New wave' directors make a splash in Bollywood

India's Hindi-language film industry has traditionally been a tight-knit affair, with generations of actors, producers and directors forging careers in what was effectively a family business.

But a number of 'new wave' directors are now breaking the mould, making their mark on audiences despite not having the benefit of an established 'name' behind them.

Among them is Imtiaz Ali, who was an unknown when he came to India's entertainment capital, Mumbai, from northern Bihar state to study film directing in 1995.

Others include R. Balakrishnan, a former advertising executive known as 'Balki", and Anurag Kashyap, the son of a state electricity worker.

Balki is working on his second film, 'Pa", with Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, while fellow newcomer Anurag Basu, famous for the dark 'Life... in a Metro", is directing 'Kites' starring Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Moi.

Ali's third film, 'Love Aaj Kal' (Love Today), hits screens on Friday, with expectations that it will eclipse the success of his 'Jab We Met' (When We Met), which came out two years ago.

The 38-year-old has broken through, despite the continued dominance of powerful Bollywood clans like the Bachchans, the Dutts, the Khans and the Kapoors. Yet he denies the industry is a closed shop.

'Our film industry has always been open to outsiders. You are welcome and it does not matter who you are if you have the talent,' he said.

'After all, many of the big directors of today were outsiders in the industry when they began their career.'

Directors like himself who have shunned the traditional song and dance 'masala' movie format for more experimental, lower-budget movies, are not doing anything radically different from others in previous generations, he added.

'If you look at the history of our film industry, you will find that every decade a group of new directors came and shook the industry with their new kind of films,' he said.

'In the 1970s, it was Ramesh Sippy with 'Sholay' then in the 1990s it was Aditya Chopra with 'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge' making a love story.'

He added: 'You can say we are following that trend. The most important point is that you need to be convincing enough. Producers need to be convinced that when they put their money in they will get it back from your film.'

Kashyap landed in Mumbai in 1993, starting his career as a scriptwriter before moving into directing, fulfilling an ambition that began when he saw the classic Italian film 'The Bicycle Thieves' as a child.

The 37-year-old's first film in 2004, 'Black Friday", was about the 1993 serial bomb attacks in Mumbai. It was one of a number at the time to shun romance, music and fantasy to tackle more contemporary issues.

His follow-up, 'No Smoking", flopped but 'Dev D", his remake of the classic Indian novel and film 'Devdas", about an obsessive lover, stormed to the top of the box office rankings earlier this year.

With Bollywood suffering the fall-out of the global economic downturn and recovering from a damaging producers' boycott of multiplex cinemas, Kashyap is optimistic that there will be a raft of more innovative movies.

'I firmly believe that this year will be the golden year of Bollywood. The new wave cinema will go mainstream and you will see the change for sure,' he said.link

Bihar boy’s film shines at Cannes

Gaya born Abhijeet Kumar’s film Namah Shivaya Shantaya has opened to rave reviews at the Cannes film festival on Monday. The film was screened at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival at the Indian pavillion 108, Village International, organised by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and the industry body ASSOCHAM.

The film, based on the teachings from the book of the same name by Shrii Anandamurti, has at its core the renewal of a great and timeless message, still as relevant today as it was in times of old.

Bringing to life the story of Lord Shiva’s fight for justice, righteousness and peace in the fledgling society of his day, that message emerges, in essence, as that of unification: the coming together of all people as one; of all minds as one mind; and – ultimately – of all minds with the Oneness that pervades and encompasses all things for all time.

Born on January 5, 1983 Gaya, Abhijeet did his B.A (Hons.) in Psychology from Magadh University, Bodh Gaya.

A natural artistic talent, Abhijeet Kumar began his film-making journey with a vision of higher-quality entertainment for society. An MA in Film and Television Production, he has produced and directed many critically acclaimed short films and features, and acted in numerous movies, television serials, commercials and plays.

With Namah Shivaya Shantaya, under adverse conditions presenting numerous creative and logistical challenges, he succeeded admirably in pulling off a wide variety of creative and production tasks: director, executive producer, actor, script translator (from the original English), and cast and crew coordination.

Abhijeet’s creative and managerial talents eventually got the film off the ground and completed within a very short span of time and with extremely limited resources.

Currently, Abhijeet Kumar runs his own film production company ‚ DIA Entertainment ‚ and is working towards his next film. He is planning to produce a film “Nalanda” based on the massacre by Muslim invaders at the ancient Nalanda University.

The other Indian films showcased at Cannes this year are - Hrithik Roshan starrer Kites, Teen Patti featuring Amitabh Bachchan as a math professor and Aamir Khan’s hit film Taare Zameen Par among others.link

Madhvan, Neetu connect to their Bihari roots

Madhavan, originally from Bihar, became a Tamil superstar before he migrated to Bollywood. So when he got to work with another Bihari Neetu Chandra, there was an instant bond between the two.

“And Bihar isn’t the only common factor between me and Neetu. We’re both athletic and sporty. We both play basketball,” says Madhavan who spent his childhood, growing years and early years Bihar.

Madhavan is enjoying every moment that he is spending on the promotion of 13B. His supernatural movie with Neetu is all set to arrive this Friday (March 6).

13B is a supernatural movie starring Madhavan, Neetu Chandra, Poonam Dhillon, Murali Sharma, Sachin Khedekar, and Deepak Dobriyal.

13B has music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and lyrics by Neelesh Mishra. The film is written and directed by Vikram K Kumar.

13B tells the story of a middle-class family which moves into a new apartment 13B where things start to get eerie when all the incidents that happen on a TV show start happening in their life as well.

Madhavan says he took up the project, directed by Vikram K Kumar, because it had an intriguing theme that’s scary as well.

“Vikram and I wanted to work together for last seven years but we did not have a script. We finally got a perfect script and worked on it for two years. This sort of movie has never been made in India before,” Madhavan is quoted as saying by a news agency.

Apart from 13B, Madhavan is presently doing three films in Bollywood – 3 Idiots with Aamir Khan , Teen Patti with Amitabh Bachchan and another film titled ‘Sikander’.

The film 13B is bilingual in Hindi and Tamil. While all the other actors in the two versions are different, Madhvan and Neetu are common actors to both the versions.

Apart from India, the film will see a limited release in the US, Canada, UAE, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia.

Says Big Pictures (the motion pictures brand of Reliance Big Entertainment) chief marketing officer Saurabh Varma said, “We truly believe in the potential of this project and are strategising ways to engage with the audience.”link