Israel, U.S., U.K., Germany, Bangladesh Projects Selected at India’s Film Bazaar Co-Production Market

Naman Ramachandran
·3 min read

India’s Film Bazaar, South Asia’s largest film market, has selected a range of projects from around the world for its annual co-production market.

The 20 selected projects are from 11 countries, most are already structured as co-productions, and they are all South Asian-themed. From Israel, the Hebrew-language “Raju” by Dror Sabo (“Dead End”), will be produced by Lee Yardeni for MY TV Productions (“Nevelot”). Rafael Kapelinski, director of Berlinale winner “Butterfly Kisses,” is at the market with English, German and Hindi-language Germany-India-France-Poland-U.K. co-production “The Distant Near,” produced by Katharina Suckale for Bombay Berlin Film Production (“Loev”).

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Hindi-language Germany-Luxembourg-France co-production “Kohinoor,” by Udita Bhargava (Berlinale selection “Dust”), will be produced by Martin Lehwald for Schiwago Film (Berlinale winner “Styx”). Fresh off Busan’s Asian Project Market, feature debutant Aakash Chhabra’s Hindi-language “I’ll Smile in September” will be produced by Sanjay Gulati for India’s Crawling Angel Films and Fran Borgia for Singapore’s Akanga Film Asia.

Another feature debutant, Bangladesh’s Golam Muntakim Fahim, has Bengali-language “Khekshiyal” (“The Jackal”), being produced by Rezwan Shahriar Sumit (“The Salt in Our Waters”) for mypixelstory, in the market. Also from Bangladesh is Maksud Hossain’s Bengali-language “Raya’s Wedding,” to be produced by Maksud, Barkat and Trilora Hossain for Fusion Pictures.

Sachin Dheeraj Mudigonda (“Testimony of Ana”) directs Telugu- and English-language “Mouna” Tharangam” (“A Silent Wave”), produced by Praveena Paruchuri (“C/o Kanchrapalem”) for Paruchuri Vijaya Praveena Arts and Janani Vijayanathan for Kinostreet (“Testimony of Ana”). Producer Jitendra Mishra (“The Last Color”) will debut as a director with Odia-language India-U.K. project “Baghuni” (“Dance Like a Tiger”) and will be produced by Partha Sarathi Panda for Glocal Films U.K. Limited.

From Sri Lanka, director Ilango Ramanathan and producer Hiranya Perera of Silent Frames Productions, who previously teamed on 2023 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival selection “Tentigo,” are collaborating again on Sinhala- and Tamil-language “Rabbit Hole.”

As always, there are projects aplenty from India. These include “Bombay Rose” filmmaker Gitanjali Rao’s Hindi-language “Lost and Found” from Ranjan Singh of Good Bad Films; “WOMB – Women of My Billion” director Ajitesh Sharma’s Hindi-language “Bhopal Boys” from Monisha Thyagarajan at Awedacious Originals (Tokyo selection “Madina”); and “Tendlya” filmmaker Nachiket Waikar’s Marathi-language “Aaath” (“The Eight”) from Shwetaabh Singh (“Eeb Allay Oo!)” for NaMa Productions and Tarun Sharma for OneShot Films.

Indian projects also include Gujarati-language “Bhai Band” (“One Two Three Mic Check”), directed and produced by Manish Saini (“Dhh”) for Amdavad Films; Phulawa Khamkar’s Marathi-language “Fashigate,” produced by Amar Khamkar for Golden Lily Entertainment; and Upamanyu Bhattacharyya’s Hindi- and Gujarati-language “Heirloom,” produced by Shubham Karna and Arya. A. Menon for Odd & Even Pictures.

Hindi-language “In Law” by Indo-Ukranian filmmaker Dar Gai (Busan selection ““Namdev Bhau in Search of Silence”) is produced by Dheer Momaya and Pranit Sahni for Jugaad Motion Pictures (“Last Film Show”); Kannada-language “Kaalakoota” (“Toxic Nectar”) by Abhaya Simha (“Paddayi”) is produced by Vachan Shetty; Hindi-language “Mog Asundi” (“Let There be Love”) by Bhaskar Hazarika (Tribeca selection “Aamis”) is produced by Ashwini Sidwani (“The Silence”) for SMR Entertainment; English-, Malayalam- and Hindi-language “The Priest and the Prostitute” is produced and directed by Arunaraje Patil (“Rihaee”) for Gaahimedia; and Hindi-language “A Love Supreme” by Dev Benegal (Berlinale selection “Road, Movie”) is produced by Neeraj Jain and Maya Patel for min(d) studio.

The Film Bazaar (Nov. 20-24) is operated by India’s National Film Development Corporation (NFDC).

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