Moderated by Deepti D’Cunha, the panelists at this session included respected Festival Programmers Paolo Bertolin and Uma D’Cunha, Sales Agent Chris Paton, and filmmakers Raam Reddy (Thithi) and Kanu Behl (Titli), whose debuts have received much critical acclaim. A riveting conversation on the intricacies of the business side of the film industry was as enlightening as it was engrossing. The importance of promoting your film was emphasised, with some gems of advice from the industry veterans.
“It is difficult for independent films in India to get selected at a festival like Venice Film Festival, and whenever a filmmaker does get the rare opportunity to promote their film, they should grab it. After years, there were two Indian films, Court and Visaranai, that were screened there,” Paolo Bertolin said. “Although this piece of advice is getting more and more controversial, you should get a sales agent, because they are the ones who know how to maximise your positioning within the festival and who already know how to work with and within the festival. You are faced with many challenges, and you don’t need to do this alone. If you don’t manage to get a sales agent, you should at least get a press agent, so that the film gets the widest exposure and reaches your target audience.”
“NFDC Film Bazaar really changed my life, and it gave me a wealth of knowledge. I was completely clueless when I came here,” Raam Reddy said candidly. “I owe my entire career to NFDC Film Bazaar, because I received so much constructive criticism and feedback from the Work-In-Progress Lab. Dreams can be built here.”
Leave a Reply