Saturday, 16 October 2010

LONDON FILM FESTIVAL / IMAGINEINDIA : Interview to ANANTH MAHADEVAN



I'm attending this year's festival... because my film I Am Sindhutai Sapkal is an official selection. It's a great feeling to be part of a festival renowned for showcasing the world's best new films.

You should see my film if... you want to see brought to life the true story of a woman who was twice driven to attempting suicide, but who picked up the fragments of her life to stage a miraculous comeback.

The best thing about film festivals is... they open a window to a world of films that you never knew existed.

The worst thing about film festivals is... trying to keep pace with all the good films - you're bound to end up missing quite a few.

Film festivals matter in this day and age... because technology is at risk of triumphing over substance. Ingmar Bergman and Jean-Luc Godard have become history; now more than ever we need to be reminded what the grammar of cinema is really about.

The first thing that springs to mind when I think of London... is a rich cultural heritage.

If I could sit next to anyone during a festival screening it would be... Steven Spielberg. Festival programmer Cary Rajinder Sawhney very kindly states in his synopsis that my film invokes The Color Purple.

The last film I saw was... The Secret in Their Eyes, the Argentinian film that won last year's Best Foreign Film Academy Award.

and it was... a deft human thriller that built towards a gripping finish.

The filmmakers I'm most inspired by... Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Andrzej Wajda, Ingmar Bergman, François Truffaut, Federico Fellini, Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makmalba.

If I wasn't visiting the festival I'd be spending my time... scripting my next movie!

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