Indie directors to train lens on filmmaking fundas

MUMBAI: For filmmaker Ritesh Batra, it was a breeze to shoot in Bandra. His lead Saajan Fernandes, an intense widower played by Irrfan Khan in ‘Lunchbox’, is a Bandra boy. Fernandes’ rundown house in Ranwar village and pensive auto trips through the bylanes added to the pathos in this unlikely love story. For, Bandra is also Batra’s neighbourhood. “It is home and a lot of the scenes came from my growing up years.It would be wonderful to talk to Bandra-ites about cinema,” says Batra, who will kick off the first session of ‘Breaking Ground: Masterclass with Directors’ on November 22 at the Times Celebrate Branda Festival.
The nine-day cultural cornucopia has a serious movie angle. “The sessions are about how the choices of a new breed of professionals are changing cinema. The speakers are those who don’t subscribe to formulas,” says Sarita Vijayan, curator, films.
The first session will feature Batra, whose unique collaboration with a clutch of producers resulted in an award-winning and heart-warming love story. Another will have women professionals like ‘English Vinglish’ director Gauri Shinde, filmmaker-writer Paromita Vohra and movie still photographer Ishika Motwane. “The industry slots women but these are people who have created their own identity,” says Vijayan. There will also be a session featuring women with “atypical” jobs. Gitika Aggarwal, Guneet Monga, Namrata Rao and Nupur Asthana will show how cutting-edge editing and producing can be done.
Pioneer-directors Anurag Kashyap and Rajat Kapoor, and hit-makers Vikas Bahl and Farhan Akhtar will be there too. CinePlay, a venture that seeks to document iconic plays, will screen the cinematic version of the play ‘Bombay Talkies On That Day’. The series will end with ‘Ship of Theseus’ director Anand Gandhi, who is looking forward to meeting people at Bandra. “These gatherings help in exchange of ideas and enriches me as a filmmaker,” says Gandhi.