamil and Telugu films, younger daughter Akshara has acted alongside top stars like Dhanush and Ajith. His partner Gautami too was considered a top-class actress during her prime. Now, in what is to be a treat to the audience, several members of this talented family have come together for the upcoming film Sabaash Naidu in which Shruti and Kamal play father and daughter with Gautami and Akshara working behind the screens.

Sabaash Naidu (Well done, Naidu) For an actor of Kamal’s stature, it’s no big surprise that he has won several prominent awards. He was awarded the ‘Padma Shri’ and ‘Padma Bhushan’ by the Government of India for his contribution to the growth of Indian cinema. The actor was also named as FICCI Living Legend by the Federation of Indian Chambers

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pickle entertainment biz guide

of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). He has also won a couple of state awards such as the Kalaimamani by the Tamil Nadu government, the Honorary Award by the Kerala government and three Nandi Awards by Andhra Pradesh. This is apart from the four National Awards, one Rashtrapathi Award and 17 Filmfare South Awards. Kamal Haasan also has a large number of international awards under his belt.

Uyarndha Ullam (Noble Heart) Kamal is also known as a man with a heart of gold. Being one of the first actors to have converted his numerous fan clubs into social welfare organizations, the actor is at the forefront of several charitable activities he carries out under his ‘Kamal Narpani Iyakkam’ initiative. Having done solid work to help the HIV patients, he has also been actively working for the welfare of cancer patients, apart from other works like cleaning water bodies. For his efforts in this regard, he has received various national and international awards. He has also decided to donate the income from his commercial endorsements for public welfare.

Vishwaroopam (Magnum Opus or Full Form) If there is one actor who placed Tamil cinema on the world map, it has to be Kamal Haasan. Several of his films have gone on to win international acclaim.

For instance, his Uttama Villian won the best film at the International Film Festival at Los Angeles last year, while he won the best Director in Focus award for his films Virumaandi and Hey Ram at the International Film Festival of Korea and that of Rotterdam respectively.

Seven of his movies — ‘Saagar’, ‘Swati Mutyam’, ‘Nayagan’, ‘Thevar Magan’, ‘Kuruthipunal’, ‘Indian’ and ‘Hey Ram’ — have represented India at the Oscars.

Nayakan (Hero) Any actor with a highly impressive body of work like that of Kamal would feel it is time to hang his boots. But not this man, who still has the enthusiasm of a 20-year-old when it comes to cinema.

The ‘complete hero’ Kamal still calls himself a novice as he feels there are miles to go before he can master the art. The 62-year-old’s zeal for cinema is unmatched, and it is this attitude of his that keeps him going and makes Kamal Haasan the enigma that he is.

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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 world cinema to the people. But none can match IFFI for size, scope and vintage.

Since 1965, the year of its third edition, IFFI has had ‘A’ category grading from the Paris-based FIAPF (Federation Internationale des Associations de Producteurs de Films). This puts IFFI on par with the world’s biggest festivals in Venice, Cannes, Berlin, Moscow and Karlovy Vary.

November 20 - 28,

IFFI, GOA

n Total number of delegates n Total Award money: Rs 1. n Life Time Achievement Aw and actor Nikita Mikhalkov n One of the oldest festivals

On the programming side, IFFI not only unveils the best films from around the multilingual country with the aim of providing a glimpse of the sheer range and dynamism of Indian cinema, it also puts together a remarkable slate of brand new world cinema titles.

IFFI also hosts a range of retrospectives, tributes, master classes and special sections, which enhance the variety and depth of the event.

The master classes have emerged as a highlight of the festival, especially from the standpoint of film school students who converge in Goa during the nine-day event.

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IFFI is by far the oldest film festival in Asia. It is steeped in history. It has witnessed numerous alterations in character, nomenclature, location, dates and duration but has remained steadfast in its strong emphasis on showcasing the diversity of Indian cinema as well as in its commitment to the celebration of excellence across moviemaking genres.

The Indian Panorama is one of the biggest draws of IFFI. No other festival in India provides as rich an assemblage of the best films made in the country. For anybody interested in the cinema of the world’s most prolific film-producing nation, IFFI is, therefore, the go-to event.

2016, GOA, INDIA

2015 STATS

s: 9040, 90 countries, .2 crore (Indian rupees) ward to Oscar winning filmmaker v (Russia) s in Asia & the biggest in India.

IFFI has moved up a few notches since coastal Goa became its permanent venue in 2004.

IFFI now has a far more settled feel than ever before, with each improvement in terms of infrastructure and programming initiatives adding value to both the event and the location.

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The awards that the competitive festival offers are significant in money terms. IFFI hands out prize money to the tune of US$ 200,000. The winner of the Golden Peacock for the best film takes home $80,000. That apart, the best director and the Special Jury Prize winner bag $30,000 each, while the two acting prizes come with a cash component of $20,000 each.

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Making a song and dance of it Understanding Indian cinema’s global appeal and ‘soft power’

by Praveen Dass

Praveen Dass is an independent filmmaker and fine art photographer currently based in India jabberwonky@gmail.com

T

o prevent this argument from going soft it’s perhaps best to start with a story, even if it’s an anecdote about an anecdote. Despite having never met the man in question, an acquaintance of mine from Mumbai once recalled how Amitabh Bachchan may have saved his life in the dusty valleys of Afghanistan. The storyteller, an Indian diplomat, who shall we say functions as part of the spear tip of Indian statecraft, was in the Central Asian nation soon after the Taliban’s ouster in 2002 and looking to make contact with a few leaders of the putative Northern Alliance. Suddenly besieged and presented to a different set of warlords he found himself unable to break the ice with them, and was soon gravely informed that they suspected him of being a Pakistani spook, the “enemy” they loathed.

That is until he spied a tattered poster of Bachchan’s 1992 hit Khuda Gawah (‘God is the Witness’, a film shot extensively in Afghanistan) in the next room and decided to talk Bollywood -- to immediate excitement among the Afghan warriors. Unable to recall any song from that film, however, he found himself back in the doghouse, until he started belting out ‘Mehbooba, Mehbooba’ from Sholay, the 1975 blockbuster that launched Bachchan to superstardom, and is perhaps the most famous Hindi film west of Amritsar. An agreement was soon concluded and the diplomat found himself warmly escorted back to his base with much fierce debate about the new “Khan ishtars” in Mumbai.

The tale might have perhaps grown longer in the telling but there’s no disputing how popular Indian films now are in many parts of the world. Clearly, going soft need not be inopportune. For

India, with its old civilisation and spiritual customs based on universalist traditions, has always had several cards to play in this game. Indian commercial cinema, with its distinct rhythms, is the latest addition to the pack

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Rajinikanth fans in Japan

Fans cheering up Shah Rukh Khan

A poster of Sholay

well over two decades now foreign policy wonks have waxed eloquent about the merits of ‘soft power’ for nations looking to find their places at the global high table. India, with its old civilisation and spiritual customs based on universalist traditions, has always had several cards to play in this game. Indian commercial cinema, with its distinct rhythms, is the latest addition to the pack. As a noted strategic affairs guru puts it: “Bollywood has done more for Indian influence abroad than all the bureaucratic efforts of the government”. But there’s still some way to go, for both industry and creative artists cynically churning out assembly-line movies in the country, and for the state making more concerted efforts to better push what is arguably India’s most exciting export goodie.

Masala Stardust Much water has flown down the Ganges since earlier generations of Indians were often told of how much Russians loved Raj Kapoor’s cloyingly Chaplinesque tramp from Awara, or of how

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Dilip Kumar was as much a heartthrob in Lahore and Dhaka as he was in Mumbai. Beyond old ties of cultural kinship in the subcontinent and bilateral arrangements between governments (which saw a handful of Indian films being regularly exported to ‘friendly’ countries like the Soviet Union or Mongolia), Indian cinema has struck out and conquered bold newer frontiers now.

Indian superstars like Aishwarya Rai and Aamir Khan regularly walk the red carpet at big film festivals like Cannes, Toronto and Venice and are recognised globally. Southern superstar Rajinikanth was a cultural phenomenon in Japan for a while, where local fans dubbed him ‘Dancing Maharajah” and landed up in exotic Indian costumes for his movie premieres. Bolly superstar Shah Rukh Khan was conferred a high Malaysian state honour which even stirred controversy there with many protesting that local actors were ignored. Several actors also increasingly pop up in the tabloid press when holidaying abroad in the West -- a surer sign of cross-cultural traction than any box-office grosses -and are now slowly experimenting with LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

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The spectacular results are there for the world to see. Indeed, whatever your cinematic inclinations you would have to admit, where would Indian cinema be without all that song and dance? The world agrees

taking up meaty roles in films in a more globalised Hollywood.

There’s no denying Indian movie stars’ graphs have seen increasingly steep rises from the last decade into this one.

If pirated videotapes in the 1980s kickstarted the revolution, the internet – and its endlessly cyclical streams of video content -- appears to have solidified this reach, taking Indian film to places as far afield as North Africa, Western Europe, Japan and South Korea. In fact there’s a reason Indian film distributors now delay releasing Hindi or Tamil films in many foreign markets, despite the lucrative business many films do there. Most pirated DVDs that land up almost immediately after film premieres on Indian shores come from these places.

Home is where the heart is In briefly analysing this trans-cultural appeal of Indian cinema two major factors must be noted. One, the size, breadth and rising cultural assertiveness of the Indian diaspora across the world has been a factor so huge it’s changed Bollywood in several noteworthy ways. The expatriate Indian’s outsize longing for identity and roots has helped reshape the country’s film trade. The foreign box office (BO) contributes so significantly to big movies in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu that several duds at the local BO actually go on to make profits from the diaspora dollar. Many films now have exclusive premieres in London and New York, unthinkable even a decade and a half ago. Pioneered by filmmakers like

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A poster of Sivaji Subash Ghai -- who was actually lampooned in the mid 1990s for ‘pandering’ to Non Resident Indian (NRI) audiences -- the size of this market has even led to the content changing in Bollywood. Indian films have got slicker, costlier and are now set in locales across the globe with many actors often playing NRI characters, echoing vaguely NRI concerns.

Film markets at festivals worldwide now see sizeable Indian delegations hawking new productions for distributors to pick up or producers to take up. Outside of Bollywood, Tamil film producers now tie-up ‘FMS’ (Foreign, Malaysia, Singapore) rights before they get down to haggling with local distributors about territories and sales, while Telugu producers line up small European and sizeable North American releases for their new films.

NRIs, it seems, just can’t get enough of the filmy glamour from their old country in any way possible. Many film stars now earn big bucks from performing at ‘Bollywood Nights’ abroad. These arena shows, staged almost exclusively in countries with large NRI populations, have also proven so lucrative that several stars either long in the tooth back home or relegated to the background now make their money purely from ‘touring’.

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Aishwarya Rai at Cannes Film Festival Business is booming overseas, yet as any big producer, distributor or cultural commentator will tell you, much remains to be done to increase penetration beyond the diaspora. The odd viral video of Europeans doing ‘Bollywood dancing’ for small audiences or weddings with a Bollywood theme are still too few and far between for Indian cinema to be labelled a widespread crossover phenomenon. Unlike, say, with the martial arts films that crossed over from Hong Kong and China to the West over three decades ago; or Japanese creature features, manga or ‘J-Horror’ genres. They influence Hollywood, still the gold standard for big feature film production. To change that requires tinkering with the old formula for Indian cinema. It would mean going more ‘arty’ (a despised phrase in Indian film production circles) and looking to imbibe and reconstruct in singular fashion genres, themes and narrative experiments from elsewhere. And not just in form.

Which is, of course, easier said than done.

A strong recidivist streak resides deep inside Indian filmdom. The formula may not be periodically dumped or retired for a new genre to rise to the top of the heap à la Hollywood. This in turn has a lot to do with why the formula is the way it is.

Why fix what ain’t broke? And besides, this formula is the second reason Indian films have such a large global reach. It’s why they speak in unmatched dulcet tones to several other developing societies that have much more in common with Indian audiences than they suspect.

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Think Local, Act Global There’s a reason India is referred to as a subcontinent. The sum of its many ethnic, cultural and linguistic parts is perhaps greater than the whole. With over 25 major languages spoken and over 700 hundred dialects, not to mention large ethnic, cultural and religious divisions, nation building and unity was a challenge the founders and early builders of modern India took very seriously indeed. Cinema was soon harnessed to the task in the 1950s. Filmmakers and writers took on matters of great national and social import and until the mid 1960s (when romances got mushier and a new generation of glamorous lovers and sex symbols appeared onscreen) and early 70s (when public anger against a dysfunctional state and crony capitalism exploded on screens across India) sought to craft a cohesive cinema that provided ‘wholesome’ family entertainment while dwelling on traditional Indian values and customs. These films had to crossover from one region of India to another that had about as much in common with each other as two European countries do. They had to transcend barriers of language, class, creed and ethnicity. They began doing that for almost every big Bollywood release in roughly the late 60s to early 70s. The seeds of a global formula were sown right there.

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Songs and dance are essence of Indian cinema (even if slightly flawed) tryst with liberal democracy, several theorists and historians have championed Bollywood in particular as a great force for national integration in what ought to have been a rather fractious country of infinite diversity. To put it a little simplistically, a template was slowly evolved and continues to form the basis of cinema to this day with very little variations on the theme, even if the forms have changed over time.

Also powered by audiences changing with a new liberalising India, new films from the mid 1990s began to be increasingly located abroad (and not just for the songs) while the melodrama remained firmly rooted in varying interpretations of ‘Indianness’. Over the year the characters got glitzier, the stars got shinier, the songs got dreamier, the love stories got mushier, the gangsters and vigilantes got nastier and the Hollywood-inspired action sequences got edgier, but the melodramatic tensions remained pretty much the same. It made -- and still makes -- for a heady mix. Yet at its core Indian cinema is still mostly all about family, culture, traditions and, of course, romance. And the increasing demands that modernity makes on each of those.

This is largely what appeals to audiences in countries that are grappling with the rapid changes wrought by the modern world and increasingly break-

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neck Westernization of societies. So from much of the Arab world to Central Asia and parts of South East Asia, from Africa and to many parts of Latin America, Indian films deal with societal tensions that people deal with on a daily basis. Despite the candyfloss glamour on top, which merely provides for the perfect escapism for such audiences.

And an alternate ‘warm’ escapism, one that comes straight from the heart; as opposed to what Hollywood provides, which for these audiences tends to be either too cerebral, too Western or merely a visceral rush. The neo-Shakespearean tragicomic genre that Bollywood has made its own is a different flavour to be savoured with everyone. No wonder it’s a hit.

Besides, there’s also one special secret sauce added into the mix. The one genre that India perhaps took and refashioned in singular fashion more than any other to make it its own more than any other: the old Hollywood musical format.

Which was quickly fused with classical Indian traditions of devotional and theatrical musical performance. The spectacular results are there for the world to see. Indeed, whatever your cinematic inclinations you would have to admit, where would Indian cinema be without all that song and dance? The world agrees. Come, sing along. Or better yet, dance.

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PATH BREAKERS These are the Indian film industry’s outliers: actors, directors and technicians who have, armed with tenacity and quality, broken established rules and created striking new avenues of self-expression. Some have achieved the impossible; others have tapped into the art of the possible and emerged with refreshingly unique results

rajamouli He dreams big. Going where his imagination takes him, he pulls out the stops in the execution of his grand cinematic vision. The ‘hit’ director tag sits pretty on him. With his last outing, Baahubali – The Beginning, he too the fantasy action epic genre to a completely different plane aided by eye-popping CG imagery.

Audiences can barely wait for part two of the Baahubali experience!

Kangana Ranaut

She has steadily risen up the Bollywood ranks without the crutches of the industry’s big male box-office powerhouses.

With heroine-centric films like ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ and ‘Queen’ under her belt, Kangana is perceived as an actress capable of carrying an entire film on her slender shoulders.

Up ahead for the fans of the actress is the Vishal Bhardwaj period romance ‘Rangoon’.

Manish Mundra

A film producer by accident, he has an unfailing eye for cinematic gems.

A tweet by actor-director Rajat Kapoor expressing his frustration at not finding funds for ‘Ankhon Dekhi’ caught his attention and he offered to produce the critically acclaimed film. Since then this one-time soft drinks seller in Deoghar, Jharkhand, has backed extraordinary films like ‘Umrika’, ‘Dhanak’, ‘Masaan’ and ‘Waiting’.

Q (Qaushiq Mukherjee)

An irrepressible agent provocateur, Kolkata-based Q is known the world over for his controversial cult film, ‘Gandu’. He has since adapted a Rabindranath Tagore dance drama, ‘Tasher Desh’, into a typically revisionist film; ‘Nabarun’, a documentary on the late Bengali litterateur Nabarun Bhattacharya; and the horror film ‘Ludo’.

VETRIMAARAN

Since 2007, he has just three films to his credit. But his all three (‘Polladhavan’, ‘Aadukalam’ and the recent ‘Visaranai’) directorial ventures have left a huge impact in Tamil cinema, besides catapulting him into the league of India’s most respected filmmakers. His approach to filmmaking is marked by a rare level of meticulousness.

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01-09-2016 10:45:30

Resul Pookutty

Anurag Kashyap

Amit Dutta

The inspiration behind many young directors to push the boundaries of Mumbai’s independent cinema, he is continues to challenge the hegemony of Bollywood, eschewing entertainment—fantasy, pleasure, happy endings—and offering instead harsh and edgy stories about life in contemporary society. His films make him stand apart.

He is probably India’s best-known filmmaker globally. But ironically, he is barely known in India. But that isn’t surprising. He is a fiercely independent filmmaker who lives in the hills and makes rigorous films about zones of experience and consciousness. His films have few parallels in Indian ­cinema.

Umesh Kulkarni

Varun Grover

Sanal Kumar Sasidharan

This envelope-pushing sound designer and editor has won an Oscar and BAFTA award for his work on Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’.

In a career spanning almost two decades, he has collaborated with directors like Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rajkumar Hirani and Imtiaz Ali and has also worked on the sound design of blockbusters like ‘Ghajini’, ‘Enthiran’ and ‘Ra.One’.

This FTII alumnus is one of the finest Marathi filmmakers of his generation. He directed several acclaimed short films before making his first feature film, ‘Valu’ (The Wild Bull). His films, steeped in the ethos of Maharashtra and informed with a deeply personal vision, are lucid comments on social and cultural issues of the times.

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This gifted stand-up comedian, lyricist and screenwriter is a talent that stands apart from the crowd with the sheer uniqueness of his output. Besides writing lyrics for ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, ‘Ankhon Dekhi’ and ‘Dum Laga Ke Haisha’, he scripted Neeraj Ghaywan’s ‘Masaan’, which garnered accolades in Cannes last year. Grover has written lyrics for the upcoming SRK Film, ‘Fan’.

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A lawyer by training and a passionate film society activist, he made his directorial debut in 2014 with the crowd-funded ‘Oraalpokkam’ based on man’s indiscriminate assaults on the environment. He followed it with ‘An Off-Day Game’, a disturbing look at caste dynamics in Kerala against the backdrop of an election. His third film, a social satire provocatively titled ‘Sexy Durga’, is already in the making.

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from the editor’s desk

W

e are happy to present the latest issue of Pickle for the delegates at the 41st 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 for young Indian filmmakers who are battling the power of stars -- who have monopolised the consciousness of mass audience. 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 2016 will screen the latest films of two of India’s most feted directors, Adoor Gopalakrishnan (Pinneyum) and Buddhadeb Dasgupta (Tope) in the Masters Section. Actress Konkona Sen Sharma will make her directorial debut in A Death in the Gunj, a world premiere in the Special Presentations.

We are also seeing a rapid shift of India and Indians getting into the radar of

global filmmakers in their plots and storytelling. This is truly reflected in some of the picks at TIFF. India is under the spotlight in the Australian film Lion (directed by Garth Davis), starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara, that tells the incredible true story of Saroo Brierley. He was adopted by an Australian couple after being separated from his family in India at the age of five and then rediscovered his original home in Kolkata using Google Earth 25 years later.

Serbian director Goran Paskaljevic’s Dev Bhoomi, tells the story of an ageing man who returns to his remote village in the hills of Uttarakhand after a 40-year absence only to find himself confronting long dormant and unresolved grudges.

Toronto-based Deepa Mehta’s Anatomy of Violence, probes the shocking dimensions of the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder (that happened in Delhi).

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 X 1st edition Published by Pickle Media Private Limited Email: natvid@gmail.com l Mumbai l 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

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

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