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Agnivarsha at film festival
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Arjun Sajnani's eagerly-awaited debut film Agnivarsha based on Girish Karnad's rivetting play Agni Mattu Male (The Fire and the Rain) has been selected to open the Commonwealth Film Festival in Manchester in late June. The festival coincides with the Commonwealth Games being held in that City from June 25.
Naturally, Sajnani who runs the city's finest continental restaurant Sunny's and an antiques showroom, is ecstatic. ``We screened the movie at the American Film Mart in LA in February. Representatives of the British Film Institute liked it and shortlisted it. Two days ago, they said it would be the opening film.''
By all accounts, Sajnani has a winner on his hands, especially post-Lagaan, with all that hype about India's fabulous multilingual cinema industry.
Sajnani first directed Karnad's play to critical acclaim in 1998. It was based on a little-known myth from the Mahabharata about a seven-year long fire sacrifice designed to persuade the gods to send rain to a parched country. As the drama progresses Karnad illuminates such universal themes as love, loneliness, jealousy and faith.
``One day I realised it could be turned into a powerful film and began working on the script.''
Starting May last year, Sajnani began shooting in Hampi and wrapped up his dream in 65 days flat.
The cinematographer is Anil Mehta, who won the national award for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and also shot Lagaan. Lyrics are by Javed Akhtar, music by Sandesh Shandilya and the background score is by Taufiq Qureshi.
The movie stars Jackie Shroff, Nagarjuna, Milind Soman, Prabhudeva, Raveena Tandon, Sonali Kulkarni, Raghuvir Yadav, Mohan Agashe and others. Amitabh Bachchan makes a guest appearance.
The movie will be screened in India in the first week of July. Columbia Tristar is releasing the film with iDream Productions.
-The Times Of India.....
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