Film Bazaar 2017 announces its official selection of projects for its main segment, the Co-Production Market, held between 20 – 24 November in Goa.

This year, 18 projects have been selected to participate in the Market.

Aamis (Voracious) | Assamese | India
Director: Bhaskar Hazarika’s directorial debut film Kothanodi premiered at Busan International Film
Festival in 2015 and won the Asian Cinema Fund’s Post Production Award. Kothanodi travelled to many international festivals and also won Best feature Film in Assamese at the 63rd National Film Awards.

Badhonhin (Free) | Bengali | Bangladesh
Director: Taneem Rahman has made two feature films titled Aadi and Shopnobari (2016). He introduced the use of visual effects in television dramas of Bangladesh and created dialogue based musical stories in the music video industry. He has directed several TV Fictions and documentaries

Chowsang On (The Little Monk) | Thai | India
Director & Producer: Nang Tanvi Manpoong is a filmmaker from Arunachal Pradesh, India. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Theatre and Performing Arts from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her first feature film, 1962 My Country Land was co-written by her. She was also involved in the creative development, finance and PR management of the project.

Distant Teardrop | English | India
Director: Padhmakumar Narasimhamurthy’s first feature film A Billion Colour Story opened at Busan in
the competition section and has won several awards at prestigious international film festivals all over
the world. A poet and a photographer, Padhmakumar is also a well-known professional in the advertising industry.

Holy Fire | Hindi | India
Director & Producer: Miransha Naik, Thin Air Productions
Miransha Naik’s first feature film Juze premiered in Hong Kong International Film Festival 2016, and
was part of the Film Bazaar Work-in-Progress Lab 2015. He began working as a writer at Gitanjali Creations, a Mumbai-based production house before making short films under his own banner, Thin Air
Productions. In 2016, Holy Fire was selected for Three Rivers Residency in Italy.

Laila Aur Satt Geet (The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs) | Pahadi | India
Director: Pushpendra Singh’s directorial debut feature film Lajwanti premiered at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival in the Forum section and his second feature Ashwatthama premiered in the
Competition section at Busan International Film Festival 2017. Pushpendra is an alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune.

A Lottery Ticket | Hindi | India
Director: Sagarika Banik started her career as an assistant director working in films, documentaries,
television series and commercials. She has written and directed several short films and documentaries.
Her short films We and Stuck in Traffic have been screened at several film festivals. A Lottery
Ticket was part of the Film Bazaar Children’s Screenwriters’ Lab 2015.

Mogulmari Tales | Bengali | India
Director & Producer: Prantik Basu is an Indian filmmaker and visual artist. An alumnus of the FTII,
Pune, his latest film, Sakhisona (2016) won the Tiger Award for Short Films at the 46th Rotterdam International Film Festival. His other works, Makara (2013) and 1,2 (2011) have been screened at various film festivals including Oberhausen, Rome and BFI London Film Festival.

Mukti (The Gift) | Bengali, Hindi | India
Director: Tamal Sen’s graduation film Still Voices at Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute was screened at various international festivals. Since 2011 he has worked in the advertisement film industry in Mumbai as a visual consultant on projects, and director of commercials. The Gift was selected for the NFDC Screenwriters’ Lab 2016.

Nasir | Tamil | India
Director: Arun Karthick is an independent filmmaker based in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Self-taught,
he began producing and directing short films at the age of seventeen. He finished his debut feature
Sivapuranam (The Strange Case of Shiva) with a ‘Gap Financing award’ at Film Bazaar 2014. The film
premiered in the Bright Future section of International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2016. His second feature Nasir has received the Hubert Bals Fund for script development.

Ommi | Bengali, English | Bangladesh
Director: Amit Ashraf’s directorial debut film Udhao premiered at the Goteborg International Film Festival and went on to win several awards at other festivals across the globe.He has also produced a sci-fi teledrama and a super-heroine series Kali, which has gained a cult following. He is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch Film School.

Omniyam | Hindi | India
Director: Kamal Swaroop is the screenwriter and director of the path breaking film Om-Dar-B-Dar
(1988). He has received the President’s award and Filmfare Award, and has also worked in television
and radio. He has directed The Battle of Benaras (2014) (produced by Medient), Tracing Phalke (2015), (produced by Films Division of India), Pushkar Puran (2016) and Atul (2016) which is based on the world-renowned Dadaist artist Atul Dodiya.

Permanent Resident | English, Hindi, Punjabi | Canada, India
Directors: Satinder Kassoana is a Canada based Indian director, actor, and filmmaker who is interested
in telling multicultural and diversity-oriented stories. He has made the short films Bonjour Ji (2015) and
Don’t Walk Among the Dead (2016), which won the ‘Story hive’ script contest as well as a successful
Kickstarter campaign.

Pina Vaasam (Scent of a dead body) | Tamil | Sri Lanka
Director: Ilango Ramanathan’s short film, Silent Tears has travelled to 27 International Festivals, and
won 19 Awards. A graduate from the Rockport College USA, he has participated in Asian Film Academy and Berlinale Talents. He has taught filmmaking at the University of Kelaniya and has been in the jury panel at Colombo International Film Festival. He has directed several social awareness commercials for child abuse, autism, and heart and cancer awareness for organizations like Unicef.

Postman | Dari | Afghanistan
Director: Siddiq Barmak is an award winning Afghan director. His debut feature Osama (2003) won
the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and was screened at festivals across the world. He
directed Opium War (2008) and has been on juries for many festivals.

Spirogyra | Malayalam | India
Director: Abhilash Vijayan completed Diploma in Direction and Screenplay Writing from FTII, Pune. His
short film Dwand (The Dual) was in competition at 20 international film festivals, and won 4 international and 24 awards at national competitions. He was selected for an International Exchange Program at La Femis Film School in Paris. That Elephant from the Bridge premiered at Dok- Leipzig and Chaver at International Student Film Festival, Beijing. The screenplay of Spirogyra was selected for NFDC Screenwriters’ Lab 2016.

The Whole-Timers | Nepali | Nepal
Director (s): Pooja Gurung and Bibhusan Basnet’s first short film The Contagious Apparitions of Dambarey Dendrite (2013) was selected at the Abu Dhabi Film Festivals among others. Dadyaa, their second short film, premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was screened at the Toronto Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival where it won the Award for Best Cinematography. The Whole-Timers was selected at the Atelier of the Cinéfondation of the Cannes Film Festival in 2016.

Uljhan (The Knot) | Hindi | India, USA
Director: Ashish Pant’s experimental feature film Byron Jones is being released by the global VoD platform Tao-Films. His latest short film Hi I am Sam has recently played at several festivals across the world. Ashish has worked as an Assistant Director with several directors in New York. Currently Ashish is a faculty member at Tom Todoroff Acting Conservatory in New York.