NFDC announces eight finalists for Screenwriters’ Lab 2021

The National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) has announced the final list of projects selected for the 14th edition of the NFDC Screenwriters’ Lab.

The selected participants work closely with noted mentors in an intensive five-month programme to fine-tune their screenplays through personalized interactions as well as group sessions.

The mentors at the lab this year are screenwriters Angeli Macfarlane, writer-director Bikas Mishra and Sari Turgeman. Macfarlane, who is based in London, England, is founder of Script Cube, a development, training and production company for writers, directors and producers in film, television and theatre. Mishra is best known for his award-winning film Chauranga (2016). Turgeman is a script consultant and screenwriting teacher whose method is taught in private courses and professional workshops around the world.

A total of eight projects have been selected this year. Among them are National award-winning film critic-turned-filmmaker Utpal Borpujari’s An Unreal Story, National award-winning filmmaker Vivek Chaudhary’s Goonga Pehelwan (The Deaf Wrestler), Mandra Saptak (The Lower Octave) by Kshama Padalkar and Notun Gur (A New Sweetness) by Deyali Mukherjee.

The others are Oranges Smell Like Turpentine by Sasha Singh, Rekhta by Himadri Parmar, Gos Kota Manuh (The Woodcutter) by Prakash Deka, whose debut Assamese feature Jonaki Porua (Fireflies) won the National award last year, and Akshay Indikar’s Marathi-language story Construction.

Speaking with Cinestaan.com about the selection of his script, Borpujari said, “Getting my script selected to a programme like NFDC's Screewriters' Lab is a big confidence booster, given that several highly acclaimed films have emerged in recent years out of the scripts mentored in this programme.

"Also, a selection in the lab is proof that the story I want to tell is a universal one. Hopefully, it will now also be noticed by producers of quality content, which is really important to take it to the next level after the lab.”

Borpujari's Xogun won the award for Best Film in the Short Film Competition at the 13th Guwahati International Film Festival and was also screened at the 21st New York Indian Film Festival.

Indikar’s Sthalpuran (Chronicles Of Space) was screened as part of the Berlin International Film Festival 2020. Expressing his thoughts at the selection, Indikar told Cinestaan.com, “I am really happy that the journey of the film Construction is beginning at the screen lab. My previous two films, Trijya and Sthalpuran, also began their journeys at NFDC.

"I hope that through the lab, I will get an objective perspective on the film, which will enable me to look at it in a different light. The 21-day structure [of the lab] in three parts allows us time to reflect upon the film and thresh out our ideas. I am looking for a meditational experience to look at my ideas and examine why I want to make this film. I think I am getting a fine chance to search for these answers through NFDC."

The young filmmaker said this is the first time he would be attending a script lab and was looking forward to it. "I have attended work-in-progress labs and received mentoring when my film was at the rough-cut stage," he said. "But this time I am going with fresh ideas and the sky is the limit. I can go in any direction with my story and I may receive several possibilities to tell my story from the lab.”