India’s Film Bazaar, South Asia’s leading film project market, has revealed a 14-strong slate spanning Asia, Europe and the U.S. for its annual co-production jamboree in Goa. It is a diverse mix of festival favorites and debutants.
From India, producer Shaji Mathew’s Niv Art Movies, whose credits include 2017 Rotterdam winner “Sexy Durga”, returns with the Malayalam-language “The Deathplace” by Jiju Antory (“The Forsaken”). In Assamese is “All Our Loves” by Mehdi Jahan, whose short “Jyoti and Joymoti” has won numerous awards. Heer Ganjwala will produce for Human Trail Pictures. Saurav Rai, winner of Mumbai’s 2019 grand jury prize for “Invitation,” reunites with Sanjay Gulati’s Crawling Angel Films for Nepali-language “Eternity.”
The international projects are also robust. Alka Raghuram (“Burqa Boxers”) will co-produce Hindi-language “The Mirror” via her U.S. outfit Junoon Pictures, alongside Celine Loop’s Traveling Light Productions.
Rubaiyat Hossain, whose directorial venture “Made In Bangladesh” recently played Toronto and London, will produce Mahde Hasan’s “Sand City.” The project was at Locarno’s Open Doors, has received a CNC development grant and has participated at Produire au Sud, Nantes and La Fabrique Cinema, Cannes.
Dechen Roder, whose “Honeygiver Among The Dogs” got festival play at Busan, Berlin and Fribourg, is back with Tibetan-language Bhutan-France co-production “I, the Song.”
India-Canada “The Displaced” by Vijay Jayapal, whose “Revelations” and “Nirvana Inn” were both at Busan, is co-produced by Mathivanan Rajendran’s Stray Factory.
Andrea Kuehnel of Leitwolf Filmproduktion will produce feature debutant Sushma Khadepaun’s Gujarati- and English-language “Salt.”
Debutant Suman Sen’s Bengali-language “Solo” will be a Bangladesh-France-India co-production led by Bijon Imtiaz and Arifur Rahman’s Goopy Bagha Productions.
Award winning short filmmaker Leon Cheo’s English and Hindi- Singapore-India co-production “Feast,” travels to the Bazaar armed with a development grant from Talents Tokyo and a slot at the Torino Film Lab’s Singapore chapter.
Celebrity chef Vikas Khanna, whose feature directorial debut “The Last Color” bowed at Palm Springs, is readying U.S.-India co-production “Home of the Rain Catcher”. Jitendra Mishra, Bindu Khanna and P. Kaul’s, House of Omkar, will co-produce.
Nepal’s Niranjan Raj Bhetwal will direct “Across The Rainbow Bridge” for Ram Krishna Pokharel’s Icefall Productions.
Veteran Rajan Khosa (“Gattu”) will direct India-U.S. “Varna Heights” and co-produce via his Elephant Eye Productions alongside Meraj Shaikh’s Wingman Pictures.
The Film Bazaar runs Nov. 20-24 and is operated by India’s National Film Development Corporation.
