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Tag: Qissa

  • Delhi’s Loya Qissa welcomes Mexico’s Aruba bar takeover

    Delhi’s Loya Qissa welcomes Mexico’s Aruba bar takeover

    MUMBAI: When Delhi’s iconic Loya says “cheers” it does so with stories. Its much-loved bar takeover series, Qissa, is back. This time shaking things up with a spirited cross-continental collaboration.

    Flying in from Tijuana, Mexico, the celebrated Aruba day drink bar, ranked No. 22 in North America’s 50 best bars 2025, is stepping behind Loya’s counter. At the helm is Frida González, Aruba’s co-owner and one of the brightest forces in Baja California’s cocktail culture.

    González is known for crafting ingredient-forward drinks that are as vibrant as they are honest, championing a style that feels playful yet deeply rooted in Mexico’s northwest coast. Under her watch, the takeover promises a sun-drenched menu echoing Aruba’s signature ‘daytime conviviality’: fresh, bold, and layered with Baja narratives.

    Think zesty pours brimming with Mexican flavours, inventive techniques, and a dash of storytelling, all served against Loya’s backdrop of north Indian artistry and flavour. 

    After its showcase at Loya, Taj Palace, New Delhi,  this edition of Qissa won’t stop there. The collaboration will pack its shakers and journey to Mumbai’s The Taj Mahal Palace, and Bengaluru’s Taj West End carrying a dialogue of craft and culture across three cities.

  • Box Office: ‘Badlapur’ delights critics

    Box Office: ‘Badlapur’ delights critics

    MUMBAI: Badlapur: Don’t Miss The Beginning gets much acclaim from critics. A noir film with black shades, there is little relief for seekers of entertainment. The fact that greatly cuts down on the expected footfalls at the cinemas. While the ‘A’ certificate keeps a lot of youth away, the genre does so to the ladies and family audience. It had an indifferent opening day of little over Rs 7 crore with Saturday doing only slightly better. On the other hand, collections remained stagnant on Sunday. The film managed opening weekend collections of Rs 23.6 crore.

     

    Qissa (Punjabi) was not expected to do much at the box office but has certainly earned rave reviews.

     

    Roy was a film beyond comprehension for a lot many people. A pretentious film, it gets some fair opening figures thanks to Ranbir Kapoor and Arjun Rampal in top billing. However, poor word of mouth keeps its first week limited to Rs 33.4 crore.

     

    MSG: The Messenger figures don’t matter since the tickets were booked en masse by the makers and whatever figures are released to the media are also by the same source (crossed Rs 100 crore according to them!)

     

    Shamitabh adds Rs 2.9 crore in its second week to take its two week tally to Rs 20.5 crore.

     

    Baby has collected Rs 2.8 crore for its fourth weeks to take its four week total to Rs 78.1 crore.

     

    Khamoshiyan has collected Rs 12 lakh in its third week to take its three week tally to Rs 6.62 crore.

     

    PK has added Rs 10 lakh in its ninth week to take its ten week total marginally up at Rs 330.05 crore.

  • Anup Singh’s ‘Qissa’ gets multi-platform release

    Anup Singh’s ‘Qissa’ gets multi-platform release

    NEW DELHI: Qissa by Anup Singh, which has already won accolades on the international festival circuit, has finally hit the theatres.

     

    Interestingly in a unique venture, the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) decided to release the film across multiple platforms simultaneously. It has been released theatrically, on DVDs, and on some websites as well.

     

    NFDC general manager and head of marketing Vikramjit Roy told Indiantelevision.com that the international acclaim that the film had won all over the world and in India made it necessary for it to be made available on all formats. Roy said that it was not a typical film and therefore the NFDC had decided not to treat its release in a typical manner.

     

    Meanwhile, Anup Singh told Indiantelevision.com that the 2013 film has so far been to around 100 film festivals and won 15 awards, including one in India.

     

    He said the Punjabi film was based on an original story and could be seen in various ways. It had been inspired by the stories he had heard of his grandfather’s struggle during the partition of the country. But the idea of bringing up a girl child as a boy could be seen as symbolic of many things: the desire for the head of the family to have a male child after three daughters, the way many female children were dressed as boys during Partition to save them from exploitation, and the way history and tradition continues to affect even modern contemporary Indian society.

     

    Among other places, the film was one of the nine Asian films in competition at the 20th Festival International des Cinémas d’Asie in Vesoul in France.

     

    Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost was also the opening film of the 43rd International Film Festival at Rotterdam from 22 January to 2 February last year and this marked the European premiere of the film. It won the Audience Award at that Festival. 

     

    The award comprising Euro 10,000 (Rs 9 lakh approx) is given to the most voted film supported by the Hubert Bals Fund.

     

    Qissa which received the Hubert Bals Fund for Script & Project Development in 2004, was made with further support from the Netherlands Film Fund, and was co-produced by Dutch company Augustus Film.

     

    Set in post-colonial India, the film stars Irrfan Khan as a Sikh who has fled his village to escape ethnic cleansing at the time of partition who tries to start a new life for his family. The film stars Irrfan Khan with Tisca Chopra, Tillotama Shome, Rasika Dugal, Sonia Bindra and Faezeh Jalali among others.

     

    Qissa is represented internationally by Germany’s The Match Factory GmbH. The film had its North American and Asian premieres at the Toronto International Film Festivaland Busan International Film Festival respectively.

     

    Earlier, the film added one more feather in its cap when actor Tillotama Shome won the Best Actress award in the New Horizons competition at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival.

    In Qissa, Shome plays the youngest daughter of Umber Singh (Irrfan Khan) who decides to raise her as a boy.

     

    Shome made her screen debut with Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding in 2001 and went on to play roles in Florian Gallenberger’s Shadows of Time and Dibakar Banerjee’s Shanghai.

     

    Qissa also won the Silver Gateway Award in India Gold competition at the 15th Mumbai Film Festival  and the NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) Award for Best Asian Film at the 38th Toronto International Film Festival where it had its premiere.

  • Tribute to Irrfan Khan to be the highlight of Florence Indian filmfest

    Tribute to Irrfan Khan to be the highlight of Florence Indian filmfest

    NEW DELHI: A tribute to actor Irrfan Khan, who will soon be seen in Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World (the new chapter in the Jurassic Park saga out in June 2015) will receive Europe’s first tribute, with the screening of three of his films at the 14th River to River Florence Indian Film Festival in Italy, later this week.

     

    The festival being held from 6 to 12 December will feature Qissa by Anup Singh (Italian premiere on 7 December) in the presence of director Anup Singh and Irrfan Khan), Paan Singh Tomar by Tigmanshu Dhulia (Italian premiere, on 8 December), and the cult movie The Namesake by Mira Nair (on 12 December).

     

    In addition, seven episodes of the third series of the US HBO episodes of In Treatment that the actor starred in will be screened from 9 to 11 December. Khan will receive ‘The Key to the City’ from the Lord Mayor of Florence Dario Nardella. 

     

    Apart from Florence, this festival will be held in Rome on 13 and 14 December and in Milan in February. All films will have English and Italian subtitles. Also, for the first time, the festival will be held in Mumbai in March next year.

     

    The festival will open with the Italian premiere of the on-the-road comedy Finding Fanny by Homi Adajana, with a stellar cast including Nasseruddin Shah, Arjun Kapoor, Pankaj Kapur, Dimple Kapadia and Deepika Padukone.  Deepika Padukone stars in the closing film too- Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela by Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

     

    The selected short films, all Italian premiers, are 6 Cup Chai by Laila Khan, Dreamworks by Vishal Vittal, Hechki by Kartik Singh, My Dear Americans by Arpita Kumar, The Frame by Samvida Nanda (directors Laila Khan and Kartik Singh will meet the audience); 8 to 8 by Pratim Dasupta, Bar Stools by filmmaking duo Varun Bajaj and Neale Hemrajani, Chypre by Anish Dedhia, Int Café night by Adhiraj Bose, and Stuff by Sofian Khan.

     

    There will also be a Student Film Section, a selection of non-competing premieres from India’s three film schools, the Film and TV Institute of Pune, the Whistling Woods of Mumbai, and the Prasad Film and TV Institute of Chennai.

  • Irrfan Khan to be chief guest in Florence in Italy, ‘Qissa’ to be screened

    Irrfan Khan to be chief guest in Florence in Italy, ‘Qissa’ to be screened

    NEW DELHI: Actor Irrfan Khan, who has created waves on the international scene with ‘Lunch Box’ and ‘Qissa’, will be the special guest at the 14th River to River Indian Film Festival in Florence in Italy.

     
    The festival will screen Qissa by Anup Singh, The Namesake by Mira Nair and Paan Singh Tomar by Tigmanshu Dhulia as part of a special tribute to the versatile actor. Seven episodes of the third season of the American HBO series In Treatment starring Khan will also be screened.

     
    The 14th River to River Florence Indian Film Festival will take place at Cinema Odeon in Florence (Piazza Strozzi 2) from 6 to 12 December and screen more than 40 films.

     
    A special selection of films from the festival will also be screened in Rome (13 and 14 December) and Milan (February 2015).

     
    Directed by Selvaggia Velo, the Festival is supported by the Indian Embassy and FIND – India/Europe Foundation for New Dialogues, with the contribution of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage – Cinema Department, the Tuscan Region and Fondazione Sistema Toscana, Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze and OAC, and the India Tourism Office of Milan.

     

  • ‘Labour of love’, only Indian film at Abu Dhabi Film Festival

    ‘Labour of love’, only Indian film at Abu Dhabi Film Festival

    NEW DELHI: The Bengali-language film Asha Jaoar Majhe (Labour of Love), which had its premiere in the ongoing Mumbai Film Festival, is the only Indian film to be selected for the Abu Dhabi Film Festival this year.

    The film will be screened in the New Horizons section at the festival that screened Anup Singh’s Qissa last year.

    The film is about modern alienation in the crumbling suburbs of Kolkata, explored with lyricism and tenderness in times of great economic duress. A husband and wife share the same house and an intense love for each other. But since she works by day and he by night, they almost never meet.

    Aditya Vikram Sengupta was named the Best director of a debut film for Labour of Love in Venice Days, an independent sidebar of the Venice International Film Festival, where the film received its world premiere.

    The Abu Dhabi Film Festival will be held from 23 October to 1 November.

  • ‘Qissa’ to release in India on 26 September

    ‘Qissa’ to release in India on 26 September

    NEW DELHI: Anup Singh’s Qissa, which has already been released in Germany and shown in various film festivals including London and Durban, is to be released in India and Canada on 26 September.

     

    The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival almost exactly a year ago. The movie was released in Germany in July 2014 and was released earlier this week in France.

     

    The film is an official co-production between Heimat film (Germany), NFDC (India), Augustus Film (Netherlands) and Cine-sud Promotion (France) with Match Factory as the sales agent.

     

    A partition drama featuring Tillotama Shome, Rasika Dugal and Irrfan Khan, Qissa won the NETPAC award for Best Asian Film at Toronto International Film Festival 2013, The Dioraphte Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2014; and a Special Mention by the International Jury and Inalco Jury Award at the Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema this year.

     

    Set amidst the ethnic cleansing and general chaos that accompanied India’s partition in 1947, this sweeping drama stars Khan as a Sikh (Umber Singh) attempting to forge a new life for his family while keeping their true identities a secret from their community.

     

    It is here that the story takes a remarkable turn. Having already fathered daughters, Singh now wants a son. When his next child is born he celebrates his wish come true, but there is one problem: the baby is in fact a girl. As Umber’s daughter is raised as a boy, the characters are propelled with greater and greater urgency towards their inevitable fates.

     

    Qissa is originally an Arabic word meaning folk tale. Both the word and the idea migrated from the Gulf into the Punjab, still connected by the ancient oral narratives handed down in communal settings. Working within this tradition, director Anup Singh gives his film both the grand themes and elemental emotions of classic storytelling.

  • Three Indian films at Durban International Film Festival

    Three Indian films at Durban International Film Festival

    NEW DELHI: Ritesh Batra’s Lunchbox and Anup Singh’s Qissa, the two Indian films that have swept international film festivals over the past year, will be among the three Indian films at the 35th edition of the Durban International Film Festival.

     

    Jayan K. Cherian’s Papilio Buddha will be the third Indian film at the festival to be held from 17 to 27 July.

     

    A total of around 69 feature films, 60 documentaries and 57 short films will be screened.

     

    Qissa will be screened as part of a special package of films on Gender and Sexuality as it is a film that blurs the boundaries of gender and genre in its story of a girl who is brought up as a boy.

     

    The Lunchbox– a tale of an isolated housewife who tries to reignite her relationship with her husband through a friendship she forms with someone who receives her delicious meals – will be screened in World Cinema section.

     

    Also in the World Cinema section is Papilio Buddha, the story of a university-educated son of a Dalit activist who is politically apathetic until he receives bad treatment at the hands of the state.

     

    The film was screened at the Berlin International Film Festival early this year.

  • Culinary comedy Jadoo to be Closing Night Gala Film at the 12th annual IFFLA

    Culinary comedy Jadoo to be Closing Night Gala Film at the 12th annual IFFLA

    MUMBAI: On Tuesday, 18 March, the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) announced its 2014 lineup of narrative and documentary features and short films for this year’s festival. The impressive program reflects the rich diversity of Indian cinema, as well as the future of Indian filmmaking, with filmmakers bringing their acclaimed films to Los Angeles (LA).

     

    The festival, widely recognized as the premiere showcase of groundbreaking Indian cinema globally is celebrating its 12th year. The IFFLA will run from 8-13 April at ArcLight Hollywood in Los Angeles, the festival’s home since its inception.

     

    The culinary comedy, Jadoo has been chosen as the Closing Night Gala Film. Jadoo, a delightful and delicious exploration of family bonds amidst two feuding brothers’ restaurants in England, will screen as the festival’s Closing Night Gala. Jadoo is written and directed by IFFLA alum Amit Gupta, and first premiered at the 2013 Berlinale (Berlin Film Festival). It features a wonderful ensemble cast that includes Kulvinder Ghir, Amara Karan, Harish Patel, Tom Mison, and Madhur Jaffrey. The red-carpet screening will be followed by an exclusive after-party at Nirvana-Bombay Palace in Beverly Hills.

     

    As previously announced, IFFLA will open with Jeffrey D. Brown’s Sold, produced by Jane Charles, and executive produced by Emma Thompson.

     

     IFFLA’s Artistic Director Jasmine Jaisinghani expressed his excitement in a press release stating that he is proud of this year’s IFFLA line-up which includes an especially diverse range of cinematic experiences, covering many regions of India and the diaspora. Jaisinghani said, “We would like to thank our Programming Advisor in India, Uma Da Cunha, for helping our programming team source some of these exceptional films.”

     

    Program highlights also include the North American premiere of Anurag Kashyap’s latest, Ugly, an intense, masterfully directed psychological thriller that premiered in the 2013 Director’s Fortnight section of Cannes; Liar’s Dice, the remarkable directorial debut of South Indian actress Geetu Mohandas that premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival; Anup Singh’s latest feature Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost, starring Irrfan Khan (Life of Pi, Slumdog Millionaire), winner of NETPAC Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Dioraphte Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam; the Audience Award winner at the 2013 Slamdance Film Festival Hank & Asha, an exploratory, romantic look at two people bonding in the digital age by newcomer James E. Duff; Nagraj Manjule’s Fandry, a highly praised debut feature for its multilayered emotion and realism on the subject of caste discrimination; Brahmin Bulls, starring Roshan Seth (Gandhi, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Mississippi Masala) and Sendhil Ramamurthy (Beauty and the Beast, Heroes) as an estranged father and son unexpectedly brought together to confront the family’s past; and Siddharth, a nuanced look at a family whose son goes missing, by lauded Canadian director and IFFLA alum Richie Mehta (Amal).

     

    The festival’s feature documentary competition includes an eclectic mix of films from established and upcoming filmmakers that consider India’s unique traditions and dynamic future. The films include: the world premiere of The Auction House, an intimate and funny look at two brothers trying to keep their anachronistic family business going in the digital age; festival favorite Powerless, which depicts intense struggles over electricity in a mid-size Indian city; Faith Connections, IFFLA alum Pan Nalin’s beautiful and rare look at the Kumbh Mela; and the National Award-winning Shepherds of Paradise, about an arduous, mountainous trek through an animal drive in the Kashmiri winter.

     

    The popular Bollywood by Night series returns this year with Bombay Talkies and Monsoon Shoutout. Premiering at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Bombay Talkies is a quartet of short films that celebrates 100 years of Indian cinema. The omnibus film features work by four of India’s most exciting contemporary directors: Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, and Anurag Kashyap, as well as a stellar cast that includes Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukerji, and Katrina Kaif. Monsoon Shootout is a thrilling debut by IFFLA alum writer/director Amit Kumar, about how a split-second decision made by a rookie police officer has rippling effects in his life and the lives of those around him.

     

    The shorts competition showcases a diverse selection of 15 films that include narrative, documentary, experimental, and animated works. Highlights of this year’s program include Academy Award shortlisted Kush; Sundance award winner Love.Love.Love; and the world premiere of acclaimed director Umesh Kulkarni’s The Fly.

  • India’s Qissa to compete at Vesoul Filmfest in France

    India’s Qissa to compete at Vesoul Filmfest in France

    NEW DELHI: The Indian film Qissa by Anup Singh, which has already won accolades on the international festival circuit, will one of the nine Asian films in competition at the 20th Festival International des Cinémas d’Asie.

     

    The Cinemas d’Asie which is a specific festival for developing film industries in Asia will be held from 11 to 18 February in Vesoul in France next month.

     

    There are two films from Japan, both receiving their European premiere, and one each from China, India, Iran, Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and Turkey in the Festival. Five of these nine films were also screened at last year’s Busan International Film Festival in South Korea.

     

    Qissa was also the opening film of the 43rd International Film Festival at Rotterdam from 22 January to 2 February and this marked the European premiere of the film. It won the Audience Award at that Festival. 

     

    The award comprising Euro 10,000 (INR 9 Lakh Approx) is given to the most voted film supported by the Hubert Bals Fund.

    Qissa which received the Hubert Bals Fund for Script & Project Development in 2004, was made with further support from the Netherlands Film Fund, and was co-produced by Dutch company Augustus Film.

     

    Set in post-colonial India, the film stars Irrfan Khan as a Sikh who has fled his village to escape ethnic cleansing at the time of partition who tries to start a new life for his family.

     

    The choice of opening slot for the drama is part of the 25th anniversary celebration of the festival’s Hubert Bals Fund, which had supported the Indian film’s script development ten years ago.

     

    The festival will also host a retrospective, Mysterious Objects: 25 Years of Hubert Bals Fund, including a screening of the fund’s first recipient, Chen Kaige’s Life on a String (1991).

     

    Qissa is represented internationally by Germany’s The Match Factory GmbH. The film had its North American and Asian premieres at the Toronto International Film Festivaland Busan International Film Festival respectively.

     

    Earlier, the film added one more feather in its cap when actor Tillotama Shome won the Best Actress award in the New Horizons competition at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival.

    In Qissa, Shome plays the youngest daughter of Umber Singh (Irrfan Khan) who decides to raise her as a boy.

     

    Shome made her screen debut with Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding in 2001 and went on to play roles in Florian Gallenberger’s Shadows of Time and Dibakar Banerjee’s Shanghai.

     

    Qissa earlier won the Silver Gateway Award in India Gold competition at the 15thMumbai Film Festival  and the NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) Award for Best Asian Film at the 38th Toronto International Film Festival where it had its premiere.

     

    Set amidst the ethnic cleansing and general chaos that accompanied India’s partition in 1947, this sweeping drama stars Irrfan Khan as a Sikh attempting to forge a new life for his family while keeping their true identities a secret from their community.

     

    Beautiful, timeless, and touching the deepest of human impulses, Qissa carries the spirit of a great folk tale. Although it’s set in a particular time and place — the Punjab region that straddles India and Pakistan in the years immediately after partition — it is both deeper and broader than any one moment. As this eerie family drama progresses, it cuts to the heart of eternal desires for honour, empathy, and love.

     

    “Qissa” is originally an Arabic word meaning folk tale. Both the word and the idea migrated from the Gulf into the Punjab, still connected by the ancient oral narratives handed down in communal settings. Working within this tradition, director Anup Singh gives his film both the grand themes and elemental emotions of classic storytelling. As Umber’s daughter is raised as a boy, the characters are propelled with greater and greater urgency towards their inevitable fates.