Anubhav Sinha to produce anthology based on COVID-19 pandemic
Mumbai: Director Anubhav Sinha has collaborated with filmmakers Sudhir Mishra, Hansal Mehta, Ketan Mehta and Subhash Kapoor to back an anthology based on stories around the coronavirus pandemic.
To be produced under his banner, Benaras Mediaworks, the "Thappad" director said he thought of documenting the crisis after Sudhir's driver contracted COVID-19 and was unable to get a bed at hospital.
Subsequently, Anubhav said the loss of close friend and actor Irrfan Khan, who passed away on April 29, and the challenges of attending his last rites hit him harder.
"What better way to do it than different filmmakers looking at different things? Sudhir's father passed during COVID. We lost Irrfan and couldn't not even go to his funeral. Tigmanshu had to fight the cops to go and said 'Irrfan is my brother, I will go.'
"All these things were disturbing. I thought these should be recorded. I spoke to my friends who agreed to do this and that's how the idea behind it began to formalise," Anubhav said in a statement.
The 55-year-old director said the project offered an opportunity for all the filmmakers to team up for a "good collaboration".
"There's one story by Subhash, one by Hansal, one by Sudhir, one probably by Ketan. These are filmmakers that I believe that the so-called 'Bollywood' has largely ignored," he added.
Shedding light on each filmmaker's story, Anubhav said, while Hansal's story is "comic and quite tragic", Mishra's film is political.
"Subhash's is also political, but in a different way. I am still struggling with my story - I want to tell an atmospheric story, which is about fear. I live on the 20th floor and I can see a very large expanse of Mumbai from my window.
"It has suddenly started looking like a deserted, dead city. And Ketan is saying 'main dekh ke batata hoon' (I will tell you in a while).'"
The yet-to-be-titled anthology is scheduled to be released in 2021.
Anand Gandhi, best known for "Ship of Theseus", is also set to direct a pandemic-based film titled "Emergence".
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Sonia Gandhi's attempt to launch Rahul from Raebareli will fail: Amit Shah
Hukkeri (PTI): Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh after running away from Amethi and predicted that he will lose the polls there against the BJP candidate by a huge margin.
He also said former AICC President Sonia Gandhi's multiple attempts to "launch" Rahul Gandhi had failed and claimed that this was the twenty-first attempt.
The top BJP leader addressed a public meeting here in Belagavi district for party candidate from Chikkodi Lok Sabha segment Annasaheb Jolle.
"Modi ji tried and at once Chandrayaan (mission to Moon) got launched. Sonia Gandhi has launched this 'yaan' named Rahul Baba (Rahul Gandhi) twenty times, but her launching has not been successful. Today for the twenty-first time, running away from Amethi, he has filed nomination from Raebareli," Shah said.
He said, "Rahul Baba, I'm telling the result of Raebareli from here. Against BJP's candidate Dinesh Pratap Singh, you will lose by a huge margin. Write down my words."
Rahul Gandhi is contesting the elections from the Raebareli seat in Uttar Pradesh, the constituency held by his mother Sonia Gandhi for the last two decades.
Kishori Lal Sharma, a close aide of the Gandhi family, has been fielded from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat, the party said in a statement on Friday.
The two seats will go to polls on May 20 in the fifth of the seven-phase general election.
Ending days of suspense, the party announced the candidates from the two seats on Friday.
Raebareli is a constituency which had earlier elected Rahul Gandhi's mother Sonia Gandhi, his grandmother Indira Gandhi and his grandfather Feroze Gandhi.
The constituency has also been represented by family members and friends of the Gandhi-Nehru family.
Rahul Gandhi has also contested the ongoing Lok Sabha polls from Wayanad in Kerala which went to polls on April 26.
