Singaporean distributor Darpan Global is set for its first production, “Bodh” (Inner Sense). Principal photography is due to start this month in Delhi, Haridwar and Mumbai in India and Beijing.
The film will trace the journey of an Indian professor at a Beijing university whose life changes forever when he receives an email from his ex-mother-in-law, revealing a secret.
The film will be directed by Niloy Roy, an acclaimed figure in India’s theater world, and a lecturer at Delhi’s prestigious National School of Drama.
The $120,000 budget for the film has been secured. Darpan is at Busan’s Asian Film Market seeking a partner for the China leg of the shoot, P&A funds and festival partnerships. The film is expected to be complete by February 2019.
Sreyashi Sen of Darpan Global produces. Darpan distributes arthouse, independent and Bollywood titles in Southeast Asia. Recent releases include Chilean Oscar-winner “A Fantastic Woman” and Indian Venice awardee “Hotel Salvation.” Darpan is in the vanguard of the campaign to tackle sexual harassment in the Asian film industry and is in the process of setting up a consortium to address the issue.
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Singapore’s Alamak Prods. will co-produce in association with Darpan.
The cast of “Bodh” includes Ashish Vidyarthi (“Teenkahon”) and Teekam Joshi (“Chintu Ji”) as older and younger versions of the professor, alongside Sarmishtha Saha and Anindya Bhattacharya.
“Darpan had been exploring meaningful existence of films through the stories about the human experience,” Sen told Variety. “In this search for purpose that cinema can portray, ‘Bodh’ imprints deep thoughts on human relationships and human endeavor to attain fulfillment within. This further initiates the kind of happiness quotient which everyone is searching for. For us this is a beautiful first film with a story that echoes and finds identification across borders.”
“ ‘Bodh’ depicts the realization of self as well as relationships, rediscovered through unknown moments of expectations,” said Roy. “It’s an elegy of understanding the essence of soul that is struggling with nature and social life.”
Vidyarthi said, “Redemption happens in many forms. It happens when one takes responsibility even when one need not. This character in ‘Bodh’ treads that path.”