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Tag: Manish Mundra

  • US$ 20m Drishyam fund for 10 Indian films in two years, releases showreel

    MUMBAI: Mumbai-based Drishyam Films is set to launch a $20m Production Fund to facilitate the growth of independent Indian cinema and to escalate it to a global reach.

    The fund will be spent in developing and producing cutting edge original content that will be true to the Drishyam vision of cinema, i.e. local in its setting but global in its appeal. It will be put to use for producing 10 independent Indian films over the next two years.

    Manish Mundra, founder of Drishyam Films, expects to announce the first projects under the fund in the early 2018. In addition to the production of the films, the fund will also be used to develop Drishyam Films’ VFX Studio in Mumbai.

    The production fund, which is raised independently by Manish Mundra, will help Drishyam Films towards accomplishing their goals of building a platform for unique voices of Indian independent cinema and create global content with rich Indian flavours. 

    Mundra says: “This fund has been set up with the objective of taking Indian cinema to the next level internationally. We plan to take our focus on content driven cinema and merge it with high technical finesse to make films that will travel across the world.”

    The studio which has produced some of the most acclaimed and globally feted Indian films recently such as Ankhon Dekhi, Masaan, Dhanak, Umrika and Waiting also released a special showreel that celebrates their impressive body of work, and also gives audiences a sneak preview of their forthcoming releases.

    Apart from the fund, Mundra has two new features going into production over the summer – Mohamed Gani’s Cycle, about the importance of the humble bicycle in small-town India, and Ganesh Shetty’s Anonymous, about a woman and her relationship with society as she undergoes an abortion. Both films are being readied for festival submission by the end of the year.

    Drishyam Films has already had a great start to 2017, with their next release Newton starring Rajkummar Rao winning the CICAE Award at the Berlin International Film Festival 2017 and the Jury Prize for Best Film at the 41st Hong Kong Film Festival, 2017. More recently, their films won big at the 64th National Film Awards where Dhanak won Best Children’s Film, while Kadvi Hawa bagged a Special Mention.

  • Newton wins HK jury prize for intelligent presentation of political situation

    Newton wins HK jury prize for intelligent presentation of political situation

    MUMBAI: After impressing the audience and critics alike at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival 2017 where Newton made its world premiere and also won the CICAE Art Cinema Award, Drishyam Film’s upcoming film is now making waves at its Asia premiere in Hong Kong.

    The film produced by Manish Mundra and directed by Amit V Masurkar has won the Jury Prize for the Best Film at the 41st Hong Kong Film Festival 2017, where it was screened in the Young Cinema Competition category.

    The jury awarded the film “For the intelligent and human presentation of a political situation in a country. The film balances the humour, disillusion and – against all odds – a steadfast belief in the meaning of democracy.”

    Thrilled with the audience and jury response to his film, director Amit V Masurkar says, “We are delighted. It’s one of the most prestigious film festivals.” Newton is Amit V Masurkar’s second film after the sleeper hit, Sulemani Keeda in 2014.

    Starring Rajkummar Rao in the titular role, Newton features a stellar cast which includes Anjali Patil, Pankaj Tripathi and Raghubir Yadav. Rajkummar immediately took to Twitter to exult after the award was announced, stating “After #Berlinale win, another feather in #Newton’s cap.” Manish Mundra, the founder of Drishyam Films and the producer of Newton, is elated with the film’s international success as well. “With each milestone, we come closer to the film’s India release this summer — can’t wait to present Newton to our Indian audiences!” .

    The film will be making its North American premiere at the 15th Tribeca Film Festival 2017 in the international narrative competition section next week. It will have four screenings at the festival, which will be held from 19-30 April in New York. Newton was also part of the Co-Production Market (CPM) at Film Bazaar 2015 and one of the Film Bazaar Recommends titles at Film Bazaar 2016.

    Newton is a razor sharp political black comedy that takes place on an election day in Central India. Rajkummar Rao, whose star is on the rise following strong, highly appreciated performances in films like Aligarh and Queen, plays Newton, a rookie clerk on election duty in a conflict-ridden jungle of Chhattisgarh, who tries his best to conduct free and fair voting despite the apathy of security forces and the looming fear of an attack by Maoist rebels.

  • ‘Masaan’ ticket sales sees spurt with word of mouth publicity

    ‘Masaan’ ticket sales sees spurt with word of mouth publicity

    MUMBAI: As has been seen with strong content films, a huge word of mouth buzz pushed Masaan ticket sales to double up by Saturday, 25 July afternoon in all the metros.

     

    The superlative reviews of the film have piqued the interest of cine-goers, which has in turn translated into box office sales.

     

    In spite of facing huge competition from big blockbusters like Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Bahubali, and less number of shows, the film has managed to stand on its own and was playing house full by Saturday noon at most screens in the metros. The small towns though still are warming up to this film, but the producers feel that the Masaan promotions in the small towns will also pay and sales will be stable throughout the week.

     

    The film, which has opened in around 250 screens in the country, is looking stable to go in the second week with more shows.

     

    Drishyam Films’ Manish Mundra said, “Excellent reviews coupled with very strong word of mouth has resulted in full house in all most all major multiplexes in urban centers on Saturday. We are confident that Masaan will sustain in theatres for good number of weeks making it also a success at the box office along with being critical acclaimed.”

     

    Phantom Films’ Vikramaditya Motwane added, “The strong word of mouth and the super reviews have added to the buzz around the film, and the ticket sales have gone up by almost double on Sat. This reinstates our belief in good content and we hope the audience will keep spreading the appreciation and we will have a good weekday tickets’ sales too.”

  • ‘Dhanak’ bags top award at Sneakers Children’s Festival, Poland

    ‘Dhanak’ bags top award at Sneakers Children’s Festival, Poland

    MUMBAI: After bagging two awards for Dhanak (Rainbow) co-produced by Drishyam Films Manish Mundra and directed by Nagesh Kukunoor at the Berlinale, it has further bagged the top award at Sneakers Children’s Festival, Poland.

     

    Having won the best film award in the main category, ‘Children’s Feature Film Competition’, the prize ceremony took place on 22 June.

     

    Kukunoor who couldn’t attend the festival shared a recorded message thanking the festival authorities and the audience. The film was screened at International Film Festival Los Angeles (IFFLA) and at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Kids.

     

    Dhanak which stars Hetal Gada and Krrish Chhabria in the lead roles is about an eight-year-old blind boy whose 10-year-old sister promises him that he will get his vision back before he turns nine. The film follows the duo on a magical journey through the sand dunes of Rajasthan. The film also stars theater actors, Vipin Sharma and Vibha Chhiber in the prominent roles.

     

    The award winning film had its world premiere at the prestigious film festival, Berlinale where it bagged The Grand Prix for the best feature-length film and the Special Mention for the best feature film by The Children’s Jury for Generation Kplus.

     

  • ‘X’, a film by eleven directors is opening film at South Asian filmfest

    ‘X’, a film by eleven directors is opening film at South Asian filmfest

    NEW DELHI: A film directed by eleven Indian directors, X will be the opening film of the South Asian International Film Festival (SAIFF).

    The festival is to be held from 18 to 23 November in New York.

    The film is a novel experiment since eleven filmmakers with varied styles have made different parts of the same film.

    The story revolves around K, a filmmaker with a mid-life crisis, who meets a mysterious young girl who reminds him of his first girlfriend at first, and subsequently, of every woman in his life.

    Produced by Manish Mundra, the film is jointly directed by Abhinav Shiv Tiwari, Anu Menon, Hemant Gaba, Nalan Kumarasamy, Pratim D Gupta, Q, Raja Sen, Rajshree Ojha, Sandeep Mohan, Sudhish Kamath and Suparn Verma.

    Shiladitya Bora and Sudhish Kamath are executive producers of the film.

    The movie features Aditi Chengappa, Bidita Bag, Gabriella Schmidt, Huma Qureshi, Neha Mahajan, Parno Mitra, Pia Bajpai, Pooja Ruparel, Radhika Apte, Richa Shukla, Rii Sen and SwaraBhaskar with Anshuman Jha and Rajat Kapoor