India's NFDC unveils 22 projects for Film Bazaar

Tanovic’s Tigers, about the impact of the baby milk formula industry in Pakistan, has been selected for the market, along with Italian director Roberto San Pietro’s India-themed The Vegetarian, about an Indian farmer working in Italy.  

Among Indian filmmakers, Mehta (The Rising: Ballad Of Mangal Pandey) will present Noor: The Light In The Darkness, about Indian princess Noor Inayat Khan, who became a British spy and fought for the French Resistance during World War II. Banerjee’s The Boy And The Bandits is set in 18^th century Bengal when troops from the British East India Company were ravaging the land.

The line-up also includes one project each from the South Asian nations of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal. The project from Pakistan, Azmaish (The Trial), will be directed by Sabiha Sumar, whose credits include award-winning drama Silent Waters. The Afghan project, Scarlet Poppy, to be directed by Peter Bussian and produced by Siddiq Barmak, also recently took part in Busan’s Asian Project Market (APM).

Film Bazaar also features a Screenwriters’ Lab, in collaboration with Amsterdam-based Binger Filmlab, and a Work-in-Progress Lab. Screenwriters’ Lab features six projects that are receiving advice from mentors, first at this year’s Venice film festival, then durin Film Bazaar in Goa.

Work-in-Progress Lab features five project currently in post-production including Ashim Ahluwalia’s Miss Lovely and Anand Gandhi’s Ship Of Theseus. Mentors for the Work-in-Progress Lab include UK critic Derek Malcolm, Fortissimo Films’ Chris Paton and Tokyo-based producer Yukie Kito.

Film Bazaar’s Knowledge Series programme of talks and seminars will includes sessions on co-production, film commissions, India’s new wave of filmmakers, Hindi cinema and children’s cinema in India, amongst other topics.

FILM BAZAAR 2011 CO-PRODUCTION PROJECTS

Apple Tower (India)

Director: Rajiv Mohite

Language: Hindi

Azmaish [The Trial] (Pakistan)

Director: Sabiha Sumar

Language:  Urdu and English

The Bicycle (India)

Director: Khanjan Kishor Nath

Language: Assamese

The Boy And The Bandits (India)

Dir: Dibakar Banerjee

Language: Hindi

Burqa Boxers (India-France)

Director: Alka Raghuram

Language: Hindi and Bengali

Diary Of A Housewife (Bangladesh)

Director: Rubaiyat Hossain

Language: Bengali and English

Four Colours (India)

Director: Bikas Ranjan Mishra

Language: Hindi with Jharkhand dialect

Free Fall (India-US)

Director: Sopan Muller

Language: Hindi

Gun (India)

Director: Haobam Paban Kumar

Language: Manipuri

Kumari Nepali (Nepal)

Director: Tsering Sherpa

Language: Nepali

Liar’s Dice (India)

Director: Geetu Mohan Das

Language: Kinnauri-Jangram and Hindi

Mea Culpa (Sri Lanka)

Director: Prasanna Jayakody

Language: Sinhala

My Name Is Bhopali, Na(India)

Director: Jay Bajaj

Language: Hindi and English

Noor: The Light In The Darkness (India)

Director: Ketan Mehta

Language: English, French and Hindi

Scarlet Poppy (Afghanistan-India-US)

Director: Peter Bussian

Language: English, Pashto

Shab (India)

Director: Onir

Language: Hindi

A Story From The Dragon Kingdom (Bhutan)

Director: Ugyen Wangdi

Language: Bumthang kha (dialect of Bhutan)

Stranger Across The Seas (India)

Director: Sangeeta Datta

Language: English with Spanish and Bengali

The Pollutant (India-Sweden)

Director: Prakash Belawadi

Language: English and local Indian languages

The Vegetarian (Italy)

Director: Roberto San Pietro

Language: Italian, Punjabi

Tigers (France)

Director: Danis Tanovic

Language: Various

What’s Your Religion? (India)

Director: Satish Manwar

Language: Marathi

FILM BAZAAR 2011 WORK-IN-PROGRESS PROJECTS

Miss Lovely (India)

Director: Ashim Ahluwalia

Ship of Theseus (India)

Director: Anand Gandhi

B.A.Pass (India)

Director: Ajay Bahl

Mumbai Cha Raja (India)

Director: Manjeet Singh

The Good Road (India)

Director: Gyan Correa