Two Indian films, Emraan Hashmi’s Harami and Ananth Mahadevan’s Bittersweet, have been nominated to compete for two top awards at the upcoming Busan International Film Festival, 2020. The festival is scheduled from October 21-30 and is one of the few film festivals which will go ahead despite the pandemic. Bittersweet is also the official selection for the festival.
Written and directed by Shyam Madiraju and featuring Emraan Hashmi, Harami has officially been selected to be a part of the main competition section (New Horizons) of the Busan International Film Festival 2020. Speaking about the nomination, Emraan said in a statement, “It was Shyam’s script that really attracted me to his project. And his obsession with details, it was very contagious. Kudos to Shyam and his Harami team for making it into the prestigious main competition section of the festival. It was a true passion project for all involved and I am looking forward to the day when we will be able to share the film with the Indian audience.”
Shyam also added, “As a filmmaker, I’m truly elated that Harami has been invited to be a part of Busan Festival’s main competition section. Korea is the epicentre of the filmmaking universe right now, so it’s an immense honour to be a part of their celebration of cinema this year. The film, a labor of love, took me over two years to just scout during numerous visits to India and despite all the monumental challenges we shot live in Victoria Terminus, Bombay Central, and other trains stations, a feat not for the faint-hearted. With crews over 200 including international talent from America, UK, Denmark and South Africa, Harami was a global production set in the slums of Dharavi and crowded streets of Mohamed Ali Road.”
Meanwhile, Bittersweet will compete for Jiseok award at the festival. Directed by Ananth Narayan Mahadevan and produced by Quest Films Pvt Ltd, Bittersweet will also have its world premiere at Busan film festival. Responding to the development, Ananth said, “It is indeed a great honour to be recognized at a top A-lister festival like the Busan International Film Festival, the biggest and most prestigious in the Asian continent.The concerted efforts to make a film that meets the standards of global cinema has borne fruit for my producers Suchhanda and Shubha Shetty and is a great shot-in-the-arm for us aiming to break the clutter.”
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, Bittersweet will compete for Jiseok award at the festival. Directed by Ananth Narayan Mahadevan and produced by Quest Films Pvt Ltd, Bittersweet will also have its world premiere at Busan film festival. Responding to the development, Ananth said, “It is indeed a great honour to be recognized at a top A-lister festival like the Busan International Film Festival, the biggest and most prestigious in the Asian continent.The concerted efforts to make a film that meets the standards of global cinema has borne fruit for my producers Suchhanda and Shubha Shetty and is a great shot-in-the-arm for us aiming to break the clutter.”
{{/usCountry}}“Bittersweet is an incisive look at human rights and the fight for survival in an extraordinary environment that is a dead end for women sugarcane cutters. It resonates in a universal context with its theme of human exploitation at the cost of scruples and an ecosystem upheaval in the future,” he added.
The film festival will open with Septet: The Story of Hong Kong. The film previously made it as the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival. The closing film for the festival will be animated Japanese film Josee, the Tiger and the Fish, directed by Tamaru Kotaro.
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