Look who's holding hands at the movies

There are already signs of good times to come in the new year with films like Little Zizou & The President is Coming arriving in cinemas close on the heels of the usual blockbuster fare, like Ghajini or Chandni Chowk to China. With the current state of worldwide distribution being who knows what, this is great news indeed.
Little Zizou is veteran screenwriter, Sooni Taraporevala's (Salaam Bombay, The Namesake), directorial debut, featuring a fun ensemble cast including both well known actors (John Abraham, Boman Irani), and new talent (Sooni's kids, Jehane & Iyanah, play lead roles). It won Sooni the Best Director award at the MIAAC Film Festival in New York in November and is gathering a great deal of buzz as domestic and international release plans become imminent. The film was produced by Dinaz Stafford and executive produced by Mira Nair as a Jigri Dost Production under the Studio 18 banner.

The President is Coming is also a first feature from Kunaal Roy Kapoor, who played a small role in Loins of Punjab, the surprise runaway hit in 2008. Kapoor has teamed up with LOP scribe, Anuvab Pal, for a second comedy of errors, brought to us by producer Rohan Sippy. Sippy is behind the bigger-budget Chandni Chowk to China as well, the first flick to come out of Warner Bros' foray into Indian film production. The President is Coming premiered at the SAIFF Film Festival in October and will release in India on January 9.


An American Producer in Mumbai

Rene Bastian, founding producer of Belladonna Productions, is a champion of first time directors. In November, he traveled to Lahore (Pakistan) and Bombay (India) to look into production & financing scenarios for Afia Serena Nathaniel's debut feature, Neither the Veil nor the Four Walls.  FilmKaravan is working with Bastian and Nathaniel through its flagship initiative, KathaKaravan, to explore financing and production options in the subcontinent.  Indo-US co-productions on mid-budget movies have been relatively few and far between but based on Rene's recent experience and the warm response he received that could soon change. "I found the Indian film industry a fascinating and vibrant place.  The creative talent seems infinite. I see tremendous opportunity to collaborate," he said upon returning from Mumbai, just days ahead of the horrific blasts.

Rene's four day schedule was packed chock-a-block with meetings at every major corporate Indian production house that has had a hand in the growth of alternative and/or regional filmmaking, often with an international focus: IDream Productions, Mumbai Mantra, NFDC, Percept Picture Company, Planman Motion Pictures, Shemaroo Entertainment, UTV Motion Pictures, Walkwater Media. Rene also squeezed in face-time with talent, who expressed great interest in the project with the goal to setting their sights abroad, as well as potential crew members who have previously worked on international films.

The report of the Indian film biz from an American producer's perspective is significant to both sides.  For instance, most Indian companies are currently producing at least one of three kinds of films. There's good old parallel cinema, usually consisting of global cinema that are festival and award favorites.  Recent examples of these are The Last Lear, Firaaq and Kanchivaram. 

Similarly, there're a substantial crop of urban mid-budget films (originally known as the arthouse films, but as we prefer to call them, the Indian Indies). These are primarily story driven but perform well at the box office (Khosla ka Ghosla, Bheja Fry, Mithya and Dasvidaniya).  Who can forget Bollywood, which continues to adapt for its growing NRI (non resident Indian) audience. Case in point is Singh is King, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and Taare Zameen Par, which is India's contender for a foreign language Oscar nomination).

And then, there's a fourth strain that is already finding strength in films such as the one that Bastian himself is producing, the NRI (non resident Indian) film, which has mostly appeared in spurts, but steadily gaining momentum. Some have already come and gone from a theater near you, while others we hope are coming soon. We're talking about Loins of Punjab, Kissing Cousins, Ocean of Pearls, & Punching at the Sun, of course.