Mumbai /Sundance lab selects eight

The Lab kicked off on Mar 10 and runs through Mar 15 at a Club Mahindra Resort that allows the participants to immerse themselves in the process of learning their craft.

Creative advisors include Y Tu Mama Tambien co-writer Carlos Cuaron and The Warrior writer-director Asif Kapadia [pictured].

The eight writer-directors and their projects (all Indian unless otherwise indicated) are as follows.

The Music Teacher (Sarthak Dasgupta)
A small town music teacher’s life is turned upside down by the return of a celebrity former student. The lovelorn teacher braces himself to meet the now estranged student not knowing if she still has feelings for him;

Ink (Pratim D Gupta)
A struggling journalist stumbles upon a story, which is about to take the world of showbusiness by storm;

Black Freedom (Nitin Kakkar)
Black Freedom is a collection of five short stories that tell the tale of the late Urdu short story writer Saadat Hasan Manto’s dream to live in a world where an individual’s colour and religion do not create segregation;

Delirium (Abhijit Mazumdar)
The film centres on manic six people and their missions in the vast city of Mumbai;

Betamax (Terrie Samundra, India-US)
Two teens in London become unlikely friends and film-making collaborators in the summer of 1976 after the release of the first home video camcorder;

Tribhanga (Renuka Shahane)
The story follows three generations of women from the same family whose lives overlap and are affected by each other’s choices;

Television (Kavanjit Singh)
Television is a story about three men and their decisions in their constantly changing lives; and

Forgiven (Neha Sinha)
Amid the sociopolitical unrest of Kerala in 1987, a rebellious daughter from an upper caste family and her impressionable niece set into motion a series of events that end in tragedy.

“We are at an exciting storytelling stage in the history of independent cinema in India,” said Mumbai Mantra chairman Rohit Khattar. “With the help of our exceptional collaborator, Sundance Institute, we are keen to recognise, nurture and hone talent in India and across the world… We congratulate the eight Screenwriting Fellows selected for the second Mumbai Mantra | Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab and look forward to their next films with great anticipation.”

“Sundance Institute and Mumbai Mantra share a commitment to supporting the growth of independent artists in India, and we look forward with excitement to our second Screenwriters Lab together,” said Sundance Institute Feature Film Program founding director Michelle Satter and feature film programme international director Paul Federbush.

“We are grateful to the accomplished screenwriters who are bringing their expertise and generosity to the Lab as Creative Advisors and the very talented group of Indian screenwriters who have been selected for the Lab.”