The Heroic Battle of a Director to get his film home
RAJAN KHOSA’s Dance of the Wind (photos) gets its due in India after ten years by getting a release, After winning Audience Award - London Film Festival 1997, Public Prize & Best Actress - Festival of Three Continents, France 1997, Gold Plaque - Chicago Film Festival 1998, Critics Week - Venice Film Festival 1997, NETPAC Award - Rotterdam Film Festival 1998, Best Director - British Asian Film Festival 1998, with Official Selection at Venice Film Festival 1997, London Film Festival 1997, Rotterdam Film Festival 1998, Chicago Film Festival 1997, Festival of Three Continents, Nantes 1998, Karlovy Vary Film Festival 1998, Melbourne Film Festival 1998, Vancover Film Festival 1998, Mar Del Plata Film Festival 1998, Bologna Cineteca Film Festival 1998, Jerusalem Film Festival 1998, Istanbul Film Festival 1998, Auckland/Wellington Film Festival, New Zealand 1998, International Film Festival of India 1998, Cinefan Film Festival India 1999, and many others…
It will premiere at PVR cinemas tomorrow. The fil won rave reviews internationally, but the Indian release chose to come only a decade later.
The film traces the successful career of a young Indian classical singer, Pallavi (Kitu Gidwani), is brought to an abrupt end as a result of her mother’s death. Because of this, Pallavi, who also studied under the tutelage of her mother Karuna Devi (Kapila Vatsyayan), finds that she loses her voice and with it her career and students. But help arrives in the form of young street urchin Tara (Roshan Bano) whose angelic voice haunts Pallavi and leads her on a journey of discovery. A celebration of classical traditions, set in New Delhi, Rajan Khosa’s prize-winning film captures the beauty of ancient Indian music and the culture from which it emanates.
Deepti Naval
Interestingly, Rajan grew up in New Delhi and lived in London. He is a writer /director /producer who has worked between the UK, Europe and India for the last decade. His directorial debut ” DANCE OF THE WIND” a co-production between five countries, including UK and India, was theatrically released in twenty five countries in 1998-2001. It opened at the Venice film festival and subsequently won major awards at several International film festivals including Rotterdam, Chicago, Nantes, as well as the ‘Audience Award’ at the London Film Festival.
Rajan Khosa has directed several short films including “FLOWER GIRL”. It played in the official selection at the London Film Festival 2005 and Pusan Film Festival 2005. His half hour film “WISDOM TREE” was recipient of the National Award in India and a number of International Awards at film festivals, including Oberhausen.
Author of several feature screenplays, Rajan has co-written his most recent script with Pan Nalin - a martial arts epic, Satori for Fred Fuchs, producer of Godfather III and Dracula. Rajan’s multimedia projects have included ‘Escapade, 2003′, an outdoor dance and film show that played to a 5000 strong audience at South Bank in London.
Kitu Gidwani, Deepti Naval, Ketan Mehta, Rajan Khosa at the Private Preview of Rajan Khosas Dance of the Wind
Rajan runs a production outfit in Mumbai called ELEPHANT EYE that is currently doing Mother Tongue, and also has Dance of the Wind and Flower Girl to its credit. Rajan, along with Pan Nalin, founded Monsoon Films in India in 1996 which went on to line-produce ‘Samsara’. Rajan has also served on the jury at various international film festivals.
Rajan is the voting member of BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Awards). He trained at the Royal college of Arts in London and at the Film and TV Inst. of India, his formative years were spent at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India.
The private preview was graced by director Ketan Mehta, Deepti Naval, and Yana Gupta.
