My Son goes to Playschool

Hurray! My 16 months young Son, Ilann DOSHI, has just started to go the Playschool near our house in Juhu. The teachers started an hour per day and now he is at the play school for full 2 hours a day. He has learned to spot the star drawn by the teacher at school on his forearm! I bet, he is discovering the universe through the star! cheers! My Son!

Good Bye Loin!

I remember with melancholy, the time I spent with Manish Acharya at my office. He came to me on the recommendation of Poo Sayani to discuss the release of his film, Loins of Punjab. The success and release of Bheja Fry had aroused lot of interest in the mini-budget category of film-makers then. We discussed his plans of film-making in India since he just came back from USA. I got PVR on board to distribute Loins of Punjab. And, what a success, it was! Manish was overwhelmed with success! And, in turn got lot of attention which he truly deserved! Subsequently, we met at many social occasion and exchanged big hugs!

Cut to last Saturday, I read on BBM of our common friend, Siddharth Jain, that Manish Acharya id no more with us! I am still under shock and disbelief that he is not around us anymore, alive! I hear many complimentary views of Manish form others since then.

Manish, I will see Loins of Punjab again and remember you all the time when my mind takes me to you.

GoodBye M

French Cinema in India

I met with the some members of the French Film Delegation, thanks to Unifrance, at the Taj in Mumbai yesterday. Following the recent successes of the Hollywood studios in expanding the box office collection and market share in India (due to the regional language dubs), The French is considering to follow the suit! Unifrance is deliberating to dub the french films into multiple indian languages like Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, etc.

Better than this, I recommend them to just concentrate on selling remake rights of some of the vibrant French comedies for India! And, maybe organise the film festival of french comedies to start with.

French Cinema is the most wonderful cinema, overall!

Cheers to French Cinema.

Facebook leads into Jumo!

All the do-gooders of this wonderful world come together! Chris Hughes, co-Founder of Facebook has announced beta launch of new social network website for people with social consciousness and do-gooders! Cheers! Website is www.jumo.com

World will be a better place, I hope, with such thoughtful initiatives.

Ashutosh Gowariker

I fondly remember the time I spent with Ashutosh at Locarno when his film, Lagaan, played at the historical Piazza Grande with an audience of over 8,000! Since then, he made another great film, Swades, which remains to be one of my most favourite film. Splendid film with great moments in the film reminding you about the emotions evoked while watching great master's work like Ray and Ghatak!

I was at Locarno earlier this year in August. And, I saw a signature new film of Locarno film festival which played before the screening of the festival film. And, the world's greatest great were featured in this inspiring short. I saw Stanley Kubrick and Ashutosh Gowariker on the same page! I felt so good and I tried reaching Ashutosh on phone from Locarno. But, in vain. I asked Locarno guys to send me the DVD of this short and I have promised Ashutosh to give it to him on the eve of the release of his new film tomorrow, Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey.

Ashutosh called me this morning, to make sure that I was coming for the premiere of the film tonight! And, I will happily hand over the DVD of the Locarno short! I wish Ashutosh a great success and to his entire team including the most underrated and promising actor, Abhishek Bachchan! He will prove many people wrong. And, very very soon!

Lost at Cannes!

I was waiting for the Cannes film fest selection to be announced eagerly. I was expecting at least one feature length film or a short film to feature in this year's edition. But, Alas! Out of over 1600 films considered by the selection committee of the film fest, not a single Indian film found a place! What a pity!

According to the Censor Board of Film Certification in India, in the year 2008 almost over 1100 films were censored and given the certificate. And, we could not find a single place in the Cannes selection in the last few years! We need to seriously think, why? We need to introspect! Is there something wrong with our way of film-making. Is it something inappropriate about the way we approach film-making? 

I will come back with my observations soon!

Until then, goodbye!

Sunil Doshi