(MENAFN- Arab Times) Deepa Mehta is Toronto fest veteran, which is as it should be for a director who has made the city home since 1973. Her latest film, "Beeba Boys," premiered as a Gala Presentation on Sept 13. Cinetic's John Sloss will screen the film for US buyers at Toronto.
The filmmaker, who as a board member held a fundraising gala in 2013, feels it's natural to have her films premiere at TIFF. "It's my home town, you have an affinity with your home town, your baseball team, your film festival."
"Beeba Boys" is a Canadian story, too. Set in Vancouver, the story is based on news reports about youthful gangs of Indian descent engaged in a turf war.
"The tragedy of lives wasted, and the breaking of the stereotype of the meek brown immigrant also caught my imagination," she said. "The more I delved into these gangs and their very particular cultural roots the more intrigued I was."
She talked to many gang members, cops and reporters. "This particular crime scene has been covered extensively by the newspaper Vancouver Sun," she said. "Journalist Kim Bolan has been following them for years. Her articles and a couple of documentaries by the National Board of Canada were my primary source."
Immigration
She noted that "thematically, 'Beeba Boys' shares the concerns of all my other films - gender, identity, immigration. It's the story, Indian gangsters in the West - in this case Vancouver - that is different."
And while her other films ran into trouble during the shoot - "Water" had to shut down production and move from India to Sri Lanka where it shot under a different title - Mehta said each location comes with a different set of challenges. "I shot 'Heaven on Earth' in Toronto, and that was a tough one. It was in the middle of winter, (and the) minus-40 (degrees temperatures) made me long for balmy Sri Lanka."
While some compared her movie to a Johnnie To film, Mehta mused, "I'll take that as a compliment but I am partial to Seijun Suzuki, the Japanese director of quirky gangster films. And of course 'GoodFellas' became a silent mantra as well."
China's E Stars Films has acquired mainland China rights to "Baahubali: The Beginning," the Telugu-language action picture which is the highest grossing movie of all time within India.
The deal was struck with Arka Mediaworks Intl, the new sales company established by the film's Hyderabad-based producer Arka Mediaworks. Headed by former EuropaCorp executive Francois da Silva, the subsidiary company was set up specially to handle international licensing of the two-part movie.
E Stars, which previously handled Aamir Khan vehicle "PK" in China, expects to release "Baahubali" in November this year as a revenue sharing quota import. In the window before Chinese pictures take over the key month of December, E Stars is looking at a release pattern of some 5,000 screens, or 18 percent of available theaters. The company has been a select buyer of commercially oriented independent titles including "The November Man," "Dredd" and Riddick."
Pan Nalin's "Angry Indian Goddesses" has rung up a slew of licensing deals with established European distributors.
The film, which is represented by Mongrel International, was sold to ARP for France, NFP for Germany, and Filmcoopi for Switzerland.
Pitched as "India's first female buddy movie," the film's story starts with a surprise bachelorette party in Goa, before things take a more serious turn.
It plays this week (Sept 18) at the Toronto Film Festival as a special presentation. All seven of the leading actresses are expected to attend.
It was produced by Gaurav Dhingra, Nalin's partner in India's Jungle Book Entertainment, and co-produced by Sol Bondy of Germany's One Two Films.
"We fell for these strong, powerful women, and the way Pan Nalin portrays them with empathy and love. We are all Angry Indian Goddesses," ARP co-chief Michele Halberstadt told Variety.
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