Sundance - Drishyam Films

Drishyam | Sundance
SCREENWRITERS’ LAB
2015
CONTENTS
WELCOME FROM DRISHYAM FILMS
WELCOME FROM SUNDANCE INSTITUTE
ABOUT THE DRISHYAM | SUNDANCE LAB
SCREENWRITING FELLOWS
CREATIVE ADVISORS
ABOUT DRISHYAM FILMS
ABOUT SUNDANCE INSTITUTE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
WELCOME FROM DRISHYAM FILMS
Manish Mundra
I am excited to welcome you all to the inaugural Drishyam | Sundance
Screenwriters Lab, which marks a new collaboration between Sundance
Institute and Drishyam Films. With this initiative, I sincerely hope to create
a space for Indian independent cinema, where budding writers are given an
opportunity to tell their stories that are not only rich in content but have a
strong essence of our Indian culture.
I, along with my team members, welcome the selected filmmakers whose
scripts will be nurtured by the best creative advisors and mentors in the
industry. It is going to be an intensive session where each one of us present
is going to hone the others with their understanding.
We would like to extend our gratitude to our partners Michelle Satter, Paul
Federbush, Matthew Takata and others at Sundance Institute for their
support. We are also very grateful to Vivanta by Taj, Aguada Fort who have
been extremely patient and warm enough to extend their hospitality to
enhance an environment conducive to the smooth functioning of the Lab.
It is a pleasure to have the participants and mentors on-board, and we at
Drishyam Films are dedicated to provide all the support needed to nurture
the scripts and take it to the next level.
Our team will be available at your disposal during the course of the lab to
attend to your queries and requirements.
With a positive hope that this will be a valuable learning experience for all of
us, we look forward to a great session!
WELCOME FROM SUNDANCE INSTITUTE
Michael Satter | Paul Federbush
Dear Participants,
Welcome to the inaugural Drishyam | Sundance Screenwriters Lab. We’re
thrilled to be working in collaboration with Manish Mundra, Srinivasan
Narayanan and the Drishyam team to support you on the further development
of your work. We are inspired by your talent and excited by the diversity
represented in the ideas you are exploring in your scripts.
As you may know, the Screenwriters Lab has been a core program of
the Sundance Institute since its inception and underlines our unflagging
commitment to storytelling and the craft of screenwriting. The Lab provides
that rare opportunity for writers to come together in a pure environment that
encourages the creative process and the work of rewriting.
We are extremely grateful to the Creative Advisors who have joined us for the
Lab. I wanted to especially acknowledge Artistic Director Kasi Lemmons, as
well as Srdan Golubovic, Erik Jendresen, Sriram and Sridhar Raghavan, and
Rose Troche. We trust that you will also be moved by their generosity of spirit
and passion for the process.
Most of all, this Lab is about our support of a writers’ community that embraces
originality, risk-taking, and the exploration of our common humanity in
authentic and distinctive ways. We hope that you will take advantage of all the
resources that are available at the Lab and enjoy the beauty and quiet that
Goa offers as well. We look forward to taking this unforgettable journey with
you.
MICHELLE SATTER
FOUNDING DIRECTOR
PAUL FEDERBUSH
INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR
ABOUT THE LAB
Renowned for its Screenwriters’ and Directors’ Labs, which have supported some of the foremost
independent voices in cinema for over thirty years, Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program
has collaborated with Drishyam Films to organise a Screenwriters’ Lab for Indian writers. Based
on the Institute’s Screenwriters’ Lab in Utah, the Drishyam | Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab will
give seven screenwriters an opportunity to work intensively on their feature film script in an
environment that encourages innovation and creative risk- taking. The lab is centred around oneon-one story sessions with the Creative Advisors, where the screenwriting fellows will receive
guidance from a diverse and accomplished roster of established screenwriters and filmmakers.
The Creative Advisors will approach the scripts with the filmmaker’s vision in mind, and guide
them toward the most compelling way to tell their story.
Paul Federbush
International Director, Feature Film Programme
Sundance Institute
Matthew Tanaka
Manager, Feature Film Progam
Sundance Institute
Srinivasan Narayan
Director
Drishyam Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab
Svetlana Naudiyal
Drishyam Films
Shraddha Chauhan
Drishyam Films
SCREENWRITING FELLOWS
THE HUNT
Aney Tarnekar
Writer-Director
THE MONSTER
Dnyanesh Zoting
Writer-Director
MULAKOYA
Geetu Mohandas
Writer-Director
PIRATES
Raj Rishi More
Writer-Director
SANTOSH
Sandhya Suri
Writer-Director
UNKNOWN FACES
Atanu Mukherjee
and Akash Mohimen
Writers-Director
THE SWEET
REQUIEM
Ritu Sarin
and Tenzing Sonam
Writer-Director
THE HUNT
Anay Tarnekar

PRODUCER
JAR MOTION PICTURES

BUDGET
INR 124, 260, 000

EMAIL
[email protected]
In southwest In southwest China, animal trader Jin, struggling to support
his family, works in the potentially lucrative but illegal private market of
young male tigers. In central India, former poacher Raghav now works at
a small reserve where he protects the wildlife, often from Raghav’s own
tribesmen who now see him as a traitor. Their two stories converge with the
appearance of a new pair of tigers on the reserve.
While on duty one day, Raghav spots a newly arrived young male tiger (Ballu)
with a female companion (Durga). The welcome news spreads quickly via
internet, where Jin discovers the photos and decides to make Ballu his next
target. Jin mobilizes his resources in India, primarily men from Raghav’s
tribe, and an expert shooter to ensure that Ballu’s pricey fur is not damaged
during hunting. Raghav leads a team of guards to protect the mating tiger
pair that attracts a lot of public attention. The guards work round the clock
to crack down on suspicious activities in the area, making it impossible
to penetrate. They bond with each other in the process. Jin continues to
struggle in the market, and the tremendous pressure to deliver affects his
relationships at work and at home. In the end, the poachers come up with a
brutal plan that takes many lives, including Ballu’s. The guards lose another
battle to the stronger enemy.
With Ballu’s fur, Jin makes his biggest sale in the market, but the weight of
killing an innocent animal finally crushes him, and he decides to quit the
business to win back his family. Ballu’s death deeply affects Raghav and he
questions the foundation of trust between human beings and animals, but
a gesture from Durga reassures his faith and prepares him to start all over
again.
A mechanical engineer turned filmmaker, Anay Tarnekar has worn several hats as a writer,
director, producer, editor and director of photography. In 2002, he moved to the US to pursue
a Masters degree in Cinema from San Francisco State University. After graduating, he coproduced and edited a documentary called Cachao: Uno Mas that premiered on the multiple
Emmy-winning PBS series, American Masters. He is currently producing the TV interview series
Hollywood Masters, which examines the careers of filmmakers including Alfonso Cuaron, David
O. Russell, Michael Mann, Sean Penn and Clint Eastwood. Anay is also an amateur painter and
wildlife photographer.
THE MONSTER
Dnyanesh Zoting

PRODUCER
NAVALAKHA ARTS
HOLY BASIL PICTURES

BUDGET
INR 40,000,000

EMAIL
[email protected]
Munni is an 8 year-old girl who spends most of her time reading fairy tales.
She lives in Mumbai with her parents. Her father, Avinash, is making a
documentary film covering the protests of a tribal village against a township
project. Accompanying her father to the tribal village for a shoot, she finds a
book of fairy tales called The Raakshas. After reading the story, Munni starts
believing that the Raakshas really lives in the forest.
Munni and Avinash return to Mumbai. But soon Avinash is again required
to visit the tribe for a crucial meeting. Munni pleads with her father not to
visit the jungle. She fears that the Raakshas might eat him. But in spite of
Munni’s warnings, Avinash leaves for the village and goes missing the very
next day.
Munni’s mother Iravati rushes to the village in search of her husband.
According to the fairy tale, only the princess can find the Raakshas and
rescue her father, and so Munni accompanies her mother in the search.
Born in the historical town of Aurangabad, Maharashtra; Dnyanesh Zoting presently lives in
Mumbai. He has directed three short films, which played at several international film festivals
including the Mumbai International Film Festival, Durban International Film Festival, and
International Film Festival of Kerala. Zoting assisted Satish Manvar on the Marathi film The
Damned Rain. He is presently assisting film director Satish Manvar as a co-writer for the Hubert
Bals funded film project, What’s Your Religion? Zoting holds a degree in video-production from
the University Of Pune.
MULAKOYA
Geetu Mohandas

PRODUCER
RAJEEV RAVI
ALAN MCALEX

BUDGET
INR 90,000,000

EMAIL
[email protected]
10 year-old Mulakoya spends most of his time listening to the adventurous
fables about his brave older brother Akbar whom he has never met. Akbar
is a Maulavi (Muslim-priest) and is believed to have swam across the ocean
to the mainland for a better life. Akbar’s stories are the most famous and
infamous in the close-knit community because, like most Islanders, he
respects the sea, but only he could understand the language and soul of
the animals living under the Ocean. Mulakoya and his friend Josef decide
to leave their mundane existence in the island in search of Akbar in the
mainland. Their plan goes dangerously awry when their boat capsizes at
sea. Mulakoya survives the storm and is rescued by a container ship. In the
mainland he is sent to the juvenile detention centre where he makes friends
with boys his age and they conspire to help him escape.
Mulakoya finds himself in the downtrodden part of the city at night.
A homosexual named Pinu befriends him and takes him home which
he shares with another 10’year’old-boy, Padakam. At a juncture when
Mulakoya feels a sense of belonging, Pinu disappears. Padakam leaves on
a train back to his hometown and Mulakoya is alone to fend for himself. He
spends most of his time at station platforms scavenging for food and spare
change on empty trains. In one of his nightcaps he accidentally sleeps off
on the moving train and wakes up to find himself headed to another state.
Mulakoya is reunited with Pinu again living with a community of eunuchs
with his new identity. The journey takes Mulakoya into a world of crime, guilt
and deceit where Pinu’s identity and intention is questioned.
Geetu Mohandas’ debut feature Liar’s Dice, premiered in competition at the 2014 Sundance
Film Festival. Liar’s Dice has currently played at 35 film festivals and won 5 International awards
for best film and 2 National Awards, the highest honour in India. Liar’s Dice was also selected
as India’s official entry for the Foreign Language Film category at the 87TH Academy Awards.
Mohandas, along with filmmaker Rajeev Ravi, formed the production company Unplugged
in 2009, which produced her short film, Kelkkunnundo? The film premiered at Rotterdam
International film festival and won 3 International awards for Best International Short Film and
the National Award for the Best actor in India.
Mulakoya is Geetu’s second feature film.
PIRATES
Raj Rishi More

PRODUCER
POETICLICENSE
MOTION PICTURES RITESH BATRA AND
SEHER LATIF

BUDGET
INR 93, 225, 000

EMAIL
[email protected]
“When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father,
both cry.”
Pirates is a story of Father and Son, where Father is one of the rare parent in
India who wants his son to chase dreams instead of following the crowd. And
son, Rohit, is a 21 year old boy who aspires to be an Animation Film Director.
Rohit has risked his career by joining a small scale animation studio in Mumbai
after completing his engineering. He is currently working on an animated web
series “Pirates” as a technician.
On Rohit’s visit to his hometown he learns that their family house is under bank
loan. And, they may lose it if the loan is not paid back soon. Father has started a
new business of road constructions of government projects but it hasn’t been
productive in monetary terms. Though Rohit has had problems with this new
business, he decides to provide financial aid to his Father.
There begins a series of mobile phone conversations between Father and
Rohit that starts as normal exchange of work progress but soon turns into a
collaboration of writing various short stories on “Pirates”. Connected with
this thread of “Pirates” stories, both Father and Rohit converse their way to
accomplish what they must.
In the end, fantasies of their lives are overwhelmed by the present reality. It’s
then Rohit’s relation and newfound respect for his Father is truly tested. Pirates
is also a story of families and relationships, new dreams and lost dreams, small
towns and big cities, and, above all, sometimes a struggle is blessing in disguise.
Raj Rishi More started his film career as an assistant director on Ritesh Batra’s Sundance
Institute-supported The Lunchbox (winner of Grand Golden Rail, Cannes Film Festival 2013,
nominated for BAFTA 2015 ). He worked as First Assistant Director to Ritesh Batra on his short
Masterchef, a commission by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that premiered at the 2014
Sundance Film Festival. Currently, Raj is working with Ritesh Batra on the feature film, Khoya,
while developing Pirates, his first feature as director. He wrote and directed the short film Baba
in 2014.
SANTOSH
Sandhya Suri

BUDGET
INR 100,000,000

EMAIL
[email protected]
Under a government scheme police widow Santosh takes up a job as constable
in a backwater town in U.P. When a Dalit girl, Devika, is found raped and
murdered, charismatic female inspector Sharma takes charge. Santosh is in
awe of her and Sharma takes her under her wing. The investigation quickly
points to Saleem, already on the run. Alone and undercover Santosh confronts
her fears and tracks him down.
Under Sharma’s directions the silent Saleem is slowly tortured. Santosh
partakes too, something unleashed from within. When they’ve finished, he’s
dead. Sharma coolly stage-manages the cover-up but Santosh is a wreck.
When an external enquiry begins Santosh starts to doubt his guilt. She finds
out Devika had been seen the day she disappeared, taking water from the
upper caste well without permission. When she questions Beniwal, a local
high-caste heavyweight, he insinuates he and his friends did it. She soon
understands the cozy nexus protecting him, her mentor Inspector Sharma at
its heart. The enquiry clears Santosh of Saleem’s death. Overcome by guilt, she
writes anonymously to Devika’s parents, tells them Beniwal is the real culprit.
Massive riots force his arrest. Hours later he’s free. That night he attacks
Santosh, sexually molests her, threatens to have Devika’s young sister gangraped to teach the parents a lesson. Santosh begs Sharma to protect the girl
but Sharma refuses, blaming it on Santosh’s naïve attempts to bring down a
powerful, high-caste man. She dismisses her.
Santosh heads to the village, urges the family not to drop the case, watches
over them, Beniwal’s presence a constant threat. Next the upper-castes issue
a social boycott, banning all employment of Dalits, barring them from all shops.
The village comes to a standstill. Devika’s family drop the case. Santosh leaves
the village, exhausted and beaten, her integrity badly bruised but not broken.
A graduate in Mathematics and Languages, Sandhya received a scholarship to study
documentary at The UK’s National Film and Television School where she directed 5 films
winning several awards including at Paris’ Cinema du Reél.
Her feature documentary I for India screened in World Competition at Sundance Film Festival,
playing at over twenty festivals and winning four international awards. It opened theatrically
in the U.K. in 2008. Sight and Sound described it as “…a profound and profoundly moving
film that any director could be proud of; as a debut, it’s formidably accomplished”, Variety
as“intimate and rewarding … almost unbearably moving”.
She’s currently based in London where she is a visiting tutor at The National Film and Television
School and University College London. Santosh is Sandhya’s first fiction feature project.
THE SWEET REQUIEM
Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam

PRODUCER
RITU SARIN

BUDGET
INR 25,000,000

EMAIL
[email protected]
Dolkar is a 25-year-old Tibetan woman living in Delhi. 15 years ago, she
escaped from Tibet with her father, making a perilous trek across the
Himalayas. Since then she has suppressed all recollection of that traumatic
journey. But when Dolkar unexpectedly encounters Gompo, the guide who
led them from Tibet only to abandon them before they crossed the final
pass to freedom, memories of her escape are reignited and she is propelled
on an obsessive search for reconciliation and closure.
Following Gompo obsessively through the narrow alleys of Majnu ka Tila,
the Tibetan refugee colony in North Delhi, she is sucked into his strange
and solitary existence. Flashbacks of her desperate journey with a small
group through a harsh and desolate Himalayan terrain punctuate Dolkar’s
growing predicament in the present as Gompo turns out not to be who she
always imagined him to be. Caught up in a web of political intrigue that is
much larger than her personal quest, Dolkar must reconcile Gompo’s act
of treachery that has haunted her all her life with the life-or-death situation
he now faces.
The two stories moving in tandem, one inexorably forwards in the present,
the other unexpectedly backwards in time, both determined by a series of
fateful choices, reaches its conclusion as Dolkar and Gompo finally confront
each other and the source of Dolkar’s long-buried anguish is revealed.
Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam are an Indian-Tibetan couple based in Dharamshala, Himachal
Pradesh. They have been making films together for more than 25 years. They are primarily
documentary filmmakers but have also made a number of video installations and one feature
film, Dreaming Lhasa (2005), which was executive produced by Jeremy Thomas and Richard
Gere. They are also the directors of the Dharamshala International Film Festival, which they
founded in 2012 and is now one of India’s leading independent film festivals. The Sweet
Requiem is their second feature film.
UNKNOWN FACES
Atanu Mukherjee and Akash Mohimen

BUDGET
INR 20,000,000

EMAIL
[email protected]
It is a journey of an eighteen year-old boy Dhruv, who returns home from
the boarding school with an urge to reunite with his family and friends, but
instead finds that his father has disappeared after a bankruptcy caused by
fraudulence in his business. While his mother struggles to protect her son
from discovering his family’s hardships, Dhruv decides to find his father
himself.
Atanu Mukherjee is an alumnus of Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata. Most
recently, he participated at the 2015 Berlinale Talents Program.He has written and directed
short films like Stray Dogs and The Gatekeeper, which were parts of film festivals like
International Documentary and Short Film Festival (IDSFFK) in Kerala, 2014; Won Best Short
Film at the 2014 Cinema City Film Festival in Serbia; South Asian International Film Festival
(SAIFF) 2014, New York. He has also directed a documentary My House Is Not So Far for PSBT
Doordarshan. Atanu has also worked as an editor on feature films like Achal (The Stagnant),
Unfreedom, Shortcut Safari and Monsoon Shootout, the last of which premiered at Cannes in
2013.
Akash Mohimen has been working as playwright and editor since 2006. His first play, The
Mighty Mirembayanna and the Prisoners of Peace was produced in 2010 and staged at Prithvi
Theatre Mumbai. He was selected for the Royal Court Theatre’s Indian residency program,
Writers’ Bloc, where he developed his second play, Mahua, which was the opening play
for the Writers’ Bloc Festival at Prithvi Theatre in 2012. The play went onto garner plenty of
popular and critical acclaim and was part The Royal Court Theatre’s ‘New Plays from India’
Festival, held at the prestigious Jerwrood Theatre in November, 2012. In the same year he
adapted Badal Sircar’s Beyond the Land of Hattamala for children, and wrote the musical Taj
Express, which over the last 3 years has toured Singapore, China, Turkey, Russia and France.
His latest play, Under the Chestnut Tree was shortlisted for the Hindu Metroplus Playwright
Award in 2013. Akash has also worked as an editor for various TV commercials, short films and
documentaries, including international projects like Global Lives Project and I am That, which
was screened at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood in 2007.
CREATIVE ADVISORS
HABIB FAISAL
SRDAN GOLUBOVIC
ERIK JENDRESEN
KASI LEMMONS
SRIDHAR RAGHAVAN
SRIRAM RAGHAVAN
ROSE TROCHE
CREATIVE ADVISORS
HABIB FAISAL is a screenwriter and director based out of Mumbai. He is
best known for his films, Issaqzaade & Do Dooni Chaar, both of which he
wrote and directed. Habib’s last film Daawat-e-Ishq, starring Aditya Roy
Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra was released in September 2014. Habib also
wrote the screenplay and dialogues for the sleeper hit Band Baaja Baaraat
which was released in late 2010 and Maneesh Sharma’s latest underproduction feature FAN, starring Shahrukh Khan.
SRDAN GOLUBOVIC was born in 1972 in Belgrade, Serbia. He studied
Film Directing at The Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. His first feature
film Absolute Hundred (Apsolutnih Sto) screened in competition at over 30
international film festivals, including San Sebastian, Toronto, Thessaloniki,
Cottbus, Rotterdam, Pusan, and won 10 international and 19 local awards.
His second feature film Klopka (The Trap), had its world premiere in 2007
in Berlinale’s Forum section. The Trap won 21 international awards and was
shortlisted for Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category. Srdan’s third film,
Circles had its World premiere in 2013 at Sundance Film Festival’s World
Dramatic Competition and won Special Jury Prize. The film had its European
premiere at Berlinale, Section Forum where it received Prize of Ecumenical
Jury. Circles won more than 30 international awards. Srdan Golubovic is also a
professor of Film Directing on The Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade.
As co-creator, lead writer and supervising producer of the mini-series Band of
Brothers for HBO in 2001, ERIK JENDRESEN was one of the recipients of that
year’s Golden Globe and Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries. As a writer/
producer/showrunner for television, his most recent projects include Killing
Lincoln for the National Geographic Channel; a series based on the Francis
Ford Coppola film, The Conversation (with Christopher McQuarrie); The Pony
Express (with Robert Duvall); an eight-hour adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s
novel, Wicked (ABC); War, an eight-hour adaptation of Sebastian Junger’s
chronicle of a 15-month deployment in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley; The
43, a six-hour mini-series about WWII British ex-servicemen fighting fascism
on their home soil; Shot All to Hell, a four-hour mini-series about the JamesYounger Gang and the Northfield, Minnesota raid (TNT); Castner’s Cutthroats,
a six-hour mini-series about the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands
(History Channel); and A Slave in the White House, an eight-hour miniseries
(ABC). As a writer/producer for film, his current projects include Mission:
Blacklist (directed by Jesper Ganslandt), Saint-Ex (directed by Christopher
McQuarrie), Solo (directed by Antonio Banderas), an adaptation of Walter
Tevis’s The Man Who Fell To Earth (directed by David Slade), Aloft (developed
with Robert Redford), and the just-completed Ithaca - an adaptation of
William Saroyan’s The Human Comedy, directed by Meg Ryan, and starring
Sam Shepard, Hamish Linklater, and Tom Hanks. He is the CEO of Pilothouse
Pictures, and lives on a 108-year-old vessel in Sausalito, California, with his wife
and producing partner, Venus, a psychologist at the Langley Porter Psychiatric
Institute at the University of California, San Francisco.
KASI LEMMONS is an actress, writer and director who has appeared in Jonathan
Demme’s Silence of the Lambs, John Woo’s Hard Target, Rusty Cundieff’s Fear
of a Black Hat, and Spike Lee’s School Days, among others. Lemmons’ first
feature as a writer-director, Eve’s Bayou, became the highest grossing film of
1997, receiving the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature and seven
Image NAACP Award nominations, including Best Picture. In addition, Lemons
received a special first time director award from the National Board of Review
and the Director’s Achievement Award at the 9th Annual Nortel Palm Springs
Film Festival. Lemmons’ sophomore feature, The Caveman’s Valentine, opened
the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, while her third film, Talk to Me, earned the
2008 NAACP Image Award for outstanding directing. Lemmons’ most recent
feature, Black Nativity, an adaptation of the Langston Hughes musical, was
released nationwide during Thanksgiving 2013. Lemmons has also worked
extensively as a mentor and educator, serving as a Film Independent board
member for the past 14 years while regularly contributing to its Filmmaker Labs
as a speaker and moderator. Guest teaching credits include Yale University, MIT,
UCLA, USC, Los Angeles Film School and The University of Pristina Film School
in Kosovo. In addition to attending New York University School of Arts, UCLA and
The New School of Social Research Film Program, Lemmons was awarded an
Honorary Degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, from Salem State College in 1998.
She is Associate Arts professor in the Graduate Film Department at New York
University’s Tisch School of Arts.
SHRIDHAR RAGHAVAN is the writer of Khakee, Dum Maaro Dum, Bluffmaster
and the co-writer of Apaharan, Yennai Arindhaal (Tamil), among others. He has
won the National Award for Best Screenplay for Apaharan. Prior to films, he
worked extensively in Television and Journalism and has been a columnist with
The Times of India & Mid-Day. He is Creative Consultant to Endemol India.
SRIRAM RAGHAVAN is a graduate in film direction from the Film and Television
Institute of Pune. His graduate film The Eight Column Affair won the National
Award for Best Short Fiction Film. He is notable for producing a 45-minute
documentary on Indian serial killer Raman Raghav and 2004 hindi feature film
Ek Hasina Thi produced by Ram Gopal Varma, starring Urmila Matondkar and
Saif Ali Khan. His second feature film was 2007’s, Johnny Gaddar followed by
the spy thriller Agent Vinod. His latest film, Badlapur (2015) was released on
February 20 and received positive reviews from critics.
ROSE TROCHE is an award-winning writer, director and producer of both film
and television. Her first feature, Go Fish was released to wide acclaim, garnering
awards at the Berlin, London, Rimini and Deauville Film Festivals. It also won the
prestigious Open Palm at New York’s Gotham Awards. Bedrooms and Hallways
followed, receiving the audience award at the London Film Festival. 2003 saw
the release of Troche’s third feature, The Safety of Objects, which received stellar
reviews and went on to open the San Sebastian International Film Festival, and
win best feature and best actress (Patricia Clarkson) at the Deauville Film Festival.
In 2003, Troche completed the pilot for Showtime’s The L Word and went on to
direct, write and co-executive produce the series through six seasons. Troche
also directed the pilot for the popular teen series, South of Nowhere where she
remained as a consulting producer, and director. She has also directed award
winning series including, Six Feet Under, Ugly Betty and Law & Order. In 2011
she executive produced the popular web series, Hunting Season, which is about
to release its second season this summer. She also directed a limited series for
Rodrigo Garcia and Jon Avnet’s most successful web series, Wiigs. In 2013 Troche
produced the acclaimed indie feature, Concussion, written and directed by Stacie
Passon and released by Radius/TWC. She also wrote and directed Elliot King is
3rd, a film for the ITVS series, Future States. She wrote/directed and produced,
Perspective: The Party, A virtual reality installation that premiered at The Sundance
Film Festival 2015. Recently she completed production on, Sugar, a limited series
created for ITVS Story lab where she serves as writer/director/executive producer.
ABOUT SUNDANCE INSTITUTE
Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, Sundance Institute is a global, nonprofit cultural organization
dedicated to nurturing artistic expression in film and theater, and to connecting brave, distinctive
new work with global audiences. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to unite, inform
and inspire, regardless of geo-political, social, religious or cultural differences. Sundance Institute
is internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival and its artistic development
programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, film composers, playwrights and theatre
artists.
Since 1981, the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program has supported more than 800
independent filmmakers from 60 countries whose distinct, singular work has engaged audiences
worldwide and been recognized with leading American and international awards. Over 375 films
have been produced and have reached tens of millions of people worldwide through distribution
on all platforms. Some of supported filmmakers include:
Benh Zeitlin with Beasts of the Southern Wild
Josh Marston with Maria Full of Grace
Ryan Coogler with Fruitvale Station
Guillermo del Toro with The Devil’s Backbone
Ritesh Batra with The Lunchbox
Andrea Arnold with Red Road
Kimberly Pierce with Boys Don’t Cry
Haifaa Al Mansour with Wadjda
Paul Thomas Anderson with Hard Eight
Hany Abu-Assad with Paradise Now
Cary Fukunaga with Sin Nombre
Walter Salles with Central Station
Quentin Tarantino with Reservoir Dogs
Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden with Half Nelson
Damien Chazelle with Whiplash
ABOUT DRISHYAM FILMS
Drishyam Films, founded and promoted by Manish Mundra, is a company actively working
towards building a platform for new and unique voices of Indian independent cinema. The
company is focused on creating global content with rich Indian flavours. The journey started
with the film Ankhon Dekhi directed by Rajat Kapoor. The film was one of the best-reviewed films
in India in 2014 and was critically acclaimed for its simplicity, philosophy, ensemble cast and
acting. The success of Ankhon Dekhi was followed by Umrika directed by Prashant Nair which
premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2015 and went on to win the Audience Choice Award in
the World Dramatic Competition section. Soon after, Dhanak directed by Nagesh Kukunoor
premiered in the Generation Kplus at Berlinale 2015 and won the Grand Jury prize, as well as, a
Special Mention from the Children’s Jury.
The upcoming projects include the Indo-French co-production Masaan directed by Neeraj
Ghaywan, Waiting directed by Anu Menon and X-the film, an experimental collaborative feature
directed by eleven Indian filmmakers.
Drishyam | Sundance
SCREENWRITERS’ LAB
2015
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
J W Marriott, Mumbai
Vivanta by Taj, Fort Aguada, Goa
Publicity Mauli Singh Design Anuj Malhotra
Merchandise Posterboy Distribution Pvt Ltd
Printing Balaji Graphics