Shonali Bose: BAFTA Breakthrough India Opens Doors for Deserving Talents Across Cinema, Television and Gaming
Filmmaker Shonali Bose is one of the jury members of British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Breakthrough India, a talent initiative. She says the year-long talent initiative aims at opening doors for talents across cinema, television and gaming. BAFTA Jury Announced: AR Rahman, Anupam Kher, Mira Nair, Shonali Bose Lead From The Front!
“BAFTA Breakthrough coming to India is a huge thing for our young talents because so far BAFTA has done that new talent initiative only in China, the UK and the USA. We have finalised 10 candidates as our breakthrough talents, who are going to get global attention and networking, which is very important for these talents to expand their professional horizon at this stage of their career. These talents will get access to interaction and mentorship from experts of their field internationally,” Sonali told IANS. The Sky Is Pink: It Was Intimidating Directing Farhan, Says Shonali Bose.
The panel is chaired by AR Rahman and includes prominent names like Mira Nair, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Mavendra Shukul, Monika Shergill, Charu Desodt, and Krishnendu Majumdar. Elaborating on the process of choosing the best talents, the filmmaker said: “It was quite an interesting process for the jury members to choose the best talent and our parameters were high, the process was rigorous. In fact, we ended up choosing 10 talents instead of 5. All these applicants are talented and deserve the breakthrough now.”
Known for her films like Amu, Margarita With A Straw, and The Sky Is Pink, Shonali has travelled with her films to international platforms such as Toronto International Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival, and Berlin Film Festival among others.
Asked if BAFTA Breakthrough India would help these talents — especially actors and writers — to find recognition at international film festivals, Shonali replied: “If you are talking about BAFTA Awards that is a different thing. How many times do we get to see an Indian film made by an Indian film director and actors competing for major awards like Golden Globes, Oscars, or BAFTA awards and winning? It is still very hard. It is difficult and very rare.”
“Our films travel to the international film festivals and get recognition at the world stage, though is not new. But these talented people will get access to international mentors for their career guidance. Surely that is a big opportunity for them,” she summed up.
(The above story first appeared on Today News 24 on Apr 21, 2021 10:31 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website todaynews24.top).
