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Parambrata has completed two Hindi films since Kahaani, one is Traffic the Hindi remake of the Malayalam drama-thriller directed by Rajesh Pillai. The actor has also completed homage to the cinema of Gulzar called Yaara Silly Silly. Says Parambrata, "It's directed by Subhash Sehgal who has edited Gulzar saab's films. It features me and Paoli Dam in a cute love story about two people in love who separate and meet again after many years. I liked the fact that it saluted the cinema of Gulzar Saab. It's complete." Parambrata was supposed to be in Sujoy Ghosh's next film Durga Rani Singh. Says Parambrata, "Sujoy said, 'You are on'. I was looking forward to working with him again. But the dates he wanted were committed elsewhere. I just couldn't free myself for his film." Kahaani was a turning-point in Parambrata's career, though he isn't exactly clamouring to do Hindi films,...

The inaugural edition of International Film Festival of Colombo, the first major international film festival to be held in Sri Lanka, will screen a special package of Indian films curated by DearCinema.

The festival, to be held from September 2-7, is being organized by the Directors’ Guild of Sri Lanka with the support of Okinawa International Movie Festival in Japan.

The package comprises of award-winning and festival-favourite Indian films like Kanu Behl’s Titli, Avinash Arun’s Killa, Anup Singh’s Qissa, Nagraj Manjule’s Fandry, Geethu Mohandas’ Liar’s Dice, Kaushik Ganguly’s Apur Panchali, Jahnu Barua’s Ajeyo, Shilpa Ranade’s The World of Goopi and Bagha and Rajeev Ravi’s Annayum Rasoolam.

Kanu Behl, Avinash Arun, Nagraj Manjule, Geethu Mohandas, Kaushik Ganguly, Jahnu Barua, Shilpa Ranade and Rajeev Ravi will be in attendance at the festival. Actors Geetanjali Thapa (Liar’s Dice) and Rasika Dugal (Qissa) will...

A portrait of Satyajit Ray by Rishiraj Sahoo | Source: Wikimedia commons

Let’s start to play a game here – What is common between the 9 Bengali films listed below:

1 – Antaheen (2009, dir: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury) advertised that this was the first film after Satyajit Ray’s Aranyer Din Ratri where Aparna Sen and Sharmila Tagore acted together. It went further stating that even the Ray masterpiece didn’t have the two pitted against each other in the same frame as this film did.

2 – Abar Aranye (2003, dir: Goutam Ghose) took three of the four characters of Aranyer Din Ratri to the forest of Dooars on a sequel train at a time when the DVD, CD version of the Ray original was not readily available.

3 – Aborto (2013, dir: Arindam Sil) flaunts that all the characters of the film have the same names as the different major characters in the master’s film oeuvre.

4 – Charulata 2011 (2012, dir:...

Apur Panchali, director Kaushik Ganguly’s homage to renowned Bengali director Satyajit Ray’s Apu trilogy, is all set to win over a whole new generation of British cineastes when it premieres at the world’s best cinema, the British Film Institute’s prestigious National Film Theatre 1 on July 14and subsequently at the Cineworld Wembley on July 15 as part of the 5th anniversary celebrations of the London Indian Film Festival.

The event is being held in association with the Satyajit Ray Foundation and the screening will also honour the Foundation’s Founder and Chairperson Pam Cullen, a dear friend and tireless advocate of Ray during his lifetime, and former member of the Free India Movement in her younger days.

The President of the Foundation is Mrs Bijoya Ray and the Vice President is Sandip Ray. The Foundation’s Patrons are a glittering array of film personalities including Lord Attenborough Cbe,...

Hemalkasa to close London Indian Film Festival

The 2014 London Indian Film Festival, that will be held from July 10-17, unveiled its lineup. While Jeffrey Brown’s Sold will open the festival, Marathi-language film Hemalkasa directed by Samruddhi Porey will be screened as the closing film.

Featuring Nana Patekar, Sonali Kulkarni and Mohan Agashe; the film is a biopic that follows the selfless journey of Dr. Prakash Baba Amte and his wife Dr. Mandakini Amte, a couple who dedicated their lives to a project for the development of tribal people of Maharashtra. This is the world premiere of Hemalkasa.

Praveen Morchhale’s Barefoot to Goa, Amit V Masurkar’s Sulemani Keeda, Shilpa Ranade’s Goopi Gawaiiya Bagha Bajaiiya, Anup Singh’s Qissa, Kaushik Ganguly’s Apur Panchali and Kr Manoj’s Virgin Talkies are some of the well-known films that will be screened at the festival.

Also screened will be Kannada...

Get ready London film fans! The fabulous London Indian Film Festival, running July 10th – 17th, will bring you an eclectic and cool mix of films! Now Europe’s largest platform for Indian cinema, the London Indian Film Festival returns to the Capital, in association with Pure Heaven, the British Film Institute, and official Hotel Partner Grange Hotels, celebrating the exploding movement of Indian Independent cinema and bringing to UK audiences a rare selection of cutting-edge films from some of the Indian subcontinent’s hottest independent talents. Going way beyond Bollywood, the festival presents a kaleidoscope of new films that challenge, shock, generate debate and present a more realistic view of India and the subcontinent today, in all its diversity.

The festival has many highlights and will showcase Emma Thompson’s Sold and Million Dollar Arm, which stars Jon Hamm and also boasts a bevy of Bollywood stars! The festival will stretch citywide,...

Hard-hitting feature Sold will have its red carpet European Premiere at the opening of the Fifth annual London Indian Film Festival (10 – 17 July). Based on the bestselling novel Sold by Patricia McCormick, the film is a powerful drama based on real life events, and tells of a young Nepali girl’s struggle for survival after being sold into prostitution in Kolkata, and an American photographer (Gillian Anderson), who, against the odds, attempts to rescue her and other young women. The X Files and The Fall star Gillian Anderson is expected to participate in a Q&A in London at the film’s opening night amongst other talent.

Director Jeffrey D. Brown, Executive Producer Emma Thompson and Producer Jane Charles have worked tirelessly to bring this film to the screen researching every aspect of the story in depth with charities which deal directly with child trafficking in India including: Apne Aap, New Light,...

The New York Indian Film Festival (Nyiff) announced the full lineup last night for their 14th year of celebrating independent, art house, alternate, and Diaspora films from/about/connected to the Indian subcontinent (May 5 – 10) at the SoHo Tiffin Junction. Dedicated to bringing these films to a New York audience, the festival will feature 34 screenings (23 narrative, 11 documentary) –all seen for the first time in New York City.

The festival highlights various cinemas of India’s different regions – Marathi, Bengali and two films from the Northeast. In addition the festival covers cinemas from the neighboring South Asian countries – four films by Pakistani filmmakers, two from Sri Lanka – a feature and a documentary, and one from Nepal.

The festival’s Marathi films include Postcard and multiple-award winning films Astu and Fandry. Directed by Nagraj Manjule, Fandry received rave reviews in India, winning the grand jury prize at the Mumbai Film Festival in October...

A still from Goynar Baksho

Sholay 3D will open the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne which will take place from May 1-11. The screening will be followed by Q&A with the film’s star Amitabh Bachchan.

Amitabh Bachchan will be honoured as the Iffm International Screen Icon for 2014. To celebrate this visit, La Trobe University of Melbourne is creating the ‘Shri Amitabh Bachchan’ scholarship and Bachchan will present the inaugural scholarship to a student during his visit.

The festival will close with Goynar Baksho, directed by Aparna Sen, which will be introduced by lead actor Konkona Sen Sharma.

‘Hurrah Bollywood!’ section of the festival will feature “the best mainstream Hindi cinema from the last 12 months”, including Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela and Dhoom 3.

‘Beyond Bollywood’ section will present arthouse and regional language cinema including Gajendra Ahire’s Anumati, Nitin Kakkar’s Filmistaan, Nagraj Manjule’s Fandry,...

Kaushik Ganguly’s Apur Panchali takes off on Pather Panchali and is about the child actor who played Apu in the film – Subir Banerjee – and what happened to him because he never made another film after Ray’s masterpiece.

Cinema in India has now split up into several pan-Indian categories. Apart from the mainstream Hindi film we have the ‘indie’ cinema represented by films like The Lunchbox and Ship of Theseus as well as the documentary (Fire in the Blood), which has become commercially viable, as it was not. Apart from these categories, there is the regional art film which, unlike its popular counterpart, is pan-Indian rather than local – because it is aimed at audiences at film festivals and other pan-Indian cultural gatherings, and cannot be imagined without subtitles in English. The pan-Indian art film is gaining ground across India and well-known film critics were also recommending the Indian Panorama...