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Sanya Malhotra made her Bollywood debut in 2016 with Dangal, playing Babita Phogat alongside Aamir Khan. The film became a massive success, but Malhotra didn’t settle for conventional roles. Over the years, she built a diverse filmography, often portraying strong, independent women in both mainstream and independent films. Her recent performance in Mrs. (2024) further cemented her reputation as one of the most versatile actors of her generation. The film’s success, coupled with the popularity of her previous projects like Kathal (2023) and Meenakshi Sundareshwar (2021), has kept her in the spotlight, with all three movies trending on Netflix for weeks.

Beyond acting, Malhotra has also garnered significant attention for her recent collaboration with singer Sunidhi Chauhan. Her appearance in the singer’s latest music video created a buzz on social media, further expanding her fan following. At 33, she has worked with some of Bollywood’s biggest names, including Shah Rukh Khan...

2022 for the Hindi Film Industry (or popularly known as “Bollywood”) hasn’t been much of a memorable year either in terms of commercial success or when it comes to innovative films, and the post-pandemic effect cannot be ignored. Furthermore, the sorry state of the Indian economy and market also did not help as the masses faced terrible losses during the pandemic, and the film viewing habit cannot be viewed in isolation. This was only exacerbated by the high exposure to the Ott platforms for some sections of society. Yet there were a handful of exciting films that made this bland year memorable in the context of Hindi films. This list will consider films that marked their theatrical release in India in 2022 and will also include direct digital releases or things like Netflix originals. So, here are the top 10 Bollywood films of 2022 (ranked):

10. Darlings

This Alia Bhatt-starrer also sees...

Actor Bobby Deol, who has had an eventful year with his performance in the Ott world with ‘Aashram Season 2’, has wrapped up shooting for his upcoming film ‘Shlok – The Desi Sherlock’, which he had announced earlier this year.

‘Shlok – The Desi Sherlock’ is directed by Kunal Kohli and marks the debut of Ananya Birla in Bollywood.

Bobby now has taken to his official social media account to announce the wrap-up of ‘Sholk’. The actor said: “And it’s a wrap for #Shlok. Had a wonderful time working with the A-team, some of the most amazing people I’ve worked with.”

‘Shlok – The Desi Sherlock’ is a spy thriller and Bobby will be taking the audiences by surprise as this is the first time we will see him on screen in this avatar.

Apart from ‘Shlok – The Desi Sherlock’, Bobby will be soon seen in Ranbir Kapoor’s ‘Animal’, ‘Aashram’ Season...

Second feature for Kashmiri Aamir Bashir, “The Winter Within” sheds a horrifying but also quite realistic light on the circumstances of people living in the particular area, where small and big skirmishes and terrorist activities occur frequently due to the long conflict between India and Pakistan, as well as the border dispute with China.

The Winter Within Screened at Busan International Film Festival

As the film begins, Nargis is working as domestic help for a rich household. She is not particularly good at her job, since her actual purpose of being in the area is to find what happened to her husband Manzoor, who was arrested after he joined the armed rebellion. A local policeman asks for money for information, but he proves a fraud, while, as soon as her employer learns that her husband is a militant, she fires her. Thus begins the second part of the movie, with...

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Kashmiri actor-turned-director Aamir Bashir returns with his first feature in 12 years in The Winter Within, a taut art house drama making its world premiere in competition at the Busan International Film Festival on Sunday.

In the film’s first English-language trailer, shared exclusively with The Hollywood Reporter on the eve of the premiere, actress Zoya Hussain, playing domestic helper Nargis, is revealed in a state of inward grief amidst Kashmir’s harsh but majestic winter landscapes (see the trailer below).

Bashir, who was born in Kashmir, began his film career as an actor — he had a recurring role in Netflix’s first India original series, Sacred Games — before making his directorial debut in 2010 with Autumn, which became a festival favorite, playing at Toronto, Rotterdam and Fribourg. It later won the best Urdu feature film prize at India’s 60th National Film Awards. The Winter Within’s star,...

Love Hostel(Zee5)

Starring Bobby Deol, Vikrant Massey and Sanya Malhotra

Written & Directed by Shanker Raman

The body-count in this inherently nasty work is so high that after a point one loses of track of the gruesome pointbank pointless massacre.

Love Hostel, a silly absurd inapt title which make this gore-fest sound like a Valentine special on Kapil Sharma’s show, has its immovable obdurate heart in the ‘fright’ place: it show how anti-love Haryana’s hinterland is. Any eloping couple on the road to a ‘safe house’(how safe, we soon know in this moving mansion of mayhem), and you have the coldblooded assassin Dagar hunting them down.

Coldblooded is perhaps a gross understatement. What Bobby Deol’s Dagar seems to enjoy is mass murder repeatedly. We have heard of a terrorist gatecrashing into a school or a church, and mowing down the gathering indiscriminately . Dagar is all of those mass murderers combined.

ReviewDirected by Shanker Raman, ‘Love Hostel’ has shades of Anushka Sharma’s ‘NH10’ and Nagraj Manjule’s ‘Sairat’, but also has its fair share of original twists.Sowmya RajendranLove Hostel, which was released on Zee5, is set in Haryana and bravely attempts to explore the danger that follows a runaway couple — Ahmed Shaukeen (Vikrant Massey) and Jyoti Dilawer (Sanya Malhotra). At a time when interfaith love, particularly when it involves a Muslim man and a Hindu woman, has been repeatedly demonised and labelled as ‘love jihad’, it takes guts to make a film like this, that puts such a couple at the heart of the plot. Directed by Shanker Raman, Love Hostel has shades of Anushka Sharma’s 2015 thriller NH10 and Nagraj Manjule’s 2016 drama Sairat, but also has its fair share of original twists. The 100-minute film doesn’t waste any time in getting into the thick of the conflict.

Actor Raj Arjun, is all set to give his best for his next project, Shanker Raman’s ‘Love Hostel’. The actor will be donning a cop’s uniform in the movie. After garnering applause for his last stint as R.M. Veerappan in Kangana Ranaut’s starrer ‘Thalaivii’, he described his character in ‘Love Hostel’ as completely distinct. He […]...

Director Shanker Raman has talked about casting actors Bobby Deol, Sanya Malhotra and Vikrant Massey in his upcoming project ‘Love Hostel’. He says: “Sanya and Vikrant were an easy choice. Their body of work speaks volumes. More importantly, they loved the script. It is always a pleasure to work with actors who love the written […]...

ZEE5 ended 2021 on a high with the success of Bob Biswas, which was in partnership with Red Chillies Entertainment. The movie not only became an instant hit but now, ZEE5 and Red Chillies Entertainment are back with an aim to deliver another successful content offering, ‘Love Hostel’. Written and Directed by Shanker Raman, Love […]...

Another soggy mafia saga set in and around a Delhi business family, and one that compares very poorly with Kanu Behl's "Titli" and Shanker Raman's "Gurgaon", "Line Of Descent" leaves a puzzling, bitter 0aftertaste.

It's not such an awful film. It's just so unnecessary it resembles a fifth or sixth generation copy of "The Godfather" with Prem Chopra?giggle?playing Brando while Ronit Roy, Neeraj Kabi and Ali Haji play the three sons quite well. Abhay Deol, the well-meaning though ill-informed cop who busts the Sinha family's a**. And Hollywood has-been Brendan Fraser (the big daddy from original "The Mummy" franchise) makes an entry midway as an arms dealer of indeterminate race and an even more uncertain function in a plot that wants to be savage, funny, poignant and relevant, and trips over its own overweening ambitions.

Throughout the running time of less than two hours, we search...

Pushpendra Singh’s ’The Shepherdess And The Seven Songs’ won the Vkaao Wip Lab Award.

Natesh Hegde’s Pedro and Ajitpal Singh’s Swizerland were presented with the Prasad Lab Di Award and Moviebuff Appreciation Award at the close of Film Bazaar, organised by India’s National Film Development Corporation (Nfdc), on Sunday night.

The two projects were selected from the five that participated in Film Bazaar’s Work-in-Progress (Wip) Lab. Prasad Lab Di and Moviebuff Appreciation Awards were also presented to one incomplete project in the Film Bazaar Recommends section – Where Is Pinki?, from Prithvi Konanur.

The awards include...

Laal Kaptaan

Starring Saif Ali Khan,Manav Vij, Zoya Hussain, Deepak Dobriyal

Directed by Navdeep Singh

Laal Kaptaan is an extraordinary film, powerful brutal visceral and very very tragic. The enormity of its grief is felt in the palpable treatment of the theme of patricide and other family crimes common to Mughal history. The blood-soaked script takes a swipe at the cruelty of history but converts some of the barbarism into a state of perdition and atonement that do not add up to a climactic catharsis. No such closure in this film, thank you.

At the vortex of the film’s implosive violence is the mysterious frighteningly forlorn figure of the Naga bandit played with virulent intensity by Saif Ali Khan. Khan, in a performance that will define his career, moves like a bloodthirsty spirit in the quest for revenge from an entitled wealthy but strangely unfulfilled ruler Rehmat Khan...

Since my relatively recent descent into Indian cinema, one of the elements that continuously impresses me is the diversity of the films produced in this vast country, with the many different cinemas. This time, I came across a noir-styled thriller, by first time director Shanker Raman.

“Gurgaon” screened at Fantasia International Film Festival

The story takes place in the titular district in the northern Indian state of Haryana, one of the most economically developed regions in South Asia, and revolves around a family, the Singhs. Preet, the adopted daughter of real-estate construction mogul Kehri Singh returns from studying architecture abroad, with her father expecting her to get into the business, and gradually, to succeed him. His openness about his plans is a source of constant frustration for his son, Nikki, whom Kehri considers a failure. The dynamics of the family, that also include Nikki’s hatred for Preet, surface in...

Leila (Netflix India), 6 Episodes

Starring Huma Qureshi, Siddharth, Rahul Khanna, Seema Biswas, Arif Zakaria

Directed by Deepa Mehta, Shanker Raman, Pawan Kumar

In the beginning there is the swimming pool. A splashy symbol of the uppercrust’s affluence that’s rapidly making the poor, poorer.

Deepa Mehta’s disturbingly devastating dystopian drama begins with a happy family Mother, Father, Child splashing in the pool. Within the first five minutes the mood swerves away from joy and Shalini, the protagonist whose journey we follow from episode to enrapturing episode of acute pain and limited joy, finds herself alone in an clinical ashram that resembles the shelter home in Muzaffarpur where young girls simply disappeared when they didn’t obey the elders’s salacious orders.

Except, that there is no sex in this world of sterile religiosity and puerile purification. Emulating the Nazi model of an emotion-less concentration camp Deepa Mehta’s...

As Shalini, who sets out on an arduous 16-year-long search for her missing daughter born out of a 'mixed' marriage in the latest dystopian show "Leila", actress Huma Qureshi felt challenged to push her boundaries and play the role with full justice and honesty.

Based on Prayaag Akbar's 2017 novel of the same name, "Leila" showcases the fight of Huma's character for her lost daughter amidst undesirable situations and frightening experiences in the fictional world of Aryavarta.

"It has been a gratifying journey for me. It have never played such a strong character before this show. With this character, I have pushed myself as an artiste. I really had to go deep into the story.

"Playing a mother on-screen was quite difficult because it was not only about being a mother...it was more about inheriting the qualities of Shalini who fights against the evils to find her daughter. Shalini...

NetflixWhile the first two episodes are riveting, the saga loses its shine from there on – confused whether it should be a science dystopia or a social dystopia.Krishna SripadaLeila comprises six episodes, of runtimes varying between 40 to 50 mins on average. Created by Urmi Juvekar, the series – based on Prayaag Akbar’s novel of the same name – has been directed by Deepa Mehta, Shanker Raman and Pavan Kumar. It stars Huma Qureshi in the lead, with Siddharth playing a notable role. Leila, for reasons hard to fathom, sets the timeline in 2047. It takes digs at the current political situation, using a fictional land called Aryavarta ruled by one Mr Joshi, who is ubiquitous, like the Big Brother of 1984, his posters everywhere. The people and children of Aryavarta are brainwashed, constantly parroting the words fed to them about how Aryavarta is their mother – with an air of Brave New World, borrowing gloomy...

The trailer of Huma Qureshi's Netflix show "Leila", which was dropped online on Friday, showcases the search of a mother for her missing daughter in an imagined world, where there is discrimination.

Pegged as "India's first dystopian story", "Leila" is set in the imagined world of "Aryavarta" in which there is great suffering, extreme and totalitarian rules of engagement and fictional extremes constructed around an obsession with purity, communal and divisive societal dramas and grit, read a statement.

The show is helmed by Deepa Mehta, Shanker Raman and Pawan Kumar.

Its two-minute long trailer opens in Aryavarta, a digitised Indian city. It introduces Shalini (Huma), who marries outside her community and has to face harsh treatment. Her fight to get back her daughter, who gets kidnapped over her "mixed blood", forms the crux of the show.

Huma is seen in most bits of the trailer, but actors Siddharth and...

Six projects from Indian scriptwriters will be presented at this year’s Hong Kong Filmart.

India’s National Film Development Corporation (Nfdc) is holding the pitching event for its annual Screenwriters Lab (Swl) at this year’s Hong Kong Filmart from March 18-21.

Six projects from Indian scriptwriters will be presented to potential co-producers, financiers, distributors and sales agents at the Nfdc’s Filmart booth at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (Hkcec).

Writers and directors who will be pitching projects include Akhilesh Jaiswal, who worked on Gangs Of Wasseypur as a writer; Ajitpal Singh, who was associate director...

Huma Qureshi starrer Leila will release globally on June 14. Netflix on Friday announced the release date of their next Indian original series Leila.? Based on a book by Prayaag Akbar, Leila also stars Siddharth, Rahul Khanna, Sanjay Suri and Arif Zakaria. Deepa Mehta is the Creative Executive Producer. Huma is thrilled to essay the role of Shalini "whose unique mix of strength, grace and optimism is what gets her through all kinds of obstacles".?

"So it really has been an honour to portray a character that has not only pushed me as an artiste but I believe will resonate with a lot of young women," Huma said in a statement.?

The six-episode series is a dystopian work of fiction set in the near future and follows the journey of Shalini, a mother in search of her daughter - Leila whom she lost one summer. Shalini deals with various hardships in the course of her search.

Gurgaon

Starring Pankaj Tripathy, Akshay Oberoi, Ragini Khanna,Aamir Bashir

Directed by Shankar Raman

The gleaming glittering surfaces of Gurgaon which stands between the violent hinterland of Haryana and the Capital politics of Delhi, renders itself with ironic radiance to the themes of entrepreneurial greed and violence in cinema. Atul Sabharwal’s Aurangzeb was an underrated attempt at understanding the strife that controls the monstrous affluence of the constantly-evolving region.

Director Shankar Raman’s Gurgaon gets it right immediately and ineradicably. This is a land of opportunity, and opportunism. There is a sense of immediacy and doom in the storytelling which coil themselves around the viewer from the first frame in such a persuasive manner that we are sucked into the tale although some of what happens here is done more for effect than out of an inner conviction.

But the absence of credibility never comes in the way of...

Shanker Raman's film that revolves around a kidnapping is largely a case study in tonal theatrics...

Akshay Oberoi, the good looking young actor has shed his guy next door image and will be seen in an all new mean avatar in his new film Gurgaon. Gurgaon is a noir thriller inspired by true events. It tells the story of how individual lives and dignities are crushed under the wheels of leviathan development in today’s India. .

In the film, Oberoi plays Nikki Singh a son of a wealthy business man who can go to any extent to achieve what he deems is rightfully his, even if his ways are morally incorrect. It’s a story about the spine chilling events that his actions set off in the lure to achieve what he wants.

Talking about his character, Akshay says, “Nikki Singh is an extremely complex character with many layers to his personality. He’s the perfect example of still water runs deep. You’ll never know...

Family can be a tricky thing. The bonds forged between blood relations are often tenuous and fraught with jealousy and distrust. You can't choose the people with whom you make those bonds, and as a result, those people aren't always the easiest to trust. In first-time director Shanker Raman's Gurgaon, the bonds of family are further complicated by a shameful past and secrets that put everyone at risk. In this case, all that blood guarantees is that blood will flow for those who seek to claim what they believe is rightfully theirs. When prodigal daughter Preet (Ragini Khanna) returns to her father's estate in Gurgaon from college in Europe, not everyone is happy to see her. While her mother and especially her father Kehri Singh...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Mueller said his unexpected resignation was due to “divergent opinion” with the festival organisers.

The inaugural International Film Festival and Awards Macao (Iffam) today unveiled its lineup of 49 feature films, one day after the abrupt departure of festival director Marco Mueller.

The six-day festival will open on Dec 8 with the Asian premiere of Valérie Müller and Angelin Preljocaj’s Polina, which recently premiered at Venice Days.

The 11-strong international competition section consists of three world premieres (Macao-born Tracy Choi’s debut feature Sisterhood, Shinobu Yaguchi’s Survival Family and Shanker Raman’s debut feature Gurgaon) and two international premieres (Elon Doesn’t Believe In Death by Ricardo Alves Jr and Hide And Seek by Liu Jie).

The rest of the competition is filled by six Asian premieres, including 150 Milligrams by Emmanuelle Bercot, Free Fire by Ben Wheatley [pictured], Queen Of Spades by Pavel Lungin, Saint George by Marco Martins, The Winter by Emiliano Torres and Trespass Against Us by [link...

Mueller said his unexpected resignation was due to “divergent opinion” with the festival organisers.

The inaugural International Film Festival and Awards Macao (Iffam) today unveiled its lineup of 49 feature films, one day after the abrupt departure of festival director Marco Mueller.

The six-day festival will open on Dec 8 with the Asian premiere of Valérie Müller and Angelin Preljocaj’s Polina, which recently premiered at Venice Days.

The 11-strong international competition section consists of three world premieres (Macao-born Tracy Choi’s debut feature Sisterhood, Shinobu Yaguchi’s Survival Family and Shanker Raman’s debut feature Gurgaon) and two international premieres (Elon Doesn’t Believe In Death by Ricardo Alves Jr and Hide And Seek by Liu Jie).

The rest of the competition is filled by six Asian premieres, including 150 Milligrams by Emmanuelle Bercot, Free Fire by Ben Wheatley [pictured], Queen Of Spades by Pavel Lungin, Saint George by Marco Martins, The Winter by Emiliano Torres and Trespass Against Us by [link...

Shanker Raman’s Gurgaon and Rahul Jain’s Machines both picked up Prasad Digital Intermediate Awards at the close of Film Bazaar on Nov 25.

Both projects were screened in Film Bazaar’s Work-in-Progress Lab.

Gurgaon, selected in the fiction section, revolves around the impact that sudden wealth has on a family living on the outskirts of Delhi.

Jain’s Machines, which screened in the documentary section, presents a sensory experience of working conditions in a textile factory in Gujarat.

The awards were presented by Work-in-Progress Lab mentors Marco Mueller and Derek Malcolm. “Every year I come here, the documentaries get just a little bit better and this year, in particular, has been a very good year,” Malcolm said.

Nina Lath Gupta, MD of India’s National Film Development Corp, said: “The response at the ninth edition of Film Bazaar has been overwhelming. It’s been great to see Indian cinema grow. For me, every...

Mumbai-based Jar Pictures is attending Film Bazaar with a busy, multiple-language slate, including Ajitpal Singh’s The Man Who Broke The Mountain, to be co-produced by Mexican writer-producer Guillermo Arriaga [pictured].

The Hindi-language drama, based on the true story of India’s “Mountain Man” Dashrath Manjhi, was selected for the Mumbai Mantra/Sundance Screenwriters Lab in 2012.

Arriaga, who wrote Babel and produced Venice Golden Lion winner From Afar, was a mentor at the lab.

Jar’s Alan McAlex and his partner Ajay G. Rai are also producing the next film from Liar’s Dice director Geetu Mohandas, Malayalam-language Mulakoya, which will shoot next year in Lakshadweep Islands, Kerala and Mumbai. The project was selected for this year’s Drishyam/Sundance Screenwriters Lab.

Following its success with Avinash Arun’s award-winning Killa, which opened in France last month, Jar is also producing Arun’s next Marathi-language film, Boomerang.

The company will also produce the next project from Crossing Bridges director...

Mumbai-based Jar Pictures is attending Film Bazaar with a busy, multiple-language slate, including Ajitpal Singh’s The Man Who Broke The Mountain, to be co-produced by Mexican writer-producer Guillermo Arriaga [pictured].

The Hindi-language drama, based on the true story of India’s “Mountain Man” Dashrath Manjhi, was selected for the Mumbai Mantra/Sundance Screenwriters Lab in 2012. Arriaga, who wrote Babel and produced Venice Golden Lion winner From Afar, was a mentor at the lab.

Jar’s Alan McAlex and his partner Ajay G. Rai are also producing the next film from Liar’s Dice director Geetu Mohandas, Malayalam-language Mulakoya, which will shoot next year in Lakshadweep Islands, Kerala and Mumbai. The project was selected for this year’s Drishyam/Sundance Screenwriters Lab.

Following its success with Avinash Arun’s award-winning Killa, which opened in France last month, Jar is also producing Arun’s next Marathi-language film, Boomerang. The company will also produce the next project from Crossing Bridges director...

Projects exploring the role of women in Indian society and the country’s rapid economic development feature heavily in the line-up for this year’s Work-in-Progress Lab at Film Bazaar, which includes six fiction and five documentary features.

Alankrita Shrivastava’s Lipstick Under My Burkha [pictured], produced by Prakash Jha Productions, tells the story of four women struggling with society’s restraints and searching for freedom in small town India.

“Many Indian films are focusing on patriarchy and the restrictions that women have to live with – even male filmmakers are starting to examine this subject,” said Deepti Dcunha, who curates Film Bazaar’s Wip Lab and Viewing Room sections.

The Wip fiction line-up also includes Amit Rai’s ‘I’ Pad, based on the true story of a man who invented a machine to make low-cost sanitary pads. “Its surprising to see a taboo subject like this in an Indian film,” said Dcunha.

In the documentary...

While he’s just 2 films old, Akshay Oberoi has made his presence felt within the Industry as well as among his fans. With an impressive line-up ahead which includes Abhishek Kapoor’s Fitoor, Indo-Brit film Bombairiya, Gurgaon directed by national award winning cinematographer Shanker Raman, Ye Laal Rang with Randeep Hooda and a big announcement on its way, Akshay has managed to pave his way in the hearts of his fans not only in India but also across the oceans.

Recently, he met a female fan who flew all the way down from Morocco to meet him. This girl started following Akshay and his work on his twitter and expressed her wish to meet him. After her consistent messages, Akshay obliged her request once he wrapped up his schedule for Yeh Laal Rang in Karnal. They met up at a coffee shop in Bandra. The fan also showed him few...

After Abhishek Kapoor’s Fitoor, Indo – Brit film Bombairiya, and Shanker Raman’s (national award winning cinematographer) film Gurgaon, Akshay Oberoi is all set to start the shoot for his next, Yeh Laal Rang with Randeep Hooda.

While the shoot will start in mid-August, Akshay has packed his bags and flown down to Karnal in Haryana to prep for his role.

The film, based on Blood Mafia, is largely based in Karnal and Akshay plays a doctor from Haryana. To understand the language, style and mannerism of the people and to fit the role better, he is going to stay for a week-10 days at a local hotel and do his research before he starts shooting for his role.

Interestingly, while Karnal is a part of Haryana, the language spoken in the city is part Haryanvi and part Punjabi. The mix of language is one of the challenges that Akshay...

New comer Akshay Oberoi is on a special diet these days. Akshay, who has been asked to develop a boxer’s physique for his role in Gurgaon has been following a special diet plan followed by none other than India’s boxing champion, Vijender Singh.

Akshay plays a local guy from Haryana in the film Gurgaon, who is also a boxer. Interestingly, Vijender Singh, who also hails from Haryana served as a perfect role model for him. So when the director Shanker Raman (national award winning cinematographer) asked him to build his physique like a boxer, Akshay’s local trainer from Haryana recommended him the ‘Vijender Singh diet’.

Akshay has been working out and following a customized weight training and diet program. Says a source, “Akshay and Vijender’s body type is almost the same. So when he was asked to look like a boxer, It only made sense to...

After Abhishek Kapoor's Fitoor, a special appearance with Deepika Padukone in Piku and Indo- Brit film Bombairiya, Akshay Oberoi, who made his debut with Pizza 3D, is now starting his shoot for Jar Entertainment and Mukesh Chhabra's Gurgaon. Interestingly, Akshay will be seen in a totally new avatar in Gurgaon, as he plays a local Haryanvi boy living in city. And since his character has a very rustic look and feel to it, he's been asked to learn the local language by director Shanker Raman (national award winning cinematographer). In fact Akshay has been training to learn Haryanvi language/diction by a local Haryanvi tutor and has been watching few famous Haryanvi movies to get the accent and nuances correct. If that wasn't enough, the actor even breaks into Haryanvi at times while talking to his friends and family to practice the language perfectly. Akshay is in Gurgaon...

After Abhishek Kapoor’s Fitoor, Special appearance with Deepika in Piku and Indo- Brit film Bombairiya… Akshay Oberoi is now starting his shoot for Jar Entertainment and Mukesh Chabra’s Gurgaon.

Akshay will be seen in a total new avatar in Gurgaon. He plays a local Haryanvi boy living in Gurgaon. His character has a very rustic look and feel to it so he’s been asked to learn the local language by director Shanker Raman (national award winning cinematographer). Akshay has been training to learn Haryanvi language/diction by a local Haryanvi tutor. He’s also watching few famous Haryanvi movies to get the accent and nuances correct. In fact he breaks in to Haryanvi at times while talking to his friends and family to practice the language perfectly.

Akshay is in Gurgaon right now to commence the shoot.

The post Akshay Oberoi Learns Haryanvi appeared first on BollySpice.

2015 is proving to be more and more lucky for Akshay Oberoi… After Abhishek Kapoor’s Fitoor, Indo-Brit film Bombairiya and bagging a special appearance with Deepika in Piku, Akshay Oberoi has been signed for yet another interesting film called Gurgaon as the lead.

Gurgaon, directed by national award winning cinematographer Shanker Raman is co produced by Ajay G Rai and Alan McAlex of Jar films and Mukesh Chhabra. Jar also produced India’s official entry to Oscars – Liar’s Dice starring Nawazuddin and Mukesh Chhabra. Interestingly, while Akshay was shooting for Fitoor in Kashmir, Ajay Rai, who is the line producer on Fitoor liked his work and recommended his name to the director of the film. Shanker saw few scenes from Akshay’s film Pizza and the public service ad he had done and liked him instantly.

Akshay will be seen a totally new look and role in the film.

Exclusive: Jar Pictures has unveiled a slate of upcoming productions headed by DoP Shanker Raman’s directorial debut Gurgaon and Gaurav Saxena’s feature version of his celebrated short film, Rangzen.

Ten-minute short Rangzen (which means freedom in Tibetan) premiered in the Generation Kplus competition at this year’s Berlin Film Festival and was also voted best international short at the UK’s Raindance Film Festival.

The feature will expand on the story of a Tibetan boy in Dharamshala coming to terms with his refugee identity.

Raman’s noir drama Gurgaon spotlights gender prejudice in the ‘new town’ of the film’s title, which is located close to New Delhi. Aamir Bashir and Pankaj Tripathi have been cast in the film, which is scheduled to start shooting early next year.

Raman describes Gurgaon as “a cautionary tale about social fragmentation that disintegrates first the community, then the family, and ultimately our sense of humanity.”

A renowned...

A t DearCinema, we are dedicated to independent filmmaking in India, and do all we can to give it the coverage it deserves.

We have tied up with the Nfdc Film Bazaar as their online partner and will bring you all the news, information and live updates from Film Bazaar 2013. We are also profiling all the projects selected for co-production market and Work-in-Progress Lab, besides Screenwriters’ Lab.

Film Bazaar aims to discover and support significant talent from South Asia and address key concerns of the world film community in the domains of film development, production, and distribution. From 2007 onward, Film Bazaar is a converging point for buyers and sellers and promotes Indian Cinema in the international domain.

Organised alongside the International Film Festival of India (Iffi) at the Goa Marriott Resort, the seventh Film Bazaar will be held from November 20 – 24, 2013.

Nfdc Screenwriters’ Lab 2013: Ashish Aryan’s T se Taj...

Nfdc Film Bazaar has announced 28 selected projects for co-production market 2013. The seventh edition of Film Bazaar will take place from 21 – 24 November, 2013 in Goa.

Every year, the Co-Production Market invites a select number of directors and producers to present their projects to international producers, distributors, sales agents, funding representatives and other financial partners from across the world.

Sr. no. Project Name Applicant Name 1 28-Sri Prasanna Jayakody 2 Dawaat Nama Sabiha Sumar 3 Homestay Blues Miriam Chandy Menacherry 4 Pac-Man Anirban Datta 5 Incredible Piotr Trzaskalski 6 Scorpion’s Song Anup Singh 7 When Mirza Comes Back Kamal K.M. Karamattathil 8 Warm Bread & the Nipple’s Circle Roya Sadat 9 Son of India Robert Mullan 10 Circle of Fire Arnab Chaudhuri 11 Amok Valeria Sarmiento 12 Malabar Court Niara Modi 13 Oont

(The Camel Ride) Gaganvihari Borate 14 Taramandal

(Constellation) Rohit Pandey 15 Roads to Freedom Shyam Benegal 16 Lipstick Under My Burkha Alankrita Shrivastava 17 Bhiwani Mahendra Jakhar 18 The Watchmaker Must Die Again Jogavindra S. Khera...

Shanker Raman

D earCinema profiles the six screenwriters who are participating in Nfdc Screenwriters’ Lab at the ongoing Toronto International Film Festival.

Screenwriters’ Lab, a 2-part workshop conducted by the National Film Development Corporation (Nfdc) is designed to prepare screenwriters with original Indian stories for working with the international filmmaking community.

Shanker Raman answers five questions about his project “My Brother the Salesman, and I”:

Tell us about your project.

My project “My Brother the Salesman, and I” is a feature film set in the year 1984. It is an unflinching look at a middle class family’s dreams and aspirations. A large part of the story is from my memory of how things were during my early teens. We were a family of five, ever expanding, growing, trusting and hopeful through moments of change and peace. And then one day I felt alone. I was not a part of that environment any more.

Six projects have been selected by the Nfdc (National Film Development Corporation, India) for the 2013 Screenwriters Lab, which is relocating to Toronto.

The Lab has previously been hosted by Locarno and Venice festivals, each having hosted two editions of the Screenwriters workshop.

The six projects, selected from more than 350 applications, will first be work-shopped in Toronto and further in Goa this November before being presented in the annual Film Bazaar Co-Pro Market.

The projects include:

Daily Nikhil MahajanDark Waters Bela NegiMother Goddess Coaching Classes Varun GroverMy Brother the Salesman and I Shanker RamanT for Taj Mahal Ashish Aryan, Sachin LadiaThe Spark Rajesh Jala

Cameron Bailey, artistic director of Tiff, said: “Indian independent cinema is taking the world by storm and it all begins with its screenwriters. We’re proud to welcome this workshop to the Toronto International Film Festival, and support the Nfdc’s important work.”

Nina Lath Gupta, MD of Nfdc , said: “Nfdc is delighted to be expanding...

The National Film Development Corporation (Nfdc) announced the six scripts selected for the Screenwriters’ Lab 2013:

Chingari (The Spark) by Rajesh Jala Dainik (Daily) by Nikhil Mahajan Kaalapani (Dark Waters) by Bela Negi Maa Bhagwatiya Iit Coaching ( Mother Goddess Iit Coaching) by Varun Grover My Brother the Salesman and I by Shanker Raman T se Taj Mahal ((T for Taj Mahal) by Ashish Srivastav

Rajesh Jala has directed award-winning documentaries Children of the Pyre, Floating Lamp of the Shadow Valley and At the Stairs. Nikhil Mahajan has directed documentary Half a Billion Dreams and feature film Pune-52 that premiered at the Mumbai Film Festival last year. Bela Negi directed feature film Daayen Ya Baayen which released in 2010. Varun Grover has penned lyrics for That Girl in Yellow Boots, Gangs of Wasseypur and Prague. Shanker Raman is a National award winning cinematographer who has worked on films like Patang, Harud, Peepli Live and Frozen.

2012 turned out to be a year when a number of smaller or independent films made their way onto many Top Ten lists. But, as always, there are films that, for a number of reasons, risk being forgotten or overlooked, especially in a year where there are so many great films to choose from. Here are 13 films – 10 already released, 3 from the festival circuit – that you should have seen in 2012. It’s still not too late!

Jalpari: The Desert Mermaid (dir. Nila Madhab Panda)

It’s a massive shame that Nila Madhab Panda’s film didn’t get as much attention as his I Am Kalam, and also a shame that the film was released to DVD without English subtitles. Because Jalpari: The Desert Mermaid, like I Am Kalam, weaves an issue into a story about, and for, children and families, and the message it carries (about the value of women and...

Writer/director Prashant Bhargava and producer Jaideep Punjabi were the recipients of the rising star film awards for Best director and Best picture for the feature film Patang (The Kite). The awards ceremony was held in New York City on October 23rd, 2012. The jury consisted of Indian Film Critic Rajeev Masand; India Abroad Editor Arthur Pais, Singer/Songwriter And Goldspot Frontman Siddhartha Khosla; American Actress And Musician Janina Gavankar And American Actor Maulik Pancholy.

Patang is one of the most critically celebrated indian films of the year. Patang had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival and its north american premiere in competition at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film has gone on to play at 30 film festivals worldwide and won numerous accolades including best feature narrative at the Hawaii International Film Festival, best world narrative at the Indy Film Festival, special jury award and the best feature narrative...

The best thing about Patang, written-directed-edited by Prashant Bhargava, is its nuanced visualisation of Ahmedabad, specifically the old city, during the period of the kite festival (Uttarayan) when it is at its colourful and festive best. Shanker Raman, who superbly captured the landscape and mood of Ladakh in Shivaji Chandrabhushan’s Frozen, weaves a series of evocative images of the crowded part of the city where lanes emerge onto dilapidated Havelis with intricate doorways and crafted windows framing myriad faces peeping out of them.

Patang, actually, is more about imagery than intricate storytelling; and Bhargava adopts an almost documentary-like approach while capturing the sights and sounds of the city, his editing and Raman’s camera complementing each other smoothly, except for a few portions where this cinema verite approach looks a bit forced.

As a narrative, Patang’s storyline does not have anything complex. It’s rather a simple story of a man,...

The tranquil restraint with which Aamir Bashir and Shanker Raman depict the violence and madness in Kashmir in “Harud” (Autumn) is extra-ordinary. They achieve remarkable success in capturing the human side of the situation in Kashmir in a manner that we rarely see in Indian cinema.

Rafiq (Shahnawaz Bhat), an unemployed Kashmiri young man, attempts to cross the border possibly to join a militant training camp in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. His father, a traffic policeman, foils his attempt and brings him back. Rafiq lives a life of utter confusion and meaninglessness until he finds his lost brother’s camera.

Through his meandering life, the director shows us the shattered pieces of life in Kashmir: a mother waiting for her disappeared son, a man leaving for Ludhiana to sell shawls, a wannabe actor eager to get selected for a model hunt reality show, a Kashmiri pundit visiting Kashmir to distress-sell his ancestral...

Shanker Raman at Locarno

The Trapper’s Snare , a project by Shanker Raman who shot films like Peepli Live, Patang and Frozen won a grant of 30,000 Chf (Swiss Franc) at the Locarno Open Doors.

The awards for the 2011 Open Doors co-production lab were announced on Tuesday.

The Trapper’s Snare is the spiritual journey of a young boy who escapes his fate as a bird trapper, only to be caught in the snare of life.

The second grant worth 20,000 Chf went to Burqa Boxers directed and produced by Alka Raghuram. It is a documentary on women boxers in Kolkata.

Grant for development by Cnc (Centre National du cinéma et de l’image animée) amounting 7.000 Euros went to Lasya (The Gentle Dance) by Anup Singh. Read Locarno Open Doors: Anup Singh’s Lasya.

Grant for development by Arte worth 6.000 Euros was won by Char… The Island Within directed and produced by Sourav Sarangi.

Locarno (Switzerland), Aug 9: Mumbai-based Shanker Raman and San Francisco-based Alka Raghuram were Tuesday night named the winners of the Grant Open Doors prize at the award ceremony at the Locarno International Film Festival here. Both the filmmakers share the prize money of 50,000 Chf (approximately $67,466).

Shanker won 30,000 Chf (over $40,000) for his script 'The Trapper's Snare', a fiction film about the conflict in Sri Lanka. Alka walked away with 20,000 Chf (over $25,000) for her documentary 'Burqa Boxers', about young Muslim girls learning boxing at a gym in Kolkata and their determination to knock out a few.

Locarno (Switzerland), Aug 9: Shanker Raman, a choreographer-turned-writer-turned-director, one of the winners of the Grand Open Doors for his script 'The Trapper's Snare' here, feels this is the best phase for Indian film writers. He also believes that the Indian audience is open to a 'different kind' of cinema.

'It feels fantastic to win the award. I'm delighted. What I'm going to take away from here is the experience of having met 11 other filmmakers from India, an incredible lot who have incredibly inspiring and courageous scripts and ideas,' Mumbai-based Raman told Ians.

He won the award and the prize money of 30,000 Chf.

A still from Aag

India has much to look forward to, at the 64th edition of the Locarno International Film Festival that begins on Wednesday, July 3, 2011. The festival has lined up quite an eclectic and exciting mix of Indian films; from the masters Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak to the contemporary Umesh Kulkarni and Vikramaditya Motwane.

Locarno Open Doors, an initiative that focuses on a region where independent cinema is in developmental stage every year has its eyes set firmly on India in the 2012 edition.

A still from Udaan

Open Doors screening will present thirteen “Indian classics” which include Raj Kapoor’s Aag, Jahnu Barua’s Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai (The Yellow Birds), Girish Kasaravalli’s Kanasembo Kudureyaneri (Riding the Stallion of a Dream), Shyam Benegal’s Manthan, Ritwik Ghatak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara, Aparna Sen’s Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar, Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Nizalkkuthu...