NFDC Labs, the Training and Development arm of NFDC (The National Film Development Corporation Ltd), has announced six finalists for the NFDC – Harlequin Romance Screenwriters’ Lab. The first of its kind three-part Lab with romance and women-centric plots as the themes, has Habib Faisal and Bhavani Iyer as mentors. Ashok Banker and Shoma Narayanan will guide the parallely held Harlequin Lab.
Post the Lab, Harlequin will offer book deals to the most promising writers.
The final six scripts / writers are:
1. Anjuna Beats – Thomas Jacob
2. Love in the Time of Moral Policing – Niharika Negi
3. Magic for Maria – Annie Zaidi
4. Vanmala – Abhimanyu Kulkarni
5. A Second Life – Pravina Srivastava
6. The Falcon Hunter – Vineet Gupta
1. Anjuna Beats (English) by Thomas Jacob – A writer / director and having worked on one feature film, one short film, 3D shorts, corporate films and documentaries, Thomas was one of the young filmmakers invited for the prestigious Berlinale Talent Campus 2010 conducted by the Berlin International Film Festival (2010).
2. Love in the Time of Moral Policing (English – Hindi – Marathi) by Niharika Negi – Niharika has an interesting mix of experience in Film and Theatre- India and London, with stints at Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Limited, FutureWorks, Channel [V], Big Boy Productions (London), The Hat Factory Arts Center (London), Poor Box Productions, QTP’s Thespo amongst others.
3. Magic for Maria (Hindi – English) by Annie Zaidi – Annie has been writing across various genres and has directed short films and plays. She has contributed to various newspapers and magazines including Mid-Day, Frontline, Tehelka, Caravan, Mint, Elle, Femina, and DNA (Daily News and Analysis).
4. Vanmala (English) by Abhimanyu Kulkarni – Abhimanyu is a design professional at an MNC and is passionate about writing. His interest in screenplay writing has led him to do a professional course from UCLA followed by two commissioned projects.
5. A Second Life (English) by Pravina Srivastava – A media professional in the past, now based in Pondicherry, Pravina is an aspiring writer with A Second Life as her first attempt in screenplay writing.
6. The Falcon Hunter (English) by Vineet Gupta – Vineet is a Consulting Analyst with a strong academic background. A graduate from Harvard University, Vineet has done his PHD in Mathematics from California Institute of Technology and other programs from leading international universities like Cambridge and Stanford. The Falcon Hunter will be Vineet’s first project as a scriptwriter.
The three part Lab will include 2 residential programs, the schedule being:
First part at a hotel in Pune – 27 – 31 July 2014;
Second part – offline program conducted as per schedule mutually decided between the mentors and the writers;
Third and the final part – 16 – 20 November 2014 at Film Bazaar in Goa.
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 