Historic year for India at Berlinale

Illustration/Uday Mohite

It is wonderful to be back at the Berlin International Film Festival, after three years of COVID. It is a special year for me, as it is my 25th year working with the Berlinale, now as India and South Asia Delegate, pre-selecting their films from India and South Asia since 1998. So it is time to celebrate and acknowledge the many guardian angels who have made the journey till here possible. It has been an honour and a pleasure helping the best of Indian and South Asian film talent shine on an A-list, international platform like Berlin. It has pole-vaulted filmmakers' careers, and while we have showcased independent and mainstream films, documentaries, shorts, experimental films and series, it has given independent filmmakers in many regional languages throughout South Asia, the confidence to stick to their original voices and stories, and resist bullying by the constraints of mainstream cinema. I could do this only with tremendous support from the many teams at the Berlin film festival, and their faith in me, and my judgement and taste in films. These include Carlo Chatrian, Artistic Director, Sergio Fant on the Selection Committee, and Dorothee Wenner, Delegate, sub-Saharan Africa, my mentor and dear friend, the section programming teams, and a host of others over two-and-a-half decades.

It is a historic year for India and South Asia at the 73rd Berlinale. There are 21 official Indian selections by the festival - eight films, 11 Berlinale Talents and at least two film professionals - all selected from thousands of entries worldwide. For South Asia too, it is a gobsmacking year, with 30 official South Asian selections by the festival - eight Indian films and 22 Berlinale Talents. Surely, that is a record.

From India, Reema Kagti and Ruchika Oberoi's Dahaad (Roar) is selected in the Berlinale Series, starring Bollywood star Sonakshi Sinha, Vijay Varma and Gulshan Devaiah. The series is produced by Zoya Akhtar of Tiger Baby - she had directed Gully Boy that was at the Berlinale in 2019 - and Excel Entertainment. Abhinay Deo's Brown, a crime series produced by Zee Studios that is Karisma Kapoor's comeback series, is selected in Berlinale Series Market Selects, so in the market section.

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In the main official selection for films, Chhatrapal Ninawe's Ghaath (Ambush, in Marathi), starring Jitendra Joshi, is in the Panorama section. Sreemoyee Singh's personal documentary Be Kucheye Khoshbakht, And Towards Happy Alleys, shot in Iran, in Farsi, is also in Panorama. Ashish Bende's Aatmapamphlet (Autobio-Pamphlet, Marathi, is in Generation 14-plus for teenagers and adults). Priya Sen's No Stranger At All is in the Forum Expanded section that explores the relations between cinema and the other arts. Assamese director Gautam Bora's An Autumn in Ländchen Bärwalde, his 1983 student film, made when he was studying film direction at the film school HFF Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany, is also being screened in a restored version in the Forum. Also in the Forum is an exhibition Our Daughters Shall Inherit the Wealth of Our Stories: The Imaginactivism of Yugantar Film Collective. The Yugantar Film Collective, India's first feminist film collective, was established around 1980-1983.
Finally there's Satyajit Ray's Aparajito (The Unvanquished, 1956), in the Retrospective section. Its series Young At Heart asked 28 filmmakers worldwide to choose their favourite coming of age film, and this is Aparna Sen's choice.

As for the 22 South Asian Berlinale Talents who were selected in 2023, 2022 and 2021, the festival has very generously also invited those who were selected in previous years, when the Berlinale Talents was held online. The Indian Berlinale Talents include Modhura Palit, Udit Khurana, Koel Sen, Gayle Sequeira, Apoorva Charan (Indian-American), Nihaarika Negi, Pooja Chauhan, Payal Sethi, Prantik Basu, Tanmoy Dutta and Ameya Gupta. There are also many Berlinale Talents selected from Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Myanmar. Shuchi Talati has been invited as a Mastercard Talents Footprints Fellow of 2022, and critic Nirmal Dhar has been selected on the FIPRESCI Jury of the Berlinale - it is the prestigious jury of the International Federation of Film Critics. All in all, a historic year for India and South Asia.

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist.
Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com