Shotguns and Saris – the Third Edition of the London INDIAN Film Festival Launches
London, United Kingdom, May 13, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Celebrating the burgeoning movement of alternative Indian cinema, the third annual London INDIAN Film Festival, will run from 20 June – 3 July. Supported by Film London and Western Union, the festival brings to UK audiences a selection of cutting edge films from some of India’s hottest independent talents. Going way beyond Bollywood, these are films that challenge, shock, generate debate and present a more realistic view of India today in all its colour and diversity. This year we are also broadening our horizons to include World Premieres of two UK Asian movies and films from neighbouring Asian countries.
Following the Opening Night UK Premiere screening of Gangs of Wasseypur by maverick Mumbai director Anurag Kashyap, produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, and starring Manoj Bajpai, the festival will go on to showcase the work of the new wave of independent South Asian and British Asian filmmakers, including a director only named as ‘Q’, Rajan Khosa and Srijit Mukherji, whose thrill a minute whodunit Baishey Shrabon (Seventh August) will close the festival on July 3.
The festival will stretch city wide, opening in the West End at the Cineworld Haymarket and continuing at Tate Modern, BFI Southbank, ICA, Nehru Centre, Watermans, Cineworld Trocadero, Wood Green, Wandsworth and O2.
The Festival covers a wide range of themes and issues - gun-toting action movies, the struggles of frustrated urban youth, twisted romance, Tamil gangsters in the heart of London, kite flying childhood rites of passage to a sari-clad drag queen extravaganza. Uniting these films is a new more assured Indian cool, experimenting with cinematic styles, sexual liberality, new technology and influenced by themes both East and West, which has helped new Indian cinema win favour with the young in-crowd in super cities like Mumbai and Bangalore as well as with connoisseurs of world cinema across the globe.
For the first time the festival joins forces with Tate Modern to curate a season of new Indian experimental film and video which will stretch understandings of the boundaries between film and art.
India is the largest film producing country in the world producing some 1,200 films a year, outstripping Hollywood. But apart from mainstream Bollywood, very few of these films are seen in the UK. Cary Rajinder Sawhney, Festival Director comments, “In addition to showing great movies, we also aim to help get these films talked about and screened more broadly in cinemas in the UK, in the same way that Iranian cinema has been. London of course has a huge Asian audience for these movies, but many non-Asian Brits would also like to find out more about the 1.2 billion strong India of today, and cinema is a great way to do this”.
London Indian Film Festival is supported by Film London’s Cultural Film Exhibition Fund through the National Lottery on behalf of the BFI.
For more information please contact:
Ashanti Omkar
E: ashanti@londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk
Images can be downloaded from: http://www.londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk/press.htm
An impressive range of partners are supporting London INDIAN Film Festival. These include Film London, Arts Council of England, British Film Institute, Cineworld Cinemas, Western Union, Incredible !ndia, BAFTA, Tate Modern, ICA, Grange Hotels, Skillset, The Nehru Centre, Watermans Arts Centre, BollySpice.com, Asiana.tv and Eastern Eye, amongst others.
The Satyajit Ray Foundation’s Short Film Competition has joined the Festival with the winning filmmaker receiving a £1,000 Award on 3 July at Cineworld, Haymarket.
All audiences at the festival will be encouraged to vote for this year’s Western Union Audience Award and the winning feature film will be announced at the close of the festival.
Tickets are currently on sale at the BFI and Watermans and sales will commence at Cineworld and other venues from 1st June. The rest of the programme is available at www.londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk
Further Notes on the 2012 programme
West Bengal’s most controversial director ‘Q’ offers a shockingly 21st Century vision of Kolkata with GANDU, a teenager who lives with his sex worker mother in a dingy Kolkata flat. Q and his crew will present Gandu Circus, a rap music performance at BFI Southbank.
The World Premiere of TOOTING BROADWAY at Cineworld Haymarket 22 June. The film is set in the underbelly of urban South London where Afro-Caribbean and Sri Lankan Tamil gangs clash over territory. From Birmingham, comes ARJUN & ALISON. When their best friend is the victim of a racist murder, Alison and Arjun plot their revenge on Gordon, of the university’s controversial ‘English Society’.
Acclaimed actress Raima Sen brings the festival to a close with her Q&A after the UK Premiere of Bengali hit film BAISHEY SHRABON (SEVENTH AUGUST).
Following the Opening Night UK Premiere screening of Gangs of Wasseypur by maverick Mumbai director Anurag Kashyap, produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, and starring Manoj Bajpai, the festival will go on to showcase the work of the new wave of independent South Asian and British Asian filmmakers, including a director only named as ‘Q’, Rajan Khosa and Srijit Mukherji, whose thrill a minute whodunit Baishey Shrabon (Seventh August) will close the festival on July 3.
The festival will stretch city wide, opening in the West End at the Cineworld Haymarket and continuing at Tate Modern, BFI Southbank, ICA, Nehru Centre, Watermans, Cineworld Trocadero, Wood Green, Wandsworth and O2.
The Festival covers a wide range of themes and issues - gun-toting action movies, the struggles of frustrated urban youth, twisted romance, Tamil gangsters in the heart of London, kite flying childhood rites of passage to a sari-clad drag queen extravaganza. Uniting these films is a new more assured Indian cool, experimenting with cinematic styles, sexual liberality, new technology and influenced by themes both East and West, which has helped new Indian cinema win favour with the young in-crowd in super cities like Mumbai and Bangalore as well as with connoisseurs of world cinema across the globe.
For the first time the festival joins forces with Tate Modern to curate a season of new Indian experimental film and video which will stretch understandings of the boundaries between film and art.
India is the largest film producing country in the world producing some 1,200 films a year, outstripping Hollywood. But apart from mainstream Bollywood, very few of these films are seen in the UK. Cary Rajinder Sawhney, Festival Director comments, “In addition to showing great movies, we also aim to help get these films talked about and screened more broadly in cinemas in the UK, in the same way that Iranian cinema has been. London of course has a huge Asian audience for these movies, but many non-Asian Brits would also like to find out more about the 1.2 billion strong India of today, and cinema is a great way to do this”.
London Indian Film Festival is supported by Film London’s Cultural Film Exhibition Fund through the National Lottery on behalf of the BFI.
For more information please contact:
Ashanti Omkar
E: ashanti@londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk
Images can be downloaded from: http://www.londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk/press.htm
An impressive range of partners are supporting London INDIAN Film Festival. These include Film London, Arts Council of England, British Film Institute, Cineworld Cinemas, Western Union, Incredible !ndia, BAFTA, Tate Modern, ICA, Grange Hotels, Skillset, The Nehru Centre, Watermans Arts Centre, BollySpice.com, Asiana.tv and Eastern Eye, amongst others.
The Satyajit Ray Foundation’s Short Film Competition has joined the Festival with the winning filmmaker receiving a £1,000 Award on 3 July at Cineworld, Haymarket.
All audiences at the festival will be encouraged to vote for this year’s Western Union Audience Award and the winning feature film will be announced at the close of the festival.
Tickets are currently on sale at the BFI and Watermans and sales will commence at Cineworld and other venues from 1st June. The rest of the programme is available at www.londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk
Further Notes on the 2012 programme
West Bengal’s most controversial director ‘Q’ offers a shockingly 21st Century vision of Kolkata with GANDU, a teenager who lives with his sex worker mother in a dingy Kolkata flat. Q and his crew will present Gandu Circus, a rap music performance at BFI Southbank.
The World Premiere of TOOTING BROADWAY at Cineworld Haymarket 22 June. The film is set in the underbelly of urban South London where Afro-Caribbean and Sri Lankan Tamil gangs clash over territory. From Birmingham, comes ARJUN & ALISON. When their best friend is the victim of a racist murder, Alison and Arjun plot their revenge on Gordon, of the university’s controversial ‘English Society’.
Acclaimed actress Raima Sen brings the festival to a close with her Q&A after the UK Premiere of Bengali hit film BAISHEY SHRABON (SEVENTH AUGUST).
Contact
London Indian Film Festival
Ashanti Omkar
00447776185711
www.londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk
Ashanti Omkar
00447776185711
www.londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk
Contact
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