BRICS can now act as a bridge between Bollywood and China. Beijing, which will host the next BRICS Summit this September, has taken the initiative to organise the first ever five-nation joint BRICS film production involving one director from each of the five member state countries.
The film will be screened at the opening ceremony of the second BRICS film festival in Chengdu, China, during June 21-25, persons familiar with the development told ET. The film will be titled Where Has The Time Gone, involving one director from each BRICS country, persons cited above said.
It is understood that Bollywood director Anurag Kashyap would be the director from India for the joint production at China’s behest. The film will be screened again in the BRICS cultural festival in Xiamen starting September 4 ahead of the Summit which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Beijing has taken a cue from Delhi which hosted the BRICS Summit last year to carry forward India's initiatives in films, people and cultural domains among the five-member states of BRICS, said officials. India hosted a record number of BRICS related events in the run-up to the Summit last October and thereafter and this included several initiatives such as youth soccer event and film festival to promote people-to-people ties among the BRICS states.
"The idea was to popularise the concept of BRICS, taking it beyond the national capital Delhi," recalled an official.
The BRICS film festival will also be an occasion to showcase Bollywood to the Chinese market and audience. In the last few years, Bollywood ventures like Lagaanand Three Idiotshave stuck a chord among the Chinese youth and the two countries have recently undertaken joint film production which acted as a confidence building measure. “Tastes among the youth in China are changing, moving away from the ideologically driven movies, even as new Bollywood movies which showcase aspirational India are becoming popular,” said an expert who follows the sector closely.