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Dubai Film Market is introducing a selection of Indian projects for the first time this year through a partnership with Europe’s Pjlf Three Rivers Residency.

The five projects are being scripted by hot new talents such as Kanu Behl, whose debut feature Titli premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2014, and Raj Rishi More, whose project is being produced by The Lunchbox director Ritesh Batra.

The Three Rivers residency provides writer-directors with a month-long distraction-free space to work on their scripts in the Italian countryside, with the help of an expert mentor, before presenting their projects at Diff. Although focusing on Indian projects in its first year, the organisers hope to open the programme to international writer-directors, including those from the Arab world, from next year.

“We feel writers sometimes need a much more concentrated period to hone their ideas and get away from all the distractions of a day job and daily life,” said producer...

The 'Guru Shishya' jodi of Naseeruddin Shah and Randeep Hooda will reunite after a long gap of eleven years for a film titled John Day. The first film that saw them together was Randeep's debut film Monsoon Wedding where he got an opportunity to share screen space with Naseer saab. From there on, Randeep, who is an ardent fan of Naseer saab's work, got along well with him and they have been doing a lot of theatre work together. Now John Day gives them an opportunity to share screen space yet again. Directed by Ahishor Solomon and produced by Anjum Rizvi (who earlier produced A Wednesday) along with K. Asif, John Day will be ana edge of the seat revenge drama. Randeep, who considers Naseer saab as his Guru, friend and a confidant is extremely glad to have finally got a script that will do justice to both his character and that of Naseer saab's.

Certain things have to be a straightforward gesture and not a dim-witted thought. Sathyaraj is well known for delivering some interestingly amusing speech at special film junctures. But recently during the audio launch of ‘Guru Shishyan’, he was out of his mind in comparing an amateur actor like Sundar C with living legend Mohan Lal.

During the occasion, Sathyaraj said, “Sundar C is so genuine and performs each and every shot with perfection just like Mohanlal.

The film’s audio was launched by executive members of Tamil film producers Council and other associations. Dheena has scored music for the film with Kabilan penning the lyrics. Sakthi Chidambaram has directed and produced the film under the banner name of Cinema Paradise. Though Sathyaraj wouldn’t be spotted in his usual role, there will be lots of his ‘Lollu’ factors. Hema Malini now renamed as Shruthi seems to have shown extreme glamour in this film.