Vidhu Vinod Chopra to be honored at London film festival
The festival will kick off its inaugural event—the first of its kind in the city—on August 25 and will close on August 29 with a screening of Chopra’s most recent production 3 Idiots—the proceeds of which will be donated to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Other Chopra films to be included in the retrospective are An Encounter With Faces (1978), Parinda (1989), 1942: A Love Story (1994), and Eklavya: The Royal Guard (2007). Chopra will be presented with an award at the festival for his contribution to cinema, and he will participate in a question-and-answer session.
Chopra began his career in 1978 with the short documentary An Encounter with Faces, about impoverished children in India, which was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1981, he made his first feature film, Sazaye Maut, a crime thriller. His other lauded films include Mission Kashmir (2000) and Munna Bhai MBBS (2003).
3 Idiots, a coming-of-age comedy starring Aamir Khan that released last December, is the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time, collecting more than $80 million worldwide, including a decent take from the U.S. market—$6.5 million—also a box-office record.
Chopra is reportedly working on his next project, Broken Horses, an English-language film—his first—about two brothers embroiled in the drug trade on the U.S.-Mexico border. The film is being shot in New Mexico and New York and is expected to release later this year.
Organizers of the Indian Film Festival of London said they hope to introduce British audiences not only to Mumbai’s popular commercial cinema but also to India’s regional film industries and productions from Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The festival will take place at London’s Riverside Studios (riversidestudios.co.uk; 020 8237 1111), located on the banks of the River Thames in Hammersmith.
Community - News - Reviews - Commentary - About
June 2, 2010
