Deepti DCunha Talks About Jio MAMI's Focus on South-Asian Cinema, Bhumi Pednekar's Contribution | Exclusive

Four years after its last physical edition, Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival is back to bringing together filmmakers and cinephiles from across the board. The film festival will run from October 27 to November 5 at Mumbai’s NMACC. This year, MAMI has focused its spotlight on south-Asian cinema and talents which will facilitate a healthy and informative exchange between filmmakers from different regions and has created a space for international press. In an exclusive chat with News18, Deepti DCunha, Artistic Director, Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, says that the idea this year is to ‘expand the scope of the festival’.

DCunha’s association with MAMI goes back to 2015 when she worked as part of the Indian selection team till 2019 where she ‘sourced films and programmed them’ for sections like India Gold, India Story and Spotlight. In our interaction, she speaks about her vision for this year’s MAMI, Bhumi Pednekar’s recent association with the festival, how Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sonam Kapoor Ahuja’s presence will help grab more eyeballs and more. Excerpts:

What was the thought behind the focus on south-Asian cinema?

One of the main aspects of our new expanded vision is that we’ve extended our competition section beyond the Indian competition section, which already had become the place for Indian independent filmmakers to come and compete, to south-Asian competition. We’re now including countries in south-Asia and we want MAMI to become the hub of south-Asia because we do believe that there’s talent not only within India but also countries around India who don’t have a film festival of their own. Mumbai city can accommodate that because we are not only the financial capital of the country but also very passionate about films. One of the biggest film industries in India is in Mumbai. We definitely want talents to come here from south-Asian regions because we’ve some really incredible directors there. We’re culturally very similar and our stories are similar. So, there will be a possibility to have MAMI as the festival from where they break out to the rest of the world. To enable this, we’ve come up with the south-Asia competition section and south-Asia non-competition section. We’re open to shorts, features and films of all lengths by filmmakers at any stage of their careers.

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This year, we also have a filmmakers program in which we’re inviting international debuts and second films along with their directors. There will also be a curated list of screenings of these films for our south-Asian directors and then have case studies presented to them so that filmmakers can learn from each other how films are produced around the world by watching and exchanging stories. We’ll also have other kinds of panels and workshops, which are aimed at upscaling the filmmakers, providing newer trends in the market and sensitising them about how to approach content.

So, will we see any international talents coming in this year?

Most definitely. We’ve extended our invite to a lot of senior filmmakers who’re excited but we can’t reveal their names yet. But as always, MAMI can guarantee that Indian and south-Asian cinephiles will get a lifelong memory of seeing someone who they would’ve never seen in India if it hadn’t been for MAMI.

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Bhumi Pednekar has come onboard as the Brand Ambassador for Dimensions Mumbai recently. What do you think that as an actor like her brings to the table?

An actor of her calibre always brings incredibility. If you look at her choice of films, she does mainstream films but all of them are very different from the regular mainstream films. She’s very careful about the role she chooses. She’s an extremely talented actress but what really works for us is her enthusiasm, energy and passion for the city of Mumbai. So, we wanted her to be the face of Dimensions Mumbai. She’s a Mumbai girl and she gets the heart of it. She has grown so much in the industry. It’s not like she directly became an actor, she worked her way to the top.

Thanks to her, people started talking about Dimensions Mumbai. We got so many requests saying, ‘Why are you capping it at 25? Can’t we all submit five minute films?’ We think Bhumi is the perfect fit for the category where we’re looking at filmmakers below the age of 25. We’re so happy that she has given us her time and energy and she has a wonderful team. We truly had an amazing time working with her.

Vishal Bhardwaj and Farhan Akhtar are board members. Sonam Kapoor Ahuja is the brand ambassador for Options Market ‘Word To Screen’. Priyanka Chopra Jonas is also attending the festival. How do you think their presence will help MAMI have a wider reach?

We’ve to remember that MAMI is a privately funded film festival and it’s happening in the city of Mumbai. All these names are people from Mumbai and work in this industry. But their stardom is global because of the work they’ve done and the brands they support. Priyanka, Sonam, Farhan and Vishal’s films have travelled all over the world. The other board members like Rana Daggubati, Kabir Khan, Vikramaditya Motwane and Zoya Akhtar all of who care about cinema. And they’re supporting us throughout. Through the board meetings and when we interact with them, they give us a lot of insights in terms of the decisions that we want to take. They give us the encouragement and help us out by reaching out to people they’ve contacts with. We all come together to make something special for the city we live in and love. It’s almost as if we’re giving back to Mumbai city. They’re recognised names. They pick up the phone and can help us push.

As a film festival, we don’t charge per screening. The cost of making films is really high. It’s only because they make time for us that we’re able to get sponsors and brands that give us the money to run this festival. It’s not easy to get international films. They’re very expensive. They come to MAMI but they don’t release in India. We’ve to pay a premium which isn’t passed on to the consumer and for that, we have to take money from the sponsors. Sponsors will have some confidence in the festival only if it has some big names attached to it. And that’s where our board members have shown incredible support.