Out of 500 applicants, eight Indian screenwriters and their feature films have been selected for the second annual Mumbai Mantra-Sundance Institute screenwriters lab here.
This year's screenwriting fellows, selected from submissions from around the world, are: Sarthak Dasgupta "The Music Teacher", Pratim D Gupta "Ink", Nitin Kakkar "Black Freedom", Abhijit Mazumdar "Delirium", Terrie Samundra "Betamax', Renuka Shahane "Tribhanga", Kavanjit Singh "Television" and Neha Sinha "Forgiven".
The screenwriters will be mentored by a distinguished group of established screenwriters and directors serving as creative advisors that include famous names like Bill Wheeler, the writer of Mira Nair's upcoming film "The Reluctant Fundamentalist", "Maria Full of Grace" director Joshua Marston, "The Warrior" director Asif Kapadia.
The other big names are: Habib Faisal of "Do Dooni Chaar" and "Ishaqzaade" fame, Sabrina Dhawan, the writer of "Monsoon Wedding", Anjum Rajabali of "Rajneeti", and "Aaraakshan" fame, Marti Noxon "Mad Men" and "Glee", Carlos Cuaron "Y Tu Mama Tambien" and Malia Scotch-Marmo of "Hook".
Inaugurating the annual screenwriting lab, Mumbai Mantra Chairman, Rohit Khattar said, "We welcome to the lab the 9 remarkably talented screenwriters and directors who are sparing their valuable time to guide the screenwriting fellows. We congratulate the 8 screenwriting fellows selected for the second Mumbai Mantra-Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab and look forward to their next films with great anticipation."
The Mumbai Mantra-Sundance Institute screenwriters lab runs from March 10 to 15.
The inaugural event yesterday was attended by celebrities like Anil Kapoor, Sharmila Tagore, Irrfan Khan, Rahul Bose, Siddharath Basu, Meeta Vashishtha, Sanjay Suri, Onir, Swara Bhaskar, Sushma Reddy, Sridhar Raghavan, Tanuja Chandra and Sidharath Kak among others.
