Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar has declared open the 13th edition of Film Bazaar organised by NFDC. The annual NFDC's Film Bazaar is a platform that provides a one-stop shop for filmmakers, producers, sales agents, distributors, film festival programmers and financiers from around the world; a marketplace that encourages collaboration between the South Asian and international film fraternities.The first day of 13th edition of Film Bazaar saw a bunch of activities – film pitches to packed rooms of the film fraternity, hectic meetings between the delegates, insightful sessions on different aspects of film making, and workshops and master classes by veteran professionals for young students – all aimed at understanding the fast-evolving world of film making and paving novel ways of creating and distributing world-class Indian content.
The Co-Production Market started 14 interesting projects that in which the filmmakers presented their projects to a selected audience of industry professionals including national and international producers, distributors, sales agents and financiers. These 14 films came from India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, France, Nepal, Singapore and USA across languages like Hindi, English, Bengali, Malayalam, Assamese, Nepali, Dzongkha (Bhutanese) and Gujarati.
The pitches explored a range of themes from loneliness to sexual repression, from migration to dystopias. They were spread across genres like crime thrillers, surreal fantasy, science-fiction, and coming-of-age dramas amongst others. Projects selected in the Screenwriter’s Lab also pitched their scripts to the industry delegates.
The Knowledge Series started with an insightful session on empowering youth with skill development. Renowned writer and poet Shri Prasoon Joshi (Chairman - Central Board of Film Certification) spoke about the need for filmmaking to tip-toe into the dreams of the middle-class of India. “Anything where only a few people succeed is not taken seriously by people. When people think about cinema, they automatically think about the stars. We need to make people understand that success in the industry requires dedication, passion, and skills and is not dependent on chance or nepotism.”
Producer Siddharth Roy Kapur commended the government and NFDC on the new initiative of skill development and said, “To take this brilliant initiative ahead, we need a public-private partnership so that the industry and the government can work together closely. The government should know better the requirements of the industry while the industry needs to understand the challenges of the government better.”
Atul Tiwari (Additional Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting) highlighted the various initiatives the government has undertaken, and the panel discussed ways of equipping people skill at the entry level. Prasoon Joshi summarized the session by emphasizing the need to train more women in relevant skills and ensuring their safety on film sets.Later film critic Anupama Chopra engaged Josh Siegel (Curator, Dept of Film, The Museum of Modern Art, New York) in a conversation on diversity in programming, and how MOMA could be a catalyst to the experience of independent cinemas from India.Explaining his role at MOMA, Siegel spoke about MOMA’s role in getting Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali funded and seen. Ashish Malhotra (Deputy Head – Worldskills India, National Skill Development Corporation) led a discussion on cinema inspiring entrepreneurship. The panel represented both, the industry and the government, with Shobhu Yarlagadda (Producer – Baahubali), Vishal Bhardwaj (Filmmaker), and Vani Tripathi Tikoo (Member - Central Board of Film Certification) present on the panel.
In a separate session on the state in focus today, Jayashree S Bhoj (MD, Maharashtra Film, Stage and Cultural Development Corporation, Government of Maharashtra) spoke about the newly instituted policy of single window clearance by the state government. Speaking about the redevelopment plans for the Film City in Mumbai she said, “We are looking to expand Film City and have an integrated plan for a set-up that will have facilities for pre-production, production, and post-production. This redevelopment plan worth Rs 2,000 crores is already under process and the tenders have already gone out.”
Workshops on Skill Development, a new addition this year, were under-way through the day with well-known writer/poet Prasoon Joshi initiating proceedings with his session on writing. Explaining the importance of writing he said, “You learn a lot about yourself in the process of writing. You realize the possibilities inherent in your thinking.” Encouraging the young group in the workshop, he said, “You are living in a fortunate time. Appealing to the lowest common denominator is no longer necessary. You have multiple platforms today, it is possible to make diverse stories.”
Acclaimed actor Adil Hussain also took a session on acting. He compared acting to water and asked the young crowd to learn from the qualities of water. Emphasizing the importance of one’s breath in acting, he said, “The first thing that gets affected by someone or something is a person’s breath. Emotions are a consequence of breath. Emotions are the trickiest to control, they don’t listen to you. It is therefore important to learn to control one’s breath by practising everyday so that one becomes capable of controlling emotions.”He also highlighted the role of art in society by saying, “The role of art in society is to inspire people to be or do what they really want to do and thus make the world a better place.”
The separate track on the Film Facilitation Offices of the various state governments saw multiple discussions and sessions with industry participants engaged in exchange of ideas with the various state officials. Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar and Kayvan Mashayekh (Producer’s Guild of America) spoke about the things that filmmakers seek when scouting for locations for their films.The Producers’ Workshop, focused on training young producers, saw the selected participants learn from experienced hands. The 20 projects from USA, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Taiwan and India selected to participate in the workshop this year were mentored around round-tables by the mentors. The key topics this year include cross cultural and cross border audience building, creative and artistic project development, risk sharing, film funds, and co-productions.
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