India’s Film Bazaar concluded on November 24 with Payal Sethi’s The Disappearing Flower taking home the top prize in the co-production market.
The debut feature, an India-Germany co-production, wins the market’s first-ever cash prize of $10,000. Two prizes of $5,000 each were also given to Sanju Surendran’s Fishers Of Men and Pranjal Dua’s All Ten Heads Of Ravana. Screen profiles the three winners below.
The winners were selected from 21 feature projects that were invited to pitch to producers, distributors, festival programmers, financiers and sales agents from November 20-24.
Sumit Purohit’s Reluctant Rebels was honoured with a special mention for best pitch in the co-production market and will also receive free casting services in collaboration with Film Bazaar. Further winners included Hunter’s Moon and The Shape Of Momo as joint winners of the work-in-progress strand. Special mentions went to The Good, The Bad And The Hungry and The Red Hibiscus.
The Disappearing Flower
Fresh from producing Cannes Acid title In Retreat, Thanikachalam SA produces Payal Sethi’s debut feature about a lonely Indian housewife whose husband, a migrant labourer in the Gulf, suddenly stops sending money. The film will be shot in Kerala in the Malayalam language.
“Migrant worker tales usually deal with the suffering and the struggles and, often the deaths involved. If it seen from the other side, it is usually a footnote,” Thanikachalam told Screen. “This film is entirely about the one who is left behind.”
Sethi is a New York University-educated, Germany-based director whose was honoured with the Kompagnon Development Award from Berlinale Talents in 2022. Her short film Leeches won the grand prize at Brussels Short Film Festival.
“This award will help strengthen the conversations we’ve already had in Film Bazaar,” the producer continued. “It is validation that this is an interesting story and it should be seen be lots of people.”
Thanikachalam produces through his company Barycenter Films. His upcoming credits also include Nishanth Kalidindi’s Theatre which is set to premiere in 2025.
Fishers Of Men
Surendran’s third feature is a fantasy comedy about a sober vegetarian man who becomes infatuated with fish and decides to leave his family to live as a nomad. The Malayalam-language feature explores themes of addiction, social hierarchy, and the blurring of human and animal boundaries.
“The film is very local, but at the same time it deals with certain universal themes,” the director explained. “So I think that it has got a very international potential and I hope this award will help us find an international co-producer.”
Fishers Of Men is produced by Pramod Sankar who was an executive producer on 2022 action drama Kuttavum Shikshayum. Surendran’s documentary Kapila won India’s National Film Award for best documentary and a special mention at Visions du Reel 2015.
The film also received the ATF IP Accelerator award at Film Bazaar.
All Ten Heads Of Ravana
This Hindi-language comedy drama is produced by France-based Bich-Quan Tran of Dissidenz Films whose previous credits include Lav Diaz’s Prologue To The Great Desaparecido and his Berlinale Silver Bear-winning A Lullaby To The Sorrowful Mystery. Dua also produces.
The story centres on a 17-year-old boy from a low-income background who dreams of a better life. One day he comes up with the idea to put padding in jeans and strikes a deal with a local businessman to fill a big order in time for a major Hindi festival.
“This award validates the story’s potential and brings much-needed visibility to the project,” Dua told Screen. “The recognition will, hopefully, open doors to further collaborations, both in India and internationally. We are looking for another European co-producer and a sales agent.”
This is Dua’s feature directorial debut after associate directing on 2015 Venice Days award-winner Island City. His short film The Flamingos & Other Migratory Birds Tour was selected for Cannes Critics’ Week in 2023 but had to withdraw due to administrative issues.
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