Mumbai Calling

In what will be a big boost to the filmmakers in Mumbai,organisers of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) have announced that the event will celebrate Mumbai’s contemporary cinema as part of its special City to City segment this time.

Last week,its artistic director Cameron Bailey made a brief visit to Mumbai to shortlist 10 films that will be screened at the festival. Even though the final list is yet to be announced,Bailey talked about the kind of cinema they were looking for. “Mumbai’s cinema today is entirely different from what it was five or six years ago. Filmmakers such as Dibakar Banerjee,Anurag Kashyap,Farah Khan,Madhur Bhandarkar and others have shifted the terrain,probing into previously taboo subjects and adopted styles that were earlier unpalatable to the Indian audience,” he said.

He added that he was looking for the films that speak to the audience in Toronto. The segment will also showcase films that reflect a director’s passion. TIFF,in its previous years,has showcased films from Tel Aviv,Istanbul and Buneos Aires.

According to Bailey,the time is right to focus on Mumbai because of the rise of independent cinema. “In each case,I’m looking for a city with a strong bunch of new filmmakers,and a city going through change. That’s how new filmmakers represent the evolution of their cities that interests me. Often they are voices of change,even if it isn’t a conscious decision on their part. I am doing the selection myself,” he explains.

The final list of 10 films will be announced on July 31.