NFDC back on production with films at Cannes

NFDC, which had funded a slew of path-breaking films in the 1960s and 1970s, had registered a sharp decline in the 1990s, with India's bureaucracy failing to keep the outfit in good health.

However, buoyed by the recent allocation of Rs 30 crore from the ministry of information and broadcasting and the induction of veteran actor Om Puri as its chairman, NFDC is back on the film production scene in a big way.

The four films that the organisation is promoting in the market here are Arindam Nandy's 'Via Darjeeling', Anjali Menon's 'Lucky Red Seeds', Aijaz Khan's 'The White Elephant' and K M Madhusudanan's 'Bioscope'.

While the first three are co-productions with Moxie Entertainment, Mirchi Movies and NDTV Imagine respectively, 'Bioscope' is a fully financed film.

"The response here has been very encouraging. This is just the beginning. We have a line-up of six more films in development," NFDC's managing director Nina L Gupta told PTI.

While the upcoming films are expected to be ready within the next one year, NFDC has several new projects on the anvil.

Adlabs founder Manmohan Shetty is co-producing Sanjivan Lal's 'Bubble Gum', a film about the predicament of a young boy whose parents shower all their time and attention on his deaf-mute elder brother.

In collaboration with UK's Gruber Films and Sweden's Hepp Films, NFDC is also producing 'Naye Joote', directed by newcomer Charudutt Acharya. Besides, another debutante Bidyut Kotoky is directing 'As the River Flows', a co-production involving NFDC.