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Filmmakers in Bengal love Tagore: not just Sharmila but also the Grand Old Man of letters Rabindranath Tagore whose novels and short stories have been ternally adapted by Bengali filmmakers from Satyajit Ray to Rituparno Ghosh (Chokher Bali). In Hindi too, Tagore was dominant force until the close of the last century. Here are the 10 notable films in Hindi that were based on Tagore’s fiction.

1. Ghunghat (1960):

Based on Tagore’s celebrated novel Nouka Dubi this is the story of marital misalliances told against the backdrop of a ferocious storm and a boat capsize. Though a bit too melodramatic and cluttered with convenient coincidences, the story has a powerful message on giving women the right to decide which way their heart goes. Ghunghat had a stellar performance by Bina Rai. In a Anthony Hopkins-Chadwick Boseman situation, Ms Rai took the Filmfare award from Madhubala for a...

The short story is a specific genre of prose literature that developed and became popularised in Europe in the nineteenth century and later influenced other literary and cultural traditions across the globe. The development of print culture, mass production, and propagation of newspapers and magazines, and the emergence of the ‘middle-class’ as a new socio-economic stratum all became contributing factors to the burgeoning of the genre.

From the very early days of its development, cinema has been a medium of amalgamation of different art forms and expressions. Different filmmakers across languages have successfully integrated elements from varied literary traditions in their films, creating a plethora of cinematic adaptations of literary works. Indian cinema has also had a rich legacy of film adaptations of seminal literary pieces.

We have innumerable examples of films adapted from noteworthy plays and novels, but what makes the short story distinct as a literary genre and...

An Indian actress par excellence, Konkona Sen Sharma, needs no introduction today. She is not a quintessential Indian ‘heroine’; rather, she is a stellar ‘sustained’ actress who can be identified for her groundbreaking filmography and her prolific range of acting. Her performance is defined by her nuanced manner of presence, her piercing gaze, and exemplary portrayal of her characters.

She was ‘discovered’ by the Indian film industry a little after she got into Bengali films. Primarily making appearances in arthouse independent films, Konkona is a well-established name in contemporary parallel cinema. Besides, the uninhibited selection of her films, rife with fierce themes and social issues, has earned her enough laurels in the commercial Indian film industry as well.

Daughter of the filmmaker-actress Aparna Sen, Konkona is the recipient of two National Film Awards and four Filmfare Awards. Other than a singular child debut in the film Indira (1983), Konkona Sen Sharma...

In its long decades of existence, Bengali cinema has produced several gems that have strengthened the rich heritage of art and culture within our society. Like other film industries anywhere in the world, it has also seen good and bad times on the way. But it has learned to take all of them in its stride and move ahead robustly. One can argue that the golden age of Bengali films had freshness in terms of stories, contexts, and characters across time and individual films and demonstrated an innovative structure.

The triumvirate Ray-Ghatak-Sen took Bengali cinema to International audiences, and Gautam Ghosh, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Aparna Sen, and Rituparno Ghosh carried the legacy forward, amongst others. At the same time, filmmakers like Ajay Kar, Tarun Majumder, Tapan Sinha, and other filmmakers from various decades made unparalleled contributions to uphold the prestigious status of Bengali cinema.

But one cannot deny that in the last decade,...

Rituparno Ghosh was an iconic filmmaker and one of the finest auteurs to emerge from contemporary Bengal. According to film critics, he is the inheritor of the legendary Satyajit Ray’s legacy, and through his films, rooted firmly in middle-class values, desires, and aspirations, he is highly critical of the interpellations in patriarchal discourses and structures. His films represent his journey as a filmmaker from nurturing a strong feminist sensibility, which later evolved into radical queer politics.

Ghosh’s popularity was not only confined to India; he also got international recognition quite early in his career. And this reputation was built with the enthusiasm of the Bengali diaspora. It is believed that when Ray had passed away in 1992, a void was created within the Bengali film industry, and the emergence of Ghosh during such a critical period was like a stroke of fresh air that helped in its revival.

Each...

The story of a creator fighting for recognition against the currents of their time is a familiar one, echoing through artistic histories from the studios of Mumbai to the ateliers of Paris. Beatrice Minger’s film E.1027 – Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea offers a focused, piercing look at one such struggle, centered on the significant yet often sidelined Irish designer, Eileen Gray.

Born into aristocratic privilege, Gray turned her back on it to pursue a fiercely independent creative life. The film wisely avoids being a sweeping biography. Instead, it anchors its narrative in a single, profound act of creation: her modernist villa on the French Riviera, E.1027. This was not just a structure of glass and concrete; it was a sanctuary built in the late 1920s with her lover, the architectural journalist Jean Badovici.

The house’s name itself is a secret code of their intimacy: E for Eileen,...

Muzaffar Ali’s Umrao Jaan returns to movie theatres 44 years after release. There doesn’t seem to be much interest in the project. The Kotha culture which this exquisite film embraces is no more of interest to moviegoers.

1981 was the year of realistic cinema, with Smita Patil in Marathi and Hindi in Jabber Patel’s Subah, Saritha in K. Balachander’s Tamil Thaneer Thaneer and Jennifer Kendal in 36 Chowringhee Lane, pulling out all stops.

But Rekha as Umrao Jaan was extra-special. She proved she was the Chosen One. Umrao Jaan was the story of a restless woman whose wandering soul takes her through warm and robust relationships with a bashful Nawab (Farooq Shaikh), her childhood friend and admirer (Naseeruddin Shah) and a long-haired dacoit (Raj Babbar).

There’s a touch of dangerous poetry in the presentation, as though underneath all the posturings of decorum these characters are hungering for the...

Shabana Azmi speaks on her part of The Wishing Tree as Subhash K Jha in another edition of This Day That Year, looks back at the 2017 film.

At times, cinema is more commendable for its intention rather than execution. At the execution level, The Wishing Tree, which opened this week to a near-blank response, leaves much to be desired. The performances by the children are embarrassingly loud and self-conscious. Even the slew of veterans from the redoubtable Saurabh Shukla (bullying and spanking kids in a clumsy wig) to hardly seen veteran theatre actress Mahabano Mody-Kotwal, come up with woefully clunky performances.

This lack of tact and subtlety in telling an essentially eco-friendly parable about saving a tree could be seen to be symptomatic of what ails children’s films in our country. We just don’t make films that connect with the younger audience. Either the so-called children’s films...

Subhash K Jha curates a special list of 8 brilliant films to watch for this festive weekend.

Silvat (2018):

Playing a Muslim darzi in Tanuja Chandra 40-minute film situated in the crowded gully of what looks like Mumbai’s Haji Ali locality, Kartik is every bit Anwar, the shy sensitive tailor who develops a secret passion for his favourite client: a lonely abandoned wife Noor (Meher Mistry) whose husband has migrated to Riyadh for a job with nary a glance back for the woman he has left behind. The focus of the passionate plot, pulsating with unspoken ardour, is Noor. But it’s Kartik’s Anwar who silently steals the show. There is no exhibition of outward passion here. And yet so much is said through Anwar’s eyes. Every stolen glance is laden with longing. The film is shot on location in a Muslim locality with streetside vendors frying parathas and malpuas,...

Subhash K Jha celebrates nine years of A Death In The Gunj Konkona Sen Sharma’s remarkable directorial debut.

It’s hard to define the mood of unrehearsed foreboding and a vague sense of doom that is built into Konkona Sen Sharma’s fragile yet ferocious family-on-a-disastrous-hillstation-holiday film.

If one didn’t know better, one would classify A Death In The Gunj as a whodunit. An Agatha Christie novel condensed into two hours of layered crisp crunchy but seemingly pointless conversations where families on a lazy vacation talk nonsense, play silly games evoking dead spirits (please!) while kids and pets run around in the large crumbling family home as the house-help grumbles about the sudden surge in domestic responsibilities.

It’s a familiar scenario for a tense exploration of fissures and fractures in the joint-family system. Ms Sen Sharma doesn’t miss a beat as her keen eye for detail...

Subhash K Jha shares an unpublished in-depth and open interview with the brilliant auteur Rituparno Ghosh.

With Bariwali, you stepped into Hindi cinema. Was that a good experience?

But why should Bariwali be a stepping stone to a Hindi film? My earlier films like Unnishe April and specially Dahan too have been shown and appreciated in Mumbai. I’ve been getting offers to do Hindi films even before Bariwali. But yes, this is my first film which has been seen by a wider audience, maybe because Anupam Kher, being a Mumbai actor, could generate some curiosity for the film.

Unnishe April is actually the film with which you arrived?

Yes, but before that, I made a children’s film with Basant Chowdhary and Moon Moon Sen called Diamond Ring , which was commissioned by Shabana Azmi on behalf of the Children’s Film Society. It never got released and became important only after Unnishe April.

Turning the focus on Moushumi Chatterji, Subhash K Jha celebrates her career, along with inside the part stories from the actress about the roles she played and did not play, in this special feature.

Moushumi’s career began with Tarun Majumdar’s superhit Bengali film Balika Badhu. She was 19 at the time, but in this lovely story based on Rabindranath Tagore’s short work Samapti, she played a much younger child bride. Later, Jaya Bhaduri played the same role in Uphaar. In fact, Moushumi’s fate seems inextricably linked to Jaya’s.

Moushumi tells me that she was signed on to do Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Guddi, the 1970 film with which Jaya became an immediate and endurable cine icon. According to Moushumi, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, a family friend of her father-in-law singer-composer Hemant Mukherjee, saw her and immediately offered her Guddi. Thereafter, Moushumi had no idea what happened. Without her knowledge, the...

Subhash K Jha revists Aparna Sen’s Sonata, which starred Shabana Azmi, Lillete Dubey, and Aparna Sen, that released in 2017. We also hear from the director and Shabana Azmi about the making of the film.

There is no sannata in Sonata. The three protagonists talk endlessly. This enchanting chamber piece is like a Beethoven symphony for the sexually impaired. Nothing really ‘happens’ in the 90-minute celluloid discourse on post-menopausal sexuality and other related topics on how to be a woman past her prime without guilt and the accompanying crimes.

Where are the Indian films that celebrate middle-aged women’s sexuality? Sonata is the psychological exploration of three unmarried women facing a mid-life crisis -Aruna Chaturvedi, Dolon Sen, and Subhadra Parekh, a professor, a banker, and a journalist. The 103-minute film revolves around the emotional ups and downs of these three friends, culminating in an event of global magnitude, confronted with...

Cottontail unfolds as a poignant cross‑continental quest sparked by a dying wish: a Japanese widower must carry his late wife’s ashes from Tokyo to England’s Lake District. The film contrasts Tokyo’s neon‑lit crowds with the misty calm of Windermere, using each location to mirror stages of grief and acceptance. In the city, Kenzaburo’s solitary routines—a stolen packet of octopus, a silent toast to an empty seat—establish his inner void. When he arrives in Cumbria, rolling hills and rain‑slicked lanes become a canvas for quiet reflection and unexpected warmth.

At its emotional core, Kenzaburo’s mission—to honor Akiko’s childhood memories by scattering her ashes where she once chased rabbits—anchors the narrative in a simple yet profound act of devotion. Patrick Dickinson balances gentle humor with moments of stillness, allowing viewers to share in Kenzaburo’s uncertainty.

Cinematically, the film...

Subhash K Jha, in this installment of Thus day that Year, revisits Aparna Sen’s The Japanese Wife as it touches 15 years since release.

This story of a long-distance ‘marriage’ between a Bengali bhadra-lok from rural Bengal, Snehamoy (Rahul Bose), and his Japanese pen-pal Miyage (Chigusa Takaku), suffers from an incurable disease known as Inherent Silliness. Based on a true story by Kunal Basu, this is the ultimate non-romance between two people who thoroughly deserve each other.

They’re both so annoying and outdated in their naivete, you see! The couple married to each other for over 15 years never meets and barely speaks to each other on the phone a few times. When Miyage falls ill in Japan, Snehamoy goes to the doctor in Kolkata with her medical reports. The doctor’s expression when he hears why the patient can’t come personally to be examined is exactly the way...

Celebrating Shashi Kapoor’s birthday anniversary, the brilliant Shabana Azmi speaks with Subhash K Jha about her “crush” on him and fondly remembers working with the esteemed actor that arguably every woman loves.

Shashi Kapoor’s birth anniversary today…how do you remember him?

He was my teenage crush. I used to skip food that was allowed to me for pocket money and buy a photo of him. Then when he came with family to visit Papaji (Prithviraj Kapoor) who was our neighbour, I would shyly give him the photo for his autograph and then run away.

Eventually, he was your co-star in quite a few films, including the outstanding Junoon?

I couldn’t believe I was working opposite him in Heera Aur Patthar! Then several films followed and he used to tease me constantly. He was definitely the most good looking hero of all times.

Was working with him a learning experience?...

Aparna Sen’s contribution to cinema as an actor and a director is monumental. From a playful young bride in Satyajit Ray’s Bengali anthology film, Teen Kanya (her debut), to a strong, independent working woman determined to teach the boarders of a boys’ hostel a lesson in Dinen Gupta’s comedy romance film, Basanta Bilap, Sen had garnered accolades as an actor by the time she began her directorial journey with 36 Chowringhee Lane.

At present, especially with the Hema Committee Report released last year, the discrimination and exploitation women are subjected to in the (pan) Indian film industries have become common knowledge. From stories of casting couches to the rampant discrimination faced by women cinematographers and filmmakers, there is no denying that the film industry is a gendered space. Women have always been assigned a few conventional roles in the industry, and Aparna Sen is one of the few...

Actor-turned-director Parambrata Chatterjee’s thirteenth directorial venture is not an easy watch. It is verbose (so either you are fluent in Bengali or a fast reader), deeply tragic, and unabashedly resilient in its quest for the essence of life within the marital domain. Parambrata Chatterjee builds on the mounting tension to a nerve-wracking degree. There are no pockets of relief in the storytelling, no smile breaks, no humorous interludes. Throbbing with tension and forebodings of impending mortality Ei Raat Tomar Amar is a relentlessly grim tale of a marriage being rocked by piercing questioning on its fiftieth anniversary.

What is the genesis of this Bergmanesque marital drama?

For me, a lot of the emotion was organic because I always wanted to see my parents grow old together. Together or otherwise, I mean, no one can predict the future. So, I lost my… my father died when he was barely 50 and...

Some female directors share a very special rapport with their leading ladies: Aparna Sen and Shabana Azmi in Sati, Kalpana Lajmi and Dimple Kapadia in Rudaali, Gauri Shinde and Sridevi in English Vinglish, Arati Kadav and Sanya Malhotra in Mrs….

Arati remembers her first meeting with Sanya. “In the first meeting itself, Sanya endeared herself so much to me that I really wanted to work with her and learn and grow with her. She made me feel very comfortable in my skin, in being myself, and then, through her own dedication, inspired me to excel. I have grown as a fan, and every day, I have met her. This role in Mrs was very tough, also for an actor who operates with so much empathy, and seeing her break and rebuild herself was something else. Working with her any day is like the best creative day of my life. I...

Hansal Mehta’s Aligarh, which featured Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao, celebrates nine years since its release on the big screen. Subhash K Jha revisits the music and the movie.

In the acutely thought-provoking em>Aligarh, which is about a homosexual man’s right to privacy, Manoj Bajpayee playing the disgraced professor Shrinivas Ramchandra Sirus, sits alone in his dingy one-bedroom professor’s quarter, with a drink in hand and a Lata Mangeshkar song by his side.

In the semi-darkness, in a room lit by dim hope, Srinivas listens to the Melody Queen’s ‘Aap ki nazron nesamjha pyaar ke qaabil mujhe’, that timeless Madan Mohan composition from the film Anpadh. The song plays on a rickety portable sound machine. But its sound resonates across the professor’s silent universe, like a melodic meteor cutting through a sky of solitude.

It’s a life-defining moment. Director Hansal Mehta holds the...

In this very special birthday feature noted director Sanjay Leela Bhansali reminiscences and shares fascinating thoughts and insight on the films he grew up watching. You do not want to miss this!

1. Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960): “The way Ritwick Ghatak used Rabindra Sangeet and the level of performance he got out of the leading lady Supriya Chowdhary act remain etched in my mind. Ritwick was so ahead of his times. He himself never knew why he was taking a shot in a particular way. Years later, someone like me, watching the film, discovered the emotional content, which was so potent that it survived all the ravages of time. Ritwick Ghatak understood the power of sound and image.”

2. Mirch Masala (1985): “For the sheer power of the folk tale. The folk tale is told in such vibrant colours. The use of colour red and the tribute to woman power. And at...

Arjun Rampal speaks to Subhash K Jha about his many, varied exciting upcoming projects and more!

What are your current projects?

There are a few films that are completely ready for release, like Punjab 95 with Diljit, directed by Honey Trehan and produced by Ronnie Screwvala’s RSVP. The Rapist with Konkana Sen, directed by Aparna Sen, produced by Sameer Nair’s Applause. This is the one I am really excited about. It is a complex role of a man dealing with his wife’s rape.

The Rapist is an exceptional film. What was it like working with Sameer Nair and Aparna Sen?

Aparna is one of the few female directors I’ve worked with. The other was Reema Kagti for Honey Travels Pvt Ltd. The Rapist is a very sensitive exploration of the trauma of rape. Konkona is exceptional. Hats off to Sameer Nair and Applause for backing this game-changing project.

Actor-turned-director Parambrata Chatterjee’s thirteenth directorial venture is not an easy watch. It is verbose (so either you are fluent in Bengali or a fast reader), deeply tragic, and unabashedly resilient in its quest for the essence of life within the marital domain.

When we first meet Amar Gupta (Anjan Dutta), he is seen taking his ailing wife Joyita (Aparna Sen) home after a session of chemotherapy with his sullen son Joy (Parambrata Chatterjee) and Joy’s wife. To say the tension in the car is palpable would be an understatement.

Parambrata Chatterjee builds on the mounting tension to a nerve-wracking degree. There are no pockets of relief in the storytelling, no smile breaks, and no humorous interludes. Throbbing with tension and forebodings of impending mortality, Ei Raat Tomar Amar is a relentlessly grim tale of a marriage being rocked by piercing questioning on its fiftieth anniversary.

Amar and Joyita...

by Rita Dutta

The Bengal Renaissance depicts a tale of a bygone era—a period that symbolizes Bengal’s encounter with a cultural revolution that redefined the course of history. Known as the cultural capital of India, Bengal cemented this status during this transformative time. Highlighting its engagement with liberalism and modernity, this intellectual and nationalist movement gave rise to a cultural elite that shaped the social and political landscape of Bengal and Kolkata (formerly Calcutta).

Within the Bengal Renaissance, one of the most significant phenomena was the emergence of bhadramahilas (educated women of the middle class). While striving to establish the supremacy of the bhadralok (educated male gentry), these women also created space for their own emancipation, both within the household and in the public sphere. Modern working women in the city draw inspiration from these pioneers. Among contemporary cultural icons, Aparna Sen stands as a living legend who...

As we have mentioned many times before, the documentary is currently experiencing one of its golden periods, with the fact that reality goes beyond any script becoming quite obvious throughout the plethora of entries we have been seeing during that last few years. Furthermore, as a number of courageous filmmakers shed light to issues that are dangerous to depict (to say the least) or even hard to watch, the quality of the category continues to improve. Add to that the biographical ones, the ones that present real but relatively unknown sides of each country’s society and you have the majority of reasons for what we mentioned in the beginning.

Without further ado, here are the 15 Best Asian Documentaries of 2024, in reverse order. Some may have premiered in 2023, but since they mostly circulated in 2024, we decided to include them.

15. Parama: A Journey With Aparna Sen Aparna Sen © Mayaleela Films

“When actors become mainstream stars,...

Girls Will Be Girls director Shuchi Talati says 2024 is an incredible year for independent Indian women filmmakers. “We’re collectively creating a tapestry of stories that have not been given space in our culture,” she says.

Talati’s debut feature set the tone in January by winning the audience award in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival while its 22-year-old lead actress, Preeti Panigrahi, bagged the special jury award for acting. The mother-daughter drama was more than six years in the making, with Talati first pitching it at the 2018 Nfdc Film Bazaar Co-Production Market.

She hasn...

Shabana Azmi turns all gooey-eyed while talking about dear friend Aparna Sen. “I’m sorry this is going to sound hagiographic but that’s because you’ve caught me in this frame of mind ! She is my dearest dearest friend. I love and respect her. She is an extremely intelligent person and one can discuss any subject with her. She and I have formed a relationship over the years where I immediately fall into a daft mode in her presence and she scolds me like a school teacher!”

Shabana loves Aparna not only as a friend but also as a cineaste. “Her understanding of cinema is deep and I wish I could get her funds to make films without ever caring about budget constraints. It’s not that I adore all her films . I am honest with her about my appraisal of her films and she takes it in the...

Indian studio Applause Entertainment is gearing up for an ambitious slate of projects as it enters its eighth year of operations.

The company, led by managing director Sameer Nair, a pioneer of Indian television with previous stints at Star TV, Ndtv Imagine, Turner General Entertainment and Balaji Telefilms, has its sights set on expanding into new genres and formats while building on its established successes.

Leading the charge is “Nyaya,” a courtroom drama produced in association with Mangata Films. Directed by Nitya Mehra, Karan Kapadia and Heeraz Marfatia, the fictionalized series based on real events follows a 17-year-old girl seeking justice against a powerful ‘godman,’ or leader of a religious cult, who raped her. The project boasts a strong cast including Fatima Sana Sheikh, Aneet Padda, Arjun Mathur, Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub and Raghubir Yadav.

“When this opportunity came up, we really pounced on it,” Nair told Variety. “They’ve shot it really well.

Shoots have resumed in the Bengali-language film industry, after boycotts were called over a filming dispute.

Filming resumed today after an intervention from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Last week, technicians boycotted a production on which director Rahool Mukherjee was serving as creative producer. On July 23, the Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India (Fctwei) had banned Mukherjee from making films for three months for violating rules for shooting overseas in Bangladesh. The ban was later lifted by the local directors’ guild on July 27, but the technician boycott continued.

The production was set to feature actors Prosenjit Chatterjee and Anirban Bhattacharya.

In a bid to show solidarity with Mukherjee, members from the Directors Association of Eastern India announced that they would cease work from July 29, bringing the Bengali film industry to a halt. Top filmmakers like Aparna Sen, Kaushik Ganguly, and Srijit Mukherjee signed a statement supporting...

Europe’s largest South Asian film festival, the London Indian Film Festival (Liff) celebrates its 15th birthday this year with a power-packed programme of features, shorts, series, gaming and Xr across 6 UK cities. With each year the festival showcases outstanding films that present thought-provking and moving films along with fascinating Q&a’s after the screenings and this year looks to be even better!

Speaking on the phenomenal growth of Liff, CEO and Programming Director Cary Rajinder Sawhney remarked, “It’s been an incredible journey marking 15 years this year and we are delighted to expand into new UK cities, welcoming Bradford and Liverpool into our 6 city reach. It’s also personally exciting to have such a talented team and innovative partners, as we push ahead to explore new frontiers of South Asian gaming and Xr scenes and continue our mission to showcase and celebrate emerging and established filmmakers, diversifying our offer to UK audiences.

The 15th anniversary edition of the London Indian Film Festival will open on June 26 with the European Premiere of U.S. indie, tear-jerker drama “Paper Flowers,” directed by Mahesh Pailoor (“Brahmin Bulls”), starring “Deadpool’s” Karan Soni. It will close on July 3 with a screening of ultra-violent Indian actioner “Kill,” which is produced by Karan Johar and Guneet Monga and which represents Lionsgate’s first foray into South Asian film production.

In between, the festival will operate across five additional cities and thematically extend itself across feature film, TV series, short films, Xr and gaming.

“It’s been an incredible journey marking 15 years this year and we are delighted to expand into new U.K. cities, welcoming Bradford and Liverpool into our 6-city reach. It’s also personally exciting to have such a talented team and innovative partners, as we push ahead to explore new frontiers of South Asian gaming...

In a delightful throwback moment, actor Konkona Sensharma recently shared some nostalgic pictures from her mother Aparna Sen’s acclaimed 1989 film ‘Sati,’ which featured the legendary Shabana Azmi in the lead role. The images were initially posted by a fan on X (formerly Twitter), who expressed excitement upon discovering young Konkona in the film.

The fan shared a couple of pictures, one of which included Shabana Azmi in the background, and captioned it: “Omg you guys it’s Bebe @konkonas and the fourth picture is cinema herstory with two fabulous people in one frame.” Konkona, equally thrilled, re-shared the pictures with the caption, “Haha love this!! It’s from my mum’s film Sati with the legend @AzmiShabana.”

The shared images depict a young Konkona dressed in a pink saree, adorned with a nose ring, bangles, and earrings, looking adorable as she performs her role in the film. ‘Sati’ tells the story of Uma,...

India's “renaissance woman” Aparna Sen – actress, director, producer, fighter for women's right, diversity and ethnic & religious minorities – whose career in the film business spans over six decades, was presented with the Red Lotus Lifetime Achievement Award 2024 in Vienna. The filmmaker was unfortunately not able to fly over to recieve it, and the award was presented to the winner through the German film critic and editor of the film magazine Shomingeki, Rüdiger Tomczak.

Parama: A Journey With Aparna Sen screened at Red Lotus Asian Film Festival Vienna

Only a few months ago, Sumah Ghosh's documentary “Parama: A Journey With Aparna Sen” about the Indian helmer celebrated its world premiere in the Cinema Regained strand of IFFR, and it was only logical to include it in the repertoire of Red Lotus Asian Film Festival. It is a film that gives a deep insight into the life and work of one of the...

Revered Indian actor and filmmaker Aparna Sen is the subject of Suman Ghosh’s documentary “Parama: A Journey with Aparna Sen,” which has its world premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam‘s Cinema Regained strand.

Sen came to notice as an actor with the “Samapti” segment in Oscar winner Satyajit Ray’s “Three Daughters” (1961). She acted in several more films by Ray and also worked with Indian cinema greats Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha and Rituparno Ghosh. Her acting credits also include Merchant-Ivory films “The Guru” (1969) and “Bombay Talkie” (1970).

“36 Chowringhee Lane” (1981), Sen’s directorial debut, won her best director at India’s National Film Awards. She has directed several acclaimed films since, including “Paroma” (1984), “Sati” (1989), “Paromitar Ek Din” (2000), “Mr. and Mrs. Iyer” (2002), “Goynar Baksho” (2013) and “The Rapist,” which won the Kim Jiseok prize at Busan in 2021.

Sen starred in Ghosh’s “The Bose Family” (2019). Ghosh is a prolific filmmaker who is...

Actor turned director-producer Parambrata Chatterjee is riding high with an impressive body of work and juggling between projects with equal enthusiasm. This year the prolific actor-filmmaker Parambrata Chatterjee will be keeping busy throughout the year with a number of movies in his kitty and become one busy actor in 2024, shooting for several films, web series for different Ott platforms and directing and producing movies at the same time.

The multi talented actor was juggling between shoots and packed schedules hopping from one city to another in 2023 and we thought the actor will seem a little free in 2024, as he was working back to back schedules for his various projects in 2023 But the multi talented actor Parambrata Chatterjee has a busy year ahead and is living every actor’s dream.

Parambrata currently has some interesting line up of films in his kitty and year 2024, will be the busiest year for Parambrata...

The Jio Mami Mumbai Film Festival is set to return from October 27 for 10 days of a loaded line-up of films from across the world to treat the cinephiles. It will feature 250 films from October 27 to November 5. Farhan Akhtar, Rana Daggubati, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Vikramaditya Motwane, Zoya Akhtar, Rohan Sippy, Ajay Bijli and Anupama Chopra unveiled line-up whhich includes over 40 World Premieres, 45 Asia Premieres, and 70+ South Asia Premieres.

This time, the festival received over 1000 submissions for the South Asia programme. The festival promises to spotlight contemporary films and new cinematic voices from South Asia. The main competition at the festival this year is the South Asia Competition.

This competitive section aims to showcase breakthrough contemporary South Asian films, will see 14 films from debutant and second-time filmmakers from across India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal, as well as diaspora filmmakers from the UK and Germany. South Asian films are also part of a...

The Jio Mami Mumbai Film Festival is set to return from October 27 for 10 days of a loaded line-up of films from across the world to treat the cinephiles. It will feature 250 films from October 27 to November 5. Farhan Akhtar, Rana Daggubati, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Vikramaditya Motwane, Zoya Akhtar, Rohan Sippy, Ajay Bijli and Anupama Chopra unveiled line-up whhich includes over 40 World Premieres, 45 Asia Premieres, and 70+ South Asia Premieres.

This time, the festival received over 1000 submissions for the South Asia programme. The festival promises to spotlight contemporary films and new cinematic voices from South Asia. The main competition at the festival this year is the South Asia Competition.

This competitive section aims to showcase breakthrough contemporary South Asian films, will see 14 films from debutant and second-time filmmakers from across India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal, as well as diaspora filmmakers from the UK and Germany. South Asian films are also part of a...

Exclusive: Applause Entertainment and Zee’s Zindagi will try on The Pink Shirt together at South By Southwest Sydney this month.

The South Asian powerhouses have lined up the streaming series as the second production out of a recently struck content partnership, and will be taking it to the Palace Central Cinema on October 16 for the film strand of South by SouthwestSydney.

The eight-episode show will star Sajal Aly and Wahaj Ali, and is billed as “a riveting take on modern-day relationships, their love, challenges, and struggles in a raw and real way, and as a “simple and confusing, tragic yet funny tale of broken and complex relationships.”

The drama revolves around the journey of Sophia (Aly) and Umer (Ali), who are stuck in respective toxic relationships only to discover an alluring intensity for each other and embark on a transformative journey towards love that mends them as people.

The...

Revered Indian actor Waheeda Rehman has been accorded the Dadasaheb Phalke award, India’s highest film honor.

The award is given for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema and is named after Phalke, director of “Raja Harischandra” (1913), India’s first full-length feature, who is considered the father of Indian cinema.

Rehman, the 85-year-old grande dame of Indian cinema has worked with most of the legendary filmmakers of her country during her career and the roles she chose were in films that are considered classics in the annals of Indian cinema. She worked with Guru Dutt in “Pyaasa” (1957) and “Kaagaz Ke Phool” (1959), Satyajit Ray in “Abhijaan” (1962), Basu Bhattacharya in “Teesri Kasam” (1966) and Yash Chopra in “Kabhie Kabhie” (1976), among many other memorable roles.

But it is her role as Rosie in Vijay Anand’s “Guide” (1965) that Rehman remembers with the greatest fondness. “When I signed ‘Guide’ more than 50 years ago, my friends told...

Mumbai, July 16 (Ians) Veteran star Saira Banu shared a glimpse of her personal favourite scene from late star Dilip Kumar’s performance in the 1974 film ‘Sagina’, which she said was one of the legendary actor’s ‘most spell-binding, enthralling performances’.

‘Sagina’ is directed by Tapan Sinha, the film stars Dilip Kumar, Saira Banu, Aparna Sen, Om Prakash. It was a remake of 1970 Bengali movie Sagina Mahato directed by Tapan Sinha with the same lead pair in the cast.

The film revolved around Dilip Kumar’s character Sagina, a factory laborer, and an aggressive, honest and lovable character who was the first to fight against the tyranny of the British bosses in the tea gardens of North-Eastern India.

Saira Bano took to Instagram, where she shared a few glimpses and captioned the post: “Sagina is one of my most loved films. It is based on the true story of the labour movement.

Applause Entertainment, is set to debut in Tamil cinema with the release of a taut, edge-of-the-seat investigative thriller, ‘Por Thozhil’ in collaboration with E4 Experiments and Eprius Studio. The movie, directed by debutant Vignesh Raja, stars Ashok Selvan and Sarath Kumar in the lead roles, with Nikhila Vimal in a pivotal role.

The makers today released an intriguing title reveal with a chilling animation and haunting musical score, leading to much anticipation. ‘Por Thozhil’ translated as ‘The Art of War’, promises to be an intriguing thriller and is slated to release soon in cinemas.

The content studio has earlier produced several popular series, including ‘Humble Politician Nograj’ (Kannada), ‘Vadham’ (Tamil), ‘Kuruthi Kalam’ (Tamil), and ‘Iru Dhuruvam’ (Tamil). With a strong commitment to building a diverse content slate in all southern markets, Applause Entertainment is focused on creating a range of movies and premium series across different languages.

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Indian filmmaker Subhrajit Mitra’s latest venture “Bandit Queen of Bengal” (aka “Devi Chowdhurani”) will start principal photography in the final quarter of the year.

The film is based on Mitra’s own research into the the advent and invasion of the British East India Company in India, the battles of Plassey (1757) and Buxar (1764), the great Bengal famine of 1770, the Sannyasi and Fakir rebellion (1770-77) and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s 1884 Bengali-language novel “Devi Chowdhurani,” which features a female freedom fighter protagonist.

The film will follow the journey of a villager who eventually becomes the first Indian woman freedom fighter. It will also tell the story of the Hindu monks who had no other option but to take up arms against their British colonial rulers to save the country and their people. It was the first armed revolution by the Indians, led by Bhavani Charan Pathak, against the British East India Company.

The youngest of Bollywood’s famous Kapoor brothers, he did not have their one defining and enduring cinematic image – Raj’s naive "tramp" identity in the Charlie Chaplin tradition or Shammi’s Elvis-like jiving, rebellious "playboy" persona, but went to surpass both in sheer diversity of his acting.

With his copybook good looks, rakish smile, infectious charm, toothy grin and languid drawl, or the air of earnestness, playing romantic roles, be they of businessmen, police inspectors, college students, et al came naturally to him, but Shashi Kapoor went on to play more ‘common man’ roles, decadent princes, aging poets and even angels with the same charm and intensity.

Born on March 18, 1938 in the then Calcutta to Prithviraj Kapoor and Ramsarn ‘Rama’ Devi, Balbir Raj ‘Shashi’ Kapoor was destined to walk in his family’s footsteps on the silver screen.

Though he first appeared on screen as a child artiste in...

The Berlin Film Festival has revealed a raft of titles across strands and also 33 film projects vying for coin at the coproduction market.

Selections for the topical Perspektive Deutsches Kino strand from emerging German talent include “Seven Winters in Tehran” by Steffi Niederzoll, “Elaha” by Milena Aboyan, “Ararat” by Engin Kundag, “The Kidnapping of the Bride” by Sophia Mocorrea, Fabian Stumm’s “Bones and Names,” “Long Long Kiss” by Lukas Röder, Tanja Egen’s “On Mothers and Daughters,” “Ash Wednesday,” by João Pedro Prado and Bárbara Santos, “Nuclear Nomads” by Kilian Armando Friedrich and Tizian Stromp Zargari and “Lonely Oaks” by Fabiana Fragale, Kilian Kuhlendahl and Jens Mühlhoff.

All the selected films in the strand will compete for the Heiner Carow Prize and the Compass-Perspektive-Award, both of which are endowed with €5,000.

A 4K restoration of David Cronenberg’s “Naked Lunch” will open the Berlinale Classics section, which also includes Oliver Schmitz’ “Mapantsula,...

The Berlin Film Festival today unveiled the titles selected for its retrospective section chosen by a collection of international directors and actors, including Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Nadine Labaki, and Tilda Swinton.

This year the theme of the retrospective sidebar is “Coming of Age at the Movies,” and each invited artist was tasked with submitting their personal favorite film that either deals with “being young and growing up” or had a “decisive role in the evolution or development” of their own artistic practice. The retrospective section will also exclusively screen films that have been newly restored.

The full list of invited artists includes Maren Ade, Pedro Almodóvar, Wes Anderson, Juliette Binoche, Lav Diaz, Alice Diop, Ava DuVernay, Nora Fingscheidt, Luca Guadagnino, Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, Ethan Hawke, Karoline Herfurth, Niki Karimi, Nadine Labaki, Nadav Lapid, Sergei Loznitsa, Mohammad Rasoulof, Céline Sciamma, Martin Scorsese, Aparna Sen, M. Night Shyamalan, Carla Simón, Abderrahmane Sissako,...

OpinionWhether it boils down to the habit of being spoon-fed facts or the disinterest in a culture that is not one’s own, critic reviews of ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ from the north of the Vindhyas have mostly been patronising and ignorant.Subha J RaoIf you grew up in Tamil Nadu, you have most likely at least heard of Kalki’s epic historical fiction novel Ponniyin Selvan, if not read it. The book being almost a rite of passage for Tamilians, the elevated anticipation surrounding Mani Ratnam’s two-part on-screen adaptation comes as no surprise. Add to this the bevy of popular stars such as Vikram, Karthi, Aishwarya Rai, Trisha, Jayam Ravi and Aishwarya Lekshmi, promising to bring alive the grandeur of Kalki’s historical fiction celebrating the Chola kingdom, and the hype knew no bounds. Predictably, the response to the film from those familiar with the book fell into two categories...

After its world premiere in Toronto, Nandita Das’ “Zwigato” has its Asian premiere in Busan’s A Window on Asian Cinema strand.

An acclaimed actor with credits including “Fire,” “Kannathil Muthamittal” and “Kamli,” Das made her directorial debut with “Firaaq” (2008), which debuted at Toronto. Her next film as director, “Manto” (2018), bowed at Cannes.

“Zwigato,” her third outing in the director’s seat, also bowed at Toronto. It began life as a short film that was to be part of an anthology produced by India’s Applause Entertainment. That project didn’t come to fruition, but Applause chief Sameer Nair convinced Das to expand the idea into a feature, which she did during the course of India’s first two Covid-19 lockdowns. The film, a satire on the gig economy, follows a factory manager, who after losing his job, becomes a courier for the food delivery app Zwigato.

“As I began to delve deeper into it,...

Exclusive: Arjun Rampal is on his way to a shoot in Poland after a week’s work in London and a short stop in his home country India when he sits down for a chat with Deadline.

“It’s better to be busy than not busy in my line of work,” he says shrugging off the jetlag.

The veteran actor’s schedule is the result of a late-career renaissance, which he recently kicked off with an acclaimed performance in Aparna Sen’s latest film, The Rapist. Produced by Applause Entertainment in association with Quest Films Pvt. Ltd, the film chronicles the journey of three protagonists as their lives become entwined after one horrific incident. The movie picked up the Kim Jesouk Award at the Busan Film Festival and was shown at the Kerala Film Festival, the Kolkata film festival of India, and the London Indian Film Festival.

“When I read the script,...

Prolific Indian studio Applause Entertainment is celebrating its fifth anniversary with a flourishing streaming slate, several films, an ambitious expansion model and a doubling down on investment.

The company is led by CEO Sameer Nair, a pioneer of Indian television with previous stints at Star TV, Ndtv Imagine, Turner General Entertainment, and Balaji Telefilms.

On the film front, Applause’s Hindi-language “The Rapist,” by Aparna Sen, won the prestigious Kim Jiseok award at Busan in 2021. Next up is a film by actor-director Nandita Das, whose last film “Manto” was at Cannes. The film, which has the working title “Zwigato” and is a social satire about the Indian food delivery gig economy, is currently in post. It stars popular TV host Kapil Sharma and Shahana Goswami (“A Suitable Boy”).

Tahira Kashyap Khurrana’s feature debut, the Hindi-language “Sharmajee Ki Beti” is a social comedy that follows five women from different age...

It’s not entertainment, if there’s no ‘applause’ and Applause Entertainment’s maiden feature film ‘The Rapist’ received one that was nothing short of a thunderous response. The film will be screened at the prestigious Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2022 on Aug 20 this month.

Marking a great start and in what can be classified as the best timing, The Rapist came home with a huge win at the prestigious festival. Aparna Sen bagged the award for ‘Best Director’ for this hard-hitting film. Adding another feather to the cap, the win was even more special as it coincided with India’s 75th year of Independence.

After being celebrated across festivals including the Busan International Film Festival, London Indian Film Festival, Kolkata International Film festival, International Film festival of Kerala, ‘The Rapist’ was screened at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne in August. The Rapist had previously won the prestigious Kim Jiseok Award at Busan.