EXCLUSIVE: Germany’s Pallas Film will co-produce Rajesh Jala’s The Spark (Chingari) with France’s ASAP Films, which boarded the project at Film Bazaar last year.

The project has also secured a $30,000 grant from German fund EZEF. It previously won the Incredible India Award at Film Bazaar, where it took part in Screenwriters’ Lab and the Co-production Market, and was also awarded a Global Film Initiative  grant of $10,000 at this year’s Cinemart.

“We are now working towards finding a good Indian producer for the project and expect to shoot in 2015,” Jala told Screen.

Founded by the late Karl Baumgartner and Thanassis Karathanos, Pallas’s recent production credits include Olivier Assayas’ Clouds Of Sils Maria and Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon’s The Farewell Party.

The Spark revolves around a photographer who is a riot victim and enters the ancient city of Varanasi to carry out a deadly mission. But he hesitates after meeting a young cremator and an old widow at the cremation ground.