Details Hammered Out for IFFLA

LOS ANGELES: The seventh annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) will feature In Prime Time: Hollywood’s Spotlight on India seminars in its lineup of events, which run from April 21 to 26 at ArcLight Hollywood.

The IFFLA will also feature a special screening of Big Pictures’ dramatic thriller Sikandar, which follows the events that occur after an innocent boy in Kashmir becomes involved in a power struggle between militant groups as he finds a gun on his way home from school.

IFFLA and PricewaterhouseCoopers are also offering two separate panels focused on Indian entertainment and filmmaking. Following opening comments by Emanuel Nunez and David Tenzer and remarks regarding the state of the Indian entertainment industry by Marcel Fenez, the managing partner of global entertainment and media practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Smita Jha, the director from the India entertainment and media practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers, attendees will have the opportunity to hear discussions with executives from Disney, Fox, Hyde Park Entertainment, Film Independent, NFDC, Nuclear Mango Studios and Phat Phish. Also participating in the panel discussions will be IFFLA honoree and Bollywood icon Anil Kapoor. The panel topics are "Producing Indian Content for the Indian and International Market" and "Film Financing: Co-productions and Alternatives."

The panels will follow the presentation of the IFFLA Industry Leadership Awards to Richard Fox, the executive VP of Warner Bros. International, and Amit Khanna, the chairman of Reliance BIG Entertainment. Presenting the awards will be Walt Disney International chairman Andy Bird and Deborah Bothun, an entertainment media and communications advisory leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers. The award presentation will be made at the IFFLA Industry Leadership Award Luncheon, and the event will also include a musical performance by Gingger Shankar.

IFFLA’s Rhythm Village, presented by Rukus Avenue, will feature free public outdoor entertainment. Among the scheduled performances are the South Asian acapella group Andaaz, performing duo The Dyad, music artist Hoodini, the desi outfit O.C.P., IFFLA alumni and sketch performer Rasika Mathur, the experimental fusion group The Rhetoricalz and singer/songwriter Tasneem Nanji.

Christina Marouda, IFFLA’s festival director, said, "These seminars and the IFFLA Industry Leadership Awards are major business events for this festival which has always placed an emphasis on strengthening the bonds between the creative side of the Indian and Hollywood entertainment and film community with the business interests that can further their art."