Posts Tagged ‘Sourav Sarangi’

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Berlin International Film Festival have added few new titles to its programming list in the last few days. And it includes some Indian films as well.

Abhishek Kapoor’s new film Kai Po Che will have its International premiere in the Panorama section. It stars With Sushant Singh Rajput, Raj Kumar, Amit Sadh, Amrita Puri and is based on Chetan Bhagat’s book 3 Mistakes Of My Life. And here’s the official synopsis of the film…

Best friends Ishaan, Omi and Govind – young, ambitious and restless – are trying to make a mark in the India of the early 2000’s. These are exciting times – a new millennium has just dawned, India is a nuclear power and ostensibly shining – a perfect place for the 3 Ahmedabad boys to start a business that could be their ticket to fame and riches. In a country where cricket is religion, they hit upon a brilliant plan – to start a training academy that could produce India’s next sporting superstars! What follows is without doubt the greatest adventure of their lives, as they attempt to navigate the big hurdles in the path of fulfilling their dreams.     Based on Chetan Bhagat’s bestselling novel “The Three Mistakes of My Life”, Kai Po Che (meaning a triumphant yell in Gujarati) is an unforgettable ode to friendship and the magical moments one shares with one’s closest pals – celebrating festivals, drunken dancing, watching cricket matches together, strategizing on how to catch the attention of the cute neighborhood girl, being there to watch each other’s back in troubled times and to celebrate one’s successes by screaming “Kai Po Che”!

The other Indian films include Sourav Sarangi’s Char…The No Man’s Island and Powerless by Fahad Mustafa and Deepti Kakkar which will be screened in Berlinale Forum. DearCinema has more details about these two documentaries –

Powerless is set in Kanpur, a city with 15-hour power cuts, where a nimble young electrician provides robin-hood style services to the poor. Meanwhile, the first female chief of the electricity supply company is on a mission to dismantle the illegal connections, for good. The documentary recently received a grant from Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program and Fund.

Char…The No Man’s Island,about a fourteen year-old boy who smuggles rice from India to Bangladesh, recently won a Special Mention in Muhr Asia Africa Documentary category at Dubai film festival 2012.

The 63rd Berlinale will be held from February 7-17, 2013.

Locarno Film Festival’s Open Doors session this year was devoted to cinema from India. 12 projects, selected out of over 200 applications in 18 different languages from 30 regions in India, participated in the Open Doors co-production lab, organised with the collaboration of the Festival Industry Office. The objective of the 4-day workshop that took place during the Festival, was to assist the selected directors and producers to find co-production partners and to complete their films.

The jury, composed by Martina Malacrida and Nathalie Soldini for the Festival del film Locarno, by Walter Ruggle and Martial Knaebel representing the Swiss support fund for production “visions sud est”, by André de Margerie and Remi Burah for ARTE, by Jacqueline Ada and Ramdane Saâd for CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée) decided upon the following grants, awarded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC):

(from left: Alka Raghuram, Shanker Raman, Signe Byrge Sorensen, Sourav Sarangi, Anup Singh, Johannes Rexin)

Grant Open Doors 30.000 CHF

THE TRAPPER’S SNARE by Shanker Raman produced by Rucha Pathak

Grant Open Doors 20.000 CHF

BURQA BOXERS directed and produced by Alka Raghuram

Grant for development CNC (Centre National du cinéma et de l’image animée) 7.000 Euros

LASYA (The Gentle Dance) by Anup Singh produced by Johannes Rexin

Grant for development ARTE 6.000 Euros

CHAR… THE ISLAND WITHIN directed and produced by Sourav Sarangi, co-produced by Stefano Tealdi and Signe Byrge Sørensen

The Trapper’s Snare is the spiritual journey of 15 year old Sundaran, his experiences and realizations, and his rite of passage into adulthood. The film is a meditation on the significance of what one is able to or willing to leave behind.

In a culture where beauty, delicacy, refinement and submission are the prized traits to the ultimate feminine career fulfilment, marriage, young Muslim girls learn boxing at a little gym in Kolkata, India. Burqa Boxers tells the story of these warriors determined to knock out a few stereotypes. It will be the story of three young women Amina, Shyara, and Khadija as they train for the state amateur boxing championship.

In addition, the 64th Locarno Festival proudly presents three films whose projects took part in Open Doors co-production lab past editions: in the Concorso internazionale TANATHUR (Last Days in Jerusalem) by Tawfik Abu Wael (Israel/Palestine/France/Germany), winner of the 2007 Open Doors co-production lab; in the Concorso Cineasti del presente SOLNETCHNIYE DNI (Sunny Days) by Nariman Turebayev (Kazakistan), winner in 2010, and HELLO! SHU XIAN SHENG (Mr. Tree) by Jie Han (China), part of Open Doors 2009.

Locarno Film festival has announced the projects selected for the Open Doors Co-production Lab this year. From over 200 projects submitted, in 18 different languages, from 30 regions in India, these are the 12 finalists which will participate in Open Doors, the Festival del film Locarno’s co-production lab.

The selected projects are:

–  Aharbal Falls by Ajay Raina

–  Ajeeb Aashiq / Strange Love by Natasha Mendonca

–  Arunoday / Sunrise by Partho Sen-Gupta

–  Burqa Boxers by Alka Raghuram

–  Char, The Island Within by Sourav Sarangi

–  Jat Panchayat / The Judgement by Satish Manwar

–  Lasya / The Gentle Dance by Anup Singh

–  Samaadhi / The Penance by Sidharth Srinivasan

–  Sebastian Wants to Remember by Vasant Nath

–  The Trapper’s Snare by Shanker Raman

–  Thread / Le Fil by Lilium Leonard

–  Vidhvastha / Devastated by Ashish Avikunthak

Supported, since its inception in 2003, by the Swiss Foreign Ministry’s Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Open Doors aims to assist the directors and producers of the selected projects to find co-production partners, to complete their film. It is organised in close collaboration with the Festival’s Industry Office and enjoys support from the following partners: ACE (Ateliers du Cinéma Européen), EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs), EPC (European Producers Club) and Producers Network Marché du Film (Festival de Cannes).

At the end of the three-day workshop a prize of 50,000 CHF (approx 39,000 euros) is funded by Open Doors. A second prize of 7,000 euros is financed by the CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée) and ARTE will award the International Relations ARTE Prize of 6,000 euros.

The Open Doors co-production lab will take place August 6-9, 2011 as part of the 64th edition of the Festival del film Locarno.

To know more about the projects and the directors, do click here.