Sikandar, Samaantar nominated at Bollywood & Beyond film fest

‘Sikandar’ and ‘Samaantar’, produced by BIG Pictures have been nominated at ‘Bollywood & Beyond Film Festival’ to be held in Stuttgart, Germany from 14th – 19th July in 2009.

While ‘Sikandar’ has been selected as a part of the official competition and would compete for the ‘German Star of India’ award, Marathi language film ‘Samaantar’ is competing in the Audience Award category at the Festival.

“The selection of Sikandar and Samaantar reaffirm our strategy of taking Indian films global and are a strong shot in the arm for BIG Pictures’ efforts to walk away from the beaten track and produce world cinema titles in nine Indian languages,” Mahesh Ramanathan, Chief Operating officer, BIG Pictures said.

He hoped that showcasing of the films in the festival will help these films to expand their distribution footprint internationally.

“We are confident Sikandar’s bold counterpoint against terrorism will continue to resonate strongly in more festivals and with film makers around the world. With Samaantar Amol Palekar’s mastery of his craft has been rewarded again,” he said.

‘Sikandar’ is a suspense thriller starring Parzaan Dastur and Ayesha Kapur along with R Madhavan, Sanjay Suri and Arunoday Singh.

The film has been written and directed by Piyush Jha.

‘Sikandar’ was also recently screened at the International Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA).

‘Samaantar’ is a heart-wrenching drama starring Amol Palekar and Sharmila Tagore. The film is written by Sandhya Gokhale and directed by Amol Palekar himself.

The ‘Bollywood & Beyond Film Festival’ is the only festival in all of Germany which is entirely dedicated to Indian films.

The Festival started in the year 2004 and is currently in its fifth year.
In 2008, the festival had approximately 13,000 visitors.