Amit Gupta’s ‘Jadoo’ will be closing night film.
By The American Bazaar Staff
BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA: The full line-up for the 12th Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) has been revealed, and features a slew of noteworthy recent films either made in or about the Indian subcontinent and its people.
The festival will open with a screening of the film Sold, directed by Oscar-winner Jeffrey D. Brown and co-produced by Oscar-winner Emma Thompson. The film is an adaptation of the novel of the same name, written by Patricia McCormick, which is about “a vivid, harrowing, and inspiring story of a young girl’s resilience in the face of unspeakable cruelty.” The film stars Indian-origin actors Susmita Mukherjee, Seema Biswas, Tillotama Shome, as well as Gillian Anderson (“The X-Files”) and David Arquette (Scream).
The Closing Night film of the IFFLA will be Jadoo (“Magic”), a film by writer/director Amit Gupta. Starring Kulvinder Ghir, Amara Karan, and Tom Mison, the film is described as a “culinary comedy” set in Leicester, England, in which a young Indian woman and an English man, and must now get both her father and uncle, who have long been at each other throats over their competing restaurant businesses, to come together and help them put together a dream wedding.
Other notable features set to screen at the IFFLA include the Marathi film Fandry, the Geetu Mohandas film Liar’s Dice, and Anurag Kashyap’s Ugly, all of which are also screening at the New York Indian Film Festival in May. Adding to the IFFLA line-up are several other pictures, most notably Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost, which stars Irrfan Khan, one of the few Indian actors known to both desi and American audiences.
Four documentary films and 15 short films have also been announced as part of the lineup. Two Bollywood films will also be screened at the festival: Bombay Talkies – an anthology film starring Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukerji, and Katrina Kaif, and directed by Karan Johar and Farah Khan, among others – and Monsoon Shootout, a film by Amit Kumar starring Vijay Varma and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
The full lineup for this year’s IFFLA can be viewed below:
OPENING NIGHT GALA
SOLD
Los Angeles Premiere
USA/2014/97min
Director: Jeffrey D. Brown
Producer: Jane Charles
Executive Producer: Emma Thompson
Screenwriters: Joseph Kwong, Jeffrey D. Brown
Composer: John McDowell, Sammy Chand, Salim & Sulaiman Merchant
Cast: Susmita Mukherjee, Seema Biswas, Tillotama Shome, Niyar Saikia, Priyanka Bose, Ankur Vikal, Parambrata Chatterjee, Gillian Anderson, David Arquette
CLOSING NIGHT
JADOO
Los Angeles Premiere
UK/2013/84 mins
Director: Amit Gupta
Producers: Amanda Faber, Isabelle Georgeaux, Richard Holmes, Nikki Parrott
Screenwriter: Amit Gupta
Composer: Stephen Warbeck
Cast: Kulvinder Ghir, Amara Karan, Harish Patel, Tom Mison, Madhur Jaffrey
FEATURE FILMS
BEFORE MY EYES (ANKHON DEKHI)
Los Angeles Premiere
India/2013/107min
Director: Rajat KapoorProducer: Manish Mundra
Screenwriter: Rajat Kapoor
Cast: Sanjay Sanjay Mishra, Seema Pahwa, Rajat Kapoor, Taranjeet, Maya Sarao
BRAHMIN BULLS
Los Angeles Premiere
USA/96min/2013
Director: Mahesh Pailoor
Producer: Yoshinobu Tsuji
Screenwriters: Anu Pradhan, Mahesh Pailoor
Cast: Sendhil Ramamurthy, Roshan Seth, Mary Steenburgen, Justin Bartha, Cassidy Freeman, Monica Raymund, Michael Lerner
FANDRY
North American Premiere
India/2013/103min
Director: Nagraj Manjule
Producers: Vivek Kajaria, Nilesh Navalakha
Screenwriter: Nagraj Manjule
Cast: Kishor Kadam, Chhaya Kadam, Somnath Awghade, Suraj Pawar, Rajshree Kharat, Sakshi Vyavhare, Aishvarya Shinde, Nagraj Manjule
HANK AND ASHA
Los Angeles Premiere
USA/2013/73min
Director: James E. Duff
Producers: James E. Duff, Julia Morrison
Screenwriters: James E. Duff, Julia Morrison
Cast: Mahira Kakkar, Andrew Pastides
LIAR’S DICE
Los Angeles Premiere
India/2013/104min
Director: Geetu Mohandas
Producers: Alan McAlex, Ajay G. Rai
Screenwriter: Geetu Mohandas
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Geetanjali Thapa, Manya Gupta
PHORING
North American Premiere
India/2013/128min
Director: Indranil Roychowdhury
Producers: Anasua Roychowdury, Sugata Bal
Screenwriters: Indranil Roychowdhury, Sugata Sinha
Cast: Akash Adhikary, Sohini Sarkar, Sourav Basak, Ritwick Charaborty, Shankar Debnath, Senjuti Roymukherjee
QISSA: THE TALE OF A LONELY GHOST (2013)
Los Angeles Premiere
Germany-India-Netherlands/2013/109min
Director: Anup Singh
Producers: Bero Beyer, Johannes Rexin, Bettina Brokemper, Thierry Lenouvel
Screenwriters: Anup Singh, Madhuja Mukherjee
Cast: Irrfan Khan, Tisca Chopra, Tillotama Shome, Rasika Dugal
SIDDHARTH
Los Angeles Premiere
Canada-India/2013/96min
Director: Richie Mehta
Producers: David Miller, Steven N. Bray
Screenwriter: Richie Mehta
Cast: Rajesh Tailang, Tannishtha Chatterjee
UGLY
North American Premiere
India/2013/128mins/DCP
Director: Anurag Kashyap
Writer: Anurag Kashyap
Producers: Vikas Bahl, Madhu Mantena, Vikramaditya Motwane, Vivek Rangachari, Arun
Rangachari
Cast: Rahul Bhatt, Ronit Roy, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Anshika Shrivastava
WRITERS (SULEMANI KEEDA)
North American Premiere
India/2013/90min
Director: Amit V Masurkar
Writer: Amit V Masurkar
Producer: Datta Dave
Cast: Naveen Kasturia, Mayank Tewari, Aditi Vasudev and Karan Mirchandani
DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
THE AUCTION HOUSE: A TALE OF TWO BROTHERS
World Premiere
UK/2014/85min
Director: Ed Owles
Producers: Ed Owles, Giovanna Stopponi
FAITH CONNECTIONS
Los Angeles Premiere
France-India/2013/115min/DCP
Director: Pan Nalin
Producers: Raphaël Berdugo, Gaurav Dhingra, Pan Nalin, Virginie Lacombe
POWERLESS (KATIYABAAZ)
Los Angeles Premiere
India/2013/82min
Directors: Fahad Mustafa and Deepti Kakkar
Producers: Fahad Mustafa, Deepti Kakkar, Judy Tam, Leopold Koegler
Screenwriter: Fahad Mustafa
SHEPHERDS OF PARADISE
U.S. Premiere
India/2013/50min
Director/Producer/Screenwriter/Cinematographer/Editor: Raja Shabir Khan
Composer: Bilal Iran
BOLLYWOOD BY NIGHT
BOMBAY TALKIES
North American Premiere
India/117min/2013
Directors: Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap
Producers: Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar, Guneet Monga
Screenwriters: Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti, Anurag Kashyap
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan , Rani Mukerji, Katrina Kaif, Randeep Hooda, Saqib Saleem, Nawazuddin Siddiqui
MONSOON SHOOTOUT
Los Angeles Premiere
India-UK-Netherlands/2013/88min
Director: Amit Kumar
Producers: Trevor Ingman, Guneet Monga, Martijn De Grunt
Screenwriter: Amit Kumar
Cast: Vijay Varma, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Geetanjali Thapa
SHORTS
AARTI
Shorts Program 2
WORLD PREMIERE
USA/2013/4min
Director: David Walter Lech
Producer: Terrie Samundra
ALCHEMY
Shorts Program 2
U.S. Premiere
India/2013/5min
Directors: Pranay Patwardhan, Shivangi Ranawat, Janmeet Singh
Producer: Pritesh Varia
BHIWANI JUNCTION
Shorts Program 1
Los Angeles Premiere
USA/2013/18min
Director: Abhi Singh
Producer: Abhi Singh
BLACK ROCK (KAATAL)
Shorts Program 1
U.S. Premiere
India/2012/22min
Director: Vikrant Pawar
Producer: Film and Television Institute of India
THE FLY (MAKHI)
Shorts Program 2
World Premiere
India/2013/31min
Director: Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni
Producer: Film and Television Institute of India
BELOVED (HUMSAFAR)
Shorts Program 2
U.S. Premiere
India/2012/6min
Directors/Writers: Swapnil Awate, Laura Erbacher
Producer: DSK Supinfocom
JAYA
Shorts Program 2
USA/2013/19min
Director: Puja Maewal
Producer: Puja Maewal
KUSH
Shorts Program 1
India/2013/25min
Director: Shubhashish Bhutiani
Producer: Shubhashish Bhutiani
LITTLE GYPSY (KACHHO GADULO)
Shorts Program 1
Los Angeles Premiere
India/2012/6min
Directors: Saptesh Chaubal, Pranay Patwardhan, Shivangi Ranawat
Producer: D.S.K. Supinfocom
LOVE.LOVE.LOVE.
Shorts Program 2
Los Angeles Premiere
Russian Federation/2013/12min
Director: Sandhya Daisy Sundaram
Producers: Tanya Petrik, Guillaume Protsenko
OUTPOST
Shorts Program 1
U.S. Premiere
India-USA/2013/17min
Director: Shiva Shankar Bajpai
Producer: Aditi Anand
PRESENCE
Shorts Program 2
U.S. Premiere
India/2012/17min
Directors: Ekta Mittal, Yashaswini Raghunandan
Producers: Ekta Mittal, Yashaswini Raghunandan
SKIN DEEP
Screens with WRITERS
U.S. Premiere
India/2013/20min
Director: Hardik Mehta
Producers: Devang Bhavsar, Niraj Kothari
SMALL YELLOW FIELD (TAU SERU)
Shorts Program 1
Los Angeles Premiere
Australia-India/2013/8min
Director: Rodd Rathjen
Producer: Rodd Rathjen
THE PUPPET (TAMAASH)
Screens with SHEPHERDS OF PARADISE
Los Angeles Premiere
India/2013/32min
Directors: Devanshu Singh, Satyanshu Singh
Producers: Datta Dave, Chaitanya Hegde, Omar Nissar Paul, Devanshu Singh, Satyanshu Singh
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