Theatrical-on-demand release.
AB Wire
NEW YORK: The arranged marriage feature documentary ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It?’ will have a US theatrical-on-demand release in May thru Gathr.
Gathr Films’ new distribution model allows a film’s audience the opportunity to take action and directly participate in bringing the film to their community. Theatrical-on-demand crowd sourced distribution empowers audiences to pull films to their local theaters by aggregating their interest and pre-ordering tickets in advance.
“Rohena’s film touches communities all across the country and we feel that theatrical-on-demand is essential to engage audiences no matter where they are,” stated Jay Hogan, Director of Marketing and Outreach, Gathr.
The documentary is an unscripted micro-budget feature documentary that uses humor to expose subtle insidious conflicts at play in Indian society. What makes well-traveled urban Indians, who have freedom and privilege, choose arranged marriages over love?
The film, which premiered to packed houses at the Mumbai Film Festival, is an amusing portrayal of young urban upper class Indians coming to terms with expectations about love, marriage, happiness and tradition.
The individuals featured in the film grapple with decisions about how and whom to marry, at once juggling societal and parental desires with their own. Other interviews with parents, marriage brokers and matchmakers, paint a larger picture of a changing society in which ideas about matrimony are themselves being transformed and challenged by new values and desires. Ultimately, the film provides a touching profile of the individuals whose lives and decisions are caught up in these changes.
The film is director Rohena Gera’s most recent project in her almost 20 year career in television and film. The feature documentary went from a Mumbai Film Festival premiere in 2013 to an independent release in Pune through Inox cinemas, and has an upcoming 5-city release in India.
Gera has also independently produced and directed a non-profit campaign called ‘Stop the Hatred’ to fight communalism. This featured 16 national Indian icons, including Amitabh Bachchan, Zakir Husain, Aamir Khan, Ashutosh Gowariker, Sachin Tendulkar and various others. Stop the Hatred was screened in 240 cinemas nationwide and on all national television channels in India.
“I am thrilled to be back in the US where I studied, and more importantly where I learned to ask questions. I remember people at Stanford asking me whether I would have an arranged marriage, and at the time I thought it was a ridiculous question, but years later I came back to it… I started to wonder whether people who opted for “arranged love” had it figured out! I am not a practical person but I could see the logic: marriages are expected to last a lifetime so people think why not base it on factors more measurable than love?”, said Gera in a statement.
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I AM KEEN TO INTERVIEW ROHENA. HOW DO I GENT IN TOUCH WITH YOU ROHENA.
JOURNALIST MONA PEREIRA
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