Bhuvan Lall: Indian cinema's hot

Indian film festivals are becoming ubiquitous

It's 4 am in Los Angeles and the caller, who speaks with a thick European accent, wants the telephone number of film production company Mukta Arts.

The objective of the call, it turns out, is to book Subhash Ghai's feature film, "Kisna," which is being produced, as the opening film for an international film festival in Europe.

Indian filmmakers have for long dominated the film festival circuits. For the last few years there has been an increasing amount of interest in popular Indian cinema. The number of film festivals dedicated to Indian films are growing by the day.

From April 14 to 18, 2004, the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) will highlight several films from India. The festival is scheduled to take place at ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood, and will open with Rituparno Ghosh's "Choker Bali."

Screenings, seminars, panel discussions and an opportunity for filmmakers to indulge in one-on-one sessions with top players of the North American film industry are among the festival's main features. IFFLA 2004 will also see the first-ever annual gala film tribute to the career of Indian actress Kiron Kher.

The UCLA Film and Television Archive joins the IFFLA 2004 festival in co-presenting "Bombay Melody," a celebration of the great song-and-dance tradition of India's popular cinema. "Bombay Melody" begins on April 18 with "Mughal E Azam," the 1960 black-and-white classic of forbidden royal romance.

James Bridges Theater on the UCLA campus will be the site for the evening screenings of contemporary Indian favourites. "We're so pleased with the outstanding assortment of features, documentaries and shorts presented in this year's festival," says IFFLA festival director Christina Marouda.

"Our programming team has selected a range of entertaining, thought-provoking and unique films, including the Los Angeles premieres of some of the best examples of recent Indian cinema."

In its second year, IFFLA has already introduced high quality Indian films to the Los Angeles community, providing an excellent platform for film distribution and network opportunities for film professionals. With special filmmaker appearances and sold-out programmes, the last edition saw more than 6,000 moviegoers attending.

These are not the only film festivals that focus on Indian films. At the third edition of the River to River Florence Film Festival, the only festival in Europe totally devoted to films from or about India, filmmaker Manish Jha presented his first feature "Matrubhoomi "� A Nation Without Women." Among the other events were two lectures on Hindi cinema at the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the University of Rome.

The River to River Florence Indian Film Festival was held for the first time in Italy in October, 2001. Says the organiser, Andrea Toscani: "The festival wants to point the spotlight on directors who depict stories of great topical interest in a visually innovative style, and who find themselves in the grinder of the commercial industry of Bollywood."

"Filmi "� the South Asian Film Festival" was founded by the Toronto-based Mohit Rajhans and Dinesh Sachdev in 1999, with the goal of igniting a movement among south Asians in North America. The festival opened on August 7, 2003 at The Royal Ontario Museum with the Canadian premiere of 'American Chai'.

The fourth annual edition of the film festival (August 7-10) presented a special combination of feature films, shorts and documentaries "� showcasing local talent, as well as artists from around the world.

The Filmi 2003 line-up also had the Canadian theatrical premiere of "Agni Varsha" by Arjun Sajnani and "Trade Offs," a movie by New Delhi-born film director Vikram Yashpal. The entire cast from the film "Trade Offs" flew in from California for the world premiere of their film.

"We have grown in leaps and bounds since we started this movement four years ago. Whether you look at the number of film submissions or audience attendance or membership numbers, our growth "� and our learning curve "� has been exponential," says Dinesh Sachdev, co-founder and managing director of Filmi South Asian Film Festival.

These niche Indian film festivals are recognising the growing awareness among global audiences of Indian cinema and are building on hits such as "Bend it Like Beckham." They are also introducing diverse audiences to the complete range of south Asian cinema.

Says Toscani of River to River Florence Film Festival: "With its colours and music, Bollywood represents a multi-faceted and kitsch world, where the actors are real stars portrayed every day on the front pages of the newspapers, and with which the audience identifies itself."

The attraction of the largest film industry in the world has just begun to unravel.

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Festival calendar

• April 14 to 18, 2004: The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) will highlight 24 films, 10 features and 14 documentaries from India at ArcLight Cinemas, a state-of-the-art facility in Hollywood
• April 18: The UCLA Film and Television Archive joins the IFFLA 2004 festival in co-presenting "Bombay Melody" at the James Bridges Theatre on the UCLA campus
• December 10 to 14, 2003: The third edition of the River to River Florence Film Festival, the only festival in Europe totally devoted to films from or about India, took place in Florence, Italy.
• November 5 to 9, 2003: The Indian Diaspora film festival, organised by the Indo-American Arts Council, in New York
• August 7, 2003: "Filmi "� the South Asian Film Festival," at The Royal Ontario Museum.

Lall is the president and CEO of LALL Entertainment, a company based in Los Angeles and New Delhi. He can be contacted at lallentertainment@hotmail.com