Global Flicks: Shobha Sant New CEO Of Creativeland Studios
Subhrajit Mitra - Facebook
Asia: Subhrajit Mitra’s Devi Chowdhurani has become the first Bengali-language film to secure official Indo-U.K. co-production status, according to Variety. The film is a period drama starring Prosenjit Chatterjee and Srabanti Chatterjee. Devi Chowdhurani is produced by Adited Motion Pictures (U.S./India) and LOK Arts Collective (U.K./India), with the U.K.’s HC Films and Moringa Studios as co-producers. The project is an adaptation of Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay’s 1884 novel. The film focuses on one of India’s first female freedom fighters. Devi Chowdhurani, now in post-production, is especially important for the Indian cinema industry, with global exposure essential to its growth. Lead actor Prosenjit Chatterjee said the move “will pave a new path for regional film industries” in India.
Creativeland Studios has hired Shobha Sant as its new CEO. Sant will lead Creativeland’s filmed entertainment division and oversee the talent business of AIG-India, the joint venture between Creativeland Studios and Artist International Group. The joint venture seeks to provide Indian talent with international opportunities while incorporating international talent with local Indian cinema. Sant, with over 30 years of experience in the film industry, most recently served as head of content alliances – films, at billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Studios. Prior to her role at Jio Studios, Sant held the CEO position at Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s company, Bhansali Productions for more than five years. During this time, she also served as a producer on the period epic Padmaavat. Creativeland Studios, a group company of Creativeland Worldwide Limited, has been “expanding its footprint in the entertainment space.” Sant is an important piece to achieving their international success. The company co-produced the documentary The Commandant’s Shadow, directed by Daniela Volker, which was acquired by Warner Bros. and HBO and is currently playing in U.S. theaters.
Marjan Khosravi - VCG
Middle East: Iranian filmmaker Marjan Khosravi premiered her first feature-length film, Requiem for a Tribe, at the Shanghai International Film Festival. Khosravi has won many awards across her career. Earlier this year, she won many awards at Hot Docs and Fribourg for her short documentary, Mrs. Iran’s Husband, and at Budapest for The Dream of a Horse. Requiem for a Tribe follows Hajar, a 55-year-old woman from southwestern Iran’s Bakhtiari tribe who is betrayed by her family and forced to abandon a nomadic lifestyle. The film incorporates issues of climate change, urbanization, and socioeconomics to emphasize the diluted traditional migratory activities of the tribe. Khosravi has an intimate knowledge of the Bakhtiari nomads because she is one of them. She was born in a Bakhtiari village and lived there until 2015 when her family moved to Tehran to continue the children’s studies. Her brother, Milad, is a producer for the film. Marjan and Milad’s mother became depressed after moving to Tehran, as she missed the nomadic lifestyle and living in the countryside. To cheer up her mother, Khosravi showed her videos of nomadic migrations. One of these was Anthony Howarth’s 1876 documentary on the Bakhtiaris named People of the Wind. Hajar Farmamarzi, one of the characters in the film, inspired Khosravi to make a documentary of her own. One ongoing issue with filmmaking was the “rapid spread of modernity in nomadic areas,” which resulted in a yearly decrease in the number of nomadic tribes. The tribes who did continue to migrate did so by vehicle rather than foot. As a result, Khosravi had to change the film’s editing several times over the years to “match the story and reality.” However, the outcome was a storyline that showcased how nomadic lifestyles change constantly and it depicts the true impact of modernization on the traditions.
