Yahoo Finance India’s NFDC Film Bazaar Reveals Seven Projects for Cannes Market Co-Production Day
Film Bazaar, South Asia’s largest co-production market, has joined hands with the Cannes Film Market to present seven projects looking for co-producers and financiers on July 9.
Film Bazaar, an annual event that takes place in Goa, India, is organized by the country’s National Film Development Corporation (NFDC). The selected projects are the ones that attracted the most meetings at the Bazaar’s January online edition.
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The projects include “Dengue” by Prantik Basu (India, Netherlands), produced by Basu and Jan van der Zanden, where a feverish romance plays out between two men as a tropical virus develops. Basu’s “Bela” played at Rotterdam and Visions du Réel, Nyon International Documentary Film Festival.
“Rasa” (Immerse) by Anjali Menon (India), produced by Menon and N.P. Prakash is a dance-based film. Menon is one of India’s most commercially successful filmmakers whose credits include “Bangalore Days” and “Koode.”
“Kuhiro Pariko Sahar” (A Hidden Tale Behind The Mist) by Pasang Dawa Sherpa (Nepal), produced by Prem Prasad Adhikary explores concerns around health. The project was one of those awarded at the online Film Bazaar in January.
“Moving Bangladesh” by Nuhash Humayun (Bangladesh), produced by Bijon Imtiaz, Arifur Rahman and Tran Bich-Quan, will see a struggling entrepreneur who creates a ride-sharing app that may change life in Bangladesh. Humayun directed one of the segments of acclaimed anthology “Sincerely Yours, Dhaka,” Bangladesh’s entry to this year’s Oscars.
“Last Time On Earth” by Paromita Dhar (India, France), produced by Dhar and Yohann Cornu, will follow a migrant worker and his persistent magical dreams.
“Ghol” (The Catch) by Rishi Chandna, produced by Dina Dattani, juxtaposes the Indian subcontinent’s troubled and violent history with the present day while telling the tale of an impoverished trawler fisherman. Besides the Bazaar, the project has also participated in the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum and the Hong Kong International Film & TV Market and the Sundance Screenwriters Lab earlier this year.
“Second Chance” by Subhadra Mahajan (India), produced by Shyam Bora and Bhaskar Hazarika, sees three disparate souls thrown together in the Himalayan foothills. Mahajan’s credits as an assistant director include 2021 Tribeca Spotlight opener “The Last Film Show,” while Hazarika and Bora’s “Aamis” played Tribeca in 2019.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Film, Stage and Cultural Development Corporation has selected two films to represent at the Cannes Film Market – Ananth Narayan Mahadevan’s 2020 Busan selection “Bittersweet,” which examines the plight of sugarcane crop workers; and Nipun Dharmadhikari’s music biopic “Mee Vasantrao.”
The western Indian state of Maharashtra is home to Bollywood and the Marathi-language film industry.
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