FILM DIRECTOR MIRA NAIR CLOSES IMAGINEASIA FESTIVAL
(15 November 2002)

Director of box office success 'Monsoon Wedding', Mira Nair, closed the UK’s biggest celebration of South Asian film, ImagineAsia, on 22 November 2002 in Birmingham. In an on-stage interview she discussed her work and her forthcoming film projects. The British Film Institute (bfi), organisers of ImagineAsia, had teamed up with the Birmingham Film and TV Festival to host this event.

Since beginning in April 2002, ImagineAsia, had shown over 650 films, from arthouse to Bollywood, staged exhibitions, held events and organised personal appearance by film directors and stars, in conjunction with seventy partner organisations and venues across the UK.

Director of ImagineAsia Cary Rajinder Sawhney says: "ImagineAsia has brought a cinematic feast of South Asian films to the UK this year, celebrating not only the spectacle of Bollywood, but also the lesser known cinema of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Indian art films. “We are thrilled by the positive response from UK audiences and the recognition this area of world cinema is receiving.”

ABOUT MIRA NAIR

The work of acclaimed independent film director Mira Nair includes:

• Salaam Bombay! Winner of the prestigious Camera d'Or and Prix du Publique at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival. It was the first Indian film to be nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film.
• Monsoon Wedding. Winner of the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Foreign Language Film.
• Mississippi Masala. Award for Most Popular Film-Venice Film Festival 1991, Best Screenplay–Venice Film Festival 1991.

Click here to read a brief biography of Mira Nair.

ABOUT IMAGINEASIA

ImagineAsia was launched by actress and writer Meera Syal on 25 April 2002, with a gala screening of award-winning film, The Warrior at the bfi National Film Theatre in London.

The eight month long festival attracted a host of South Asian stars and film industry figures including actors : Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Sharmila Tagore, Amitabh Bachchan, Meera Syal and Archie Punjabi; film directors: Yash Chopra (India), Shyam Benegal (India), Tareque and Catherine Masud (Bangladesh), Jayantha Chandrasiri (Sri Lanka), Tanvir Mokammel (Bangladesh) Adoor Gopalakrishnan (India), Dharmasena Pathiraja (Sri Lanka), Asoka Handagama (Sri Lanka), Usmaan Peerzada (Pakistan), Asif Kapadia (UK), Gurinder Chadha (UK) and Mira Nair (USA) and film composers Ravi Shankar and A.R. Rahman.

HIGHLIGHTS OF IMAGINEASIA

The bfi’s National Film Theatre hosted major retrospectives of the work of acclaimed directors Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal and a Guardian Interview with actor Aamir Khan.

The bfi re-released new subtitled prints of classics Mother India and Mughal-E-Azam back onto the big screen, and films from leading Bengali director, Ritwik Ghatak on video.

'Beyond Bollywood', a programme of films from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka has toured to cinemas around the UK, with a number of the films’ directors making personal appearances (with the support of Visiting Arts).

The mass appeal of Bollywood was explored in a new exhibition, Bollywood in Love, which featured film posters, behind the scenes photography, and film clips. The exhibition toured to venues in London, Bradford, Birmingham and Bristol.

Bollywood heartthrob Shah Rukh Khan attended an ImagineAsia event at the Edinburgh Film Festival, which attracted over 1,500 fans.

To coincide with ImagineAsia, the bfi has published new books on directors Yash Chopra and Shyam Benegal, on films Mother India and Pather Panchali and Cinema of Interruptions, a look at the film style of Bollywood.

An exhibition of South Asian film material and information held in the bfi’s National Library, toured to thirty local libraries, schools and museums across the UK.

Safar, directed by 27 year old Sandhya Suri won the ImagineAsia Short Film Competition. The film told the compelling tale of her father's dream to resettle in his Indian homeland. The competition, run in association with The Nehru Centre, asked young filmmakers to put their experiences of life in Britain on film.

The bfi produced the world’s first-ever teaching guide on Indian cinema for use in schools and colleges. The guide offers a comprehensive overview from the early days of silent film, to the big budget Bollywood extravaganzas of today.

The bfi created a new website to support ImagineAsia. The site contains a guide to South Asian film, news and feature articles, reviews and resources and full details of all ImagineAsia screenings, exhibitions and events as well as details of all venues and ImagineAsia partner organisations.

Sholay, Ramesh Sippy’s 1975 ‘curry western’, topped the ImagineAsia poll on Indian cinema. Voted for by a range of film industry experts and film critics, the poll was part of a wider survey on South Asian cinema, which included top ten lists for Pakistani, Sri Lankan, and Bangladeshi cinema and films by Western Asians.

Click here to visit the ImagineAsia website.
Click here to visit the Birmingham Film & TV Festival Website.
Click here to visit the British Film Institute website.
Click here to visit the National Film Theatre website.

BANANAS OVER BOLLYWOOD?

If you are simply "bananas" over bollywood, then you might like to read the following:

• Bollywood In Love - catch it while you can (ends January 2003)
• Bollywood Dreams - a digital homage (end January 2003)
• Bollywood Homes - Abu Jhani & Sandeep Khosla's interior design benediction. Sadly only the pictures remain now!
• Bombay Dreams - A R Rahman's theatrical tribute to the industry is a must see.
• The Rough Guide to Bollywood - DJ Ritu's musical guide to the Hindi Film Industry.
• Bollywood Books - our selection of some of the best books on the subject.
• Bollywood Boy - our review of Justine Hardy's pursuit of Bollywood heart-throb Hrithik Roshan.
• Bombay Time - Thrity Umrigar's simply brilliant book about the Mumbai Parsee community. Absolutely nothing to do with Bollywood...but a great novel about the city!
• Lagaan - surely you've seen the movie by now? Read our review and see if you agree.
• Devdas - Sanjay Bansali's remake of this classic 1917 tale.