Wednesday 27 September 2023

Jio Mami Mumbai Film Festival announces list of shortlisted titles for options market, ‘Word To Screen’


Mumbai (India), September 26, 2023:

The 2023 edition of Jio MAMI (Mumbai Academy of Moving Image) Word-to-Screen Options Market concluded with an overwhelming response on September 26th from the film industry, publishers, and media.  Word-to-Screen Market is a first-of-its-kind platform in India where publishers and the literary community engage directly with content creators to option stories for films, TV, and digital. Launched in 2016, the Word to Screen Market has seen multiple success stories over the past few years.

An eclectic mix of juries for its 2023 edition—Kausar Munir, Sudip Sharma, Bhaskar Hazarika, and Varun Grover—shortlisted 11 titles and 3 special mentions from the 77 entries that were submitted.

Shortlisted Titles: 11 books

1)  The Stolen Necklace :

Author: Shevlin Sebastian

Based on true events, this is the incredible story of a Malayali Muslim man who is arrested and jailed for a crime he did not commit, and how, with immense courage and perseverance, he decides to fight back and prove his innocence.

2) Puddan Katha

Author: Devesh

Despite the warnings of pandemic, a village wedding is performed with gusto, a married couple gives into desire, the village pundit refuses to live away from his beloved and a city dweller walks miles to return to his village. They realise soon they are living a new reality.

3)  Land, Guns, Caste, Woman: The Memoir of a Lapsed Revolutionary

Author: Geeta Ramaswamy

The adventure of a woman who leaves her controlling family, joins the Naxalites, becomes disillusioned, and eventually finds meaning in helping dispossessed farmers fight for their rightful land.

4) A Year of Wednesdays

Author: Sonia Bahl

A flight from New Delhi to New York. Two strangers, seat 7A and seat 7B, who have nothing in common. Can one meeting change everything forever? The Japanese have a term for it: ichi-go ichi-e. One time, one encounter, lasts a lifetime.

5) Joothan

Author: Omprakash Valmiki

Jhoothan chronicles the  poor, miserable and disgraced life of a Dalit from a shy and embarrassed childhood to an evolved and honorable place in  society - as a writer and a social critic. The Story accounts for life on the fringes of a border town in Uttar Pradesh in independent india. 

6) . The Bawla Murder Case: Love, Lust & Crime in Colonial India

Author: Dhawal Kulkarni

Based on true events and set in pre-Independence India, this is an account of a sensational crime in Mumbai's Malabar Hill and its shocking aftermath that would topple one of India's most prominent Maharajas.

7) Beloved Delhi: A Mughal City and Her Greatest Poets

Author: Dr. Saif Mahmood

A riveting resurrection of the city of eight great poets from Mir to Ghalib and an empire in spectacular decline, this evocative book takes you to the heart of Mughal Delhi's romance with Urdu over 150 years

8) Lohe Ka Baksa Aur Bandook

Author: Mithilesh Priyadarshi

A collection of quirky stories set in mofussil towns of India, with characters struggling to reconcile their lives with the many pressures of an oppressive, hypocritical, and corrupt society.

9) Forgetting

Author: Devashish Makhija

Forty-nine stories of difficult pasts, and the struggle to leave them behind. Identical-twin rickshaw drivers are wrongly suspected of terrorism in paranoid Bombay; a Calcutta merchant envies each saree he sells for the intimacy it’ll share with the woman who buys it; an illicit love affair is conducted over nine potent text messages; a lonely astronaut sings out loud, hoping his voice will find an ear somewhere; tribals, soldiers, Naxalites, policemen and journalists are caught in a web of violence unleashed on them by both their own histories and that of a nation helplessly repeating it. 

10) Nameless God

Author: Saive Kernel

A powerful story of childhood innocence in the midst of a crushingly cruel and fast-changing world. 

11) Batshit

Author: Kritika Kapoor

South Delhi is in peril. A woman fighting inner demons is possessed by an actual bloodthirsty demoness. As truths unravel and ancient forces collide, a psychiatrist and a mother must face fears to stop Pia’s rampage. Who will survive? 

Special Mentions: 3 books

1) The Runaway Boy

Author: Manoranjan Byapari

This semi-autobiographical tale tells the story of little Jibon, who arrives, as a baby, in a refugee camp in West Bengal, in the arms of his Dalit parents fleeing their homeland.

2) Mehek

Author: Avik Bandyopadhyay

A race against time unfolds when Mehek Naaz, an investigating officer with a traumatic past and vengeance at heart, goes after a serial killer with a unique Modus Operandi (MO) and increased blood thirst after each murder. Multiple suspects and several loose ends post serious challenges for her on the way, but perhaps the most severe of them all is Mehek’s own vengeful instincts and her quest to find her parents' murderer. Would she be able to overcome them and do what is right?

3) . I Could Not Be Hindu: The Story of a Dalit in the RSS

Author Bhanwar Meghwanshi

The story of a young untouchable boy who joins the RSS, and is forced to reckon with the way he sees the world when he learns of its true ways

Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival is back with its on-ground edition after 3 years with a new vision to host the world’s biggest and most prestigious South Asian Film Festival. The festival is focused on building an ecosystem for new cinematic voices, facilitating the exchange of ideas, collaborations, and business opportunities, while bringing the best of world cinema to Mumbai. Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2023 aims to be a melting pot of top cinematic talent from across the world.

Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival will take place from Friday, October 27 to Sunday, November 5, 2023, in Mumbai, India at NMACC (Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre)

About Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 

Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, organised by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI), has brought the best of contemporary world cinema and talent to the city of Mumbai since 1997. With its new expanded vision to spotlight South Asian and South Asian diaspora filmmakers, Jio MAMI becomes the hub for South Asia, discovering and connecting emerging talent to the worldwide festival ecosystem.

Along with celebrating cinematic excellence and bringing joy to our audiences, we aim to facilitate the exchange of ideas and provide easy access to information related to filmmaking, funding, film distribution, business opportunities, and strategic marketing support for films and filmmakers. The festival also conducts a robust Year-Round Programme that acts as a hub for creators and cinephiles through screenings, networking opportunities, access to labs and workshops for skill development, masterclasses, and, very importantly, creating a community of cinema lovers.

More on Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival and Word to Screen:

Website: www.mumbaifilmfestival.com 

IG, FB & YT:  @mumbaifilmfestival I Twitter: @MumbaiFilmFest

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