This year’s Film Bazaar, which is organized by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), will host its main event, the Co-Production Market, from 20 to 25 November. The event, which will be held virtually because of the ongoing pandemic, will see the inclusion of 20 projects from 11 countries.
The selected projects comprise a wide range of stories in languages that include Assamese, Bengali, Dari, English, German, Hindi, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Portuguese, Sinhala, Tamil and Telugu. The projects are linked to established names such as Dr Bobby Sarma Baruah, Nikhil Mahajan, and Ridham Janve as well as up-and-coming filmmakers.
They will pitch their projects online to international and Indian producers, distributors, festival programmers, financiers and sales agents at Open Pitch Online. According to the Film Bazaar’s press release, the pitches will be played out virtually and made available for delegates to watch in different time zones on the first day.
More than 200 scripts, projects and films from South Asia are pitched annually to the numerous producers, buyers, sales agents and film festival programmers who participate from around the globe.
The full list of the selected projects is as follows:
• Ashwamedh (The Sacrifice) | Hindi | India, United Kingdom
Director: Ridham Janve
Producer: Kate Baxter, Five Fifty Five
• Bena (Seed) | Marathi | India
Director and Producer: Nitin Dixit
Producer: Addinath.M Kothare, Storyteller’s Nook Pvt. Ltd.
• Blue | English | India, United Kingdom
Director and Producer: Nilakshi Sengupta, Nilakshi Sengupta Communications & NSG Films
• Bride Without Dowry | German, Tamil | India, Germany, Sri Lanka
Director: Jayakrishnan Subramanian
Director: Franziska Schönenberger
Producer: Maximilian Plettau, Nominal Film
• Chevittorama (The Soul Whisperer) | Malayalam | Australia, India
Director: Leo Thaddeus
Producer: Stephen Zacharias, Stop Whinging
Producer: Vijay Jayapal, Tournage Productions
Producer: Harsh Agarwal & Aditya Grover, Uncombed Buddha Films
• Deoka (Walking In The Air) | Assamese | India
Director and Producer: Dr. Bobby Sarma Baruah
Producer: Sulakhyana Baruah, Imaging Media
• Ek Mutthi Badal (My Share of Sky) | Nepali | Nepal
Director: Sahara Sharma
Producer: Abhimanyu Dixit, Gauthali Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.
Producer: Reecha Sharma, Gauthali Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.
• Hashnouhana (The Strange Case of a Divorce) | Bengali | India
Director: Debarati Gupta
Producer: Soumya Mukhopadhyay, Cherrypix Movies
• Jolchhobi (Water Fresco) | Bengali | Bangladesh, India
Director: Tanha Zafreen
Producer: Mokhlesur Talukdar, Black Mirror Films
Producer: Ashutosh Mahapatra, Meta4 Films
• Mathaka Wasthra (Memoria) | Sinhala, Tamil | Sri Lanka
Director: Dulanka Devendra
Producer: Rasitha Jinasena, Sky Entertainers
• Mirpur Express | Hindi | India
Director: Aman Mahajan
Producer: Shankar Menon, Barking Beagle Films
• My Mother’s Nose | English, Tamil, Telugu | India, Singapore
Director: Aditya Thayi
Producer: Samir Sarkar, Magic Hour Films Pvt. Ltd.
• Pankaali (The Partner) | Malayalam | India
Director: Nithin Lukose
Producer: Raj Rachakonda, Studio 99
• Raavsaaheb | Marathi | India
Director: Nikhil Mahajan,
Producer: Akshay Bardapurkar, Planet Marathi
• Safa | Bengali | Bangladesh
Director: Maksud Hossain
Producer: Barkat Hossain Polash, Verite Films
• Scotch | English, Hindi, Konkani, Portuguese | India
Director: Siddharth Tripathy
Producer: Asit Kumarr Modi, Neela Film Productions
• The Arrangements of Love | English, Tamil | India
Director: Philip John
Producer: Sunitha Tati, Guru Films Pvt. Ltd.
• The Forgotten History | Dari | Afghanistan, Spain
Director: Roya Sadat
Producer: Alba Sotorra Clua, Alba Sotorra SL
• The Secret in the Wind | English, Hindi | Hungary, India
Director: Chandradeep Das
Producer: Valentine Nonyela, Unified Entertainment Production
Producer: Anil Patil, Cliff Edge Films
Producer: Nikita Ivanenko, Independent
Producer: András Muhi, FocusFox
• To Kill The One You Love | English, Kannada, Tamil | India
Director: Ashok Vish
Producer: Shaji Mathew, Niv Art Movies
Producer: Vinayak Nagesh, Independent