It all began when Aakash decided to make himself a pocket for a T-shirt. The choices online seemed too pricy, which lead him to cut a slice off his bed sheet and go to a local tailor to get it stitched. Aakash enounces, ‘We spoke about that and thought maybe we can purchase different pockets on different coloured T-shirts where the pocket had different graphics or a different kind of art on it – basically an Indian craft.’

‘People really don’t know much about crafts and traditions in India,’ exclaims Aakash. Pocket India is trying to target the urban youth, spread awareness about the different kinds of textile printing techniques and crafts while generating employment for local tailors in Mumbai. ‘Girls still know something because they wear kurtas and sarees, but how much do you really know about it? You may know that there’s a floral pattern [on it] but you have no clue about where it’s from or how it’s made.’

Even though the T-shirts use the crafted fabric for only a small pocket, the T-shirts have an initial of the state where the craft is practiced, and a detailed information about the craft on the online store. Every T-shirt is highly personalized. The boys source fabric from local markets and sit with each and every T-shirt, match colours with the fabric for pockets, attach it to the T-shirts and send it out to the tailors for running up. ‘Every pocket is different because depending on where you cut the fabric, the pocket changes pattern and intensity of colour. Also, once they are tailored and stitched, we stamp the initials on our own.’ Once the tailors have stitched some T-shirts for them, they create tailors’ profiles and put them up so that buyers have an insight to the entire process and can provide them with more employment opportunities in the future.

We also got to know that if the T-shirts do well, then the boys plan on expanding the idea of Pocket India to other objects as well. Aakash, being a product designer and Tanay a transportation designer, both from DSK ISD International School of Design, Pune, want to take the iconic shape of a pocket and introduce it to lifestyle products such as pillow covers and jackets with pockets.

The vibrant T-shirts catch one’s eye, celebrate Indian tradition and culture and are a limited edition. Thirty T-shirts that got launched yesterday are available online on Tadpole Store.

By: Aditi Veena Gupta
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©Mohit Kapil

Only 23 kms off Nainital, Naukuchiatal is a picturesque mountain beauty, encompassing a lake that forms a grandiose backdrop to the performances. Spread across three days, people can choose to camp in the woods, rent out huts or rejoice on a day pass if they’re making a day trip. Two independent stages – the Soul Garden(Blues/Jazz/Reggae) and the Magic Forest (EDM/Rock) are located at different parts of the Lake Resort, Naukuchiatal.

The line-up boasts of musicians from Delhi such as dub/reggae eight-piece Ska Vengers, electro rockers Fuzz Culture, Faridkot and Sanchal Malhar along with bands from other parts of the country like Warren Mendonsa and Karsh Kale’s Blackstratblues, alternate rockers Thermal and A Quarter from Bengaluru and Nagaland pop rock group Alobo Naga & The Band. Visual artists and photographers like Pallavi Rajkhowa, Wack, Mahima Bhatia, Kuntal Mukherjee, Nitin Bal Chauhan and Aakash Anand exhibit their work. There are also film screenings planned. ‘We’ve partnered with Shamiana Films down in Bombay and Magic Lamp Films who will showcase the The Oscar Short Film Collection,’ expresses Mama.

Bhayanak Maut at Escape 2012 ©Mohit Kapil

Escape sticks to its roots when it comes to promoting independent music. ‘It’s not that we have anything against commercial bands. I think it would be nice to have people who are still on their way up, and on the way to making it in the industry.’ When we asked Mama what the future holds for Escape, he exclaimed, ‘The future is to have artists from all walks of life, where whether you are a painter or photographer, a musician or a filmmaker, you’d like to call it your home. Where artists can think, “I can do what I want here. I can do what I feel and express myself. Not just for the public but for myself, for my celebration.”’
Escape really is a big festival of jubilation, a platform for the young and upcoming, a destination for the established, a charming getaway for art lovers and nature enthusiasts and a big escape from the Delhi heat.

Check http://escapefestival.in/ for more details.

By: Aditi Veena Gupta
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1. ..Ebang Bewarish  (..And the unclaimed) 

Director: Debalina

61 min | 2012 | Bengali with English Subtitles

The movie connects the stories of four protagonists to two girls who committed suicide in Nadigram, West Bengal, India. The girls decided to give up their lives because of the violence that they faced from the society and their families. After their death, their unclaimed bodies wait in the mortuary to be cremated together, which was one of the girls’ last wishes. The film explores the notion of non acceptance in Indian rural societies.

2. FACING MIRRORS (Aynehaye Rooberoo)

Director: NegarAzarbayjani

102 min | 2011|Farsi with EST |Iran

Facing Mirrors is the first narrative film from Iran to have a transgender play the lead role. It explores the story of a conservative, young woman, Rana who secretly drives a Taxi to pay off family debts. Rana picks up a passenger who turns out to be a transgender. For Rana, this is strange truth and the film highlights the friction between the two which eventually ends in a coincidental bond.

3. MY LAST ROUND (Mi Último Round) 

Dir: Julio Jorquera Arriagada 
87 min |2011 | Chile, Argentina

Octavio is a local boxing champ who falls in love with Hugo who works at a small restaurant. Octavio is advised never to box again for he has a medical condition in his brain, and the couple decides to move to the capital Santiago, desiring a better future.  Things don’t go as planned with Octavio’s boss’s daughter making advances at him. An impressive and earnest film from Chile and Argentina, My Last Round is a beautiful rendition of a homosexual relationship between two men who live is a machismo city.

4. CALL ME KUCHU

Director: Katherine Fairfax Wright & MalikaZouhali-Worrall

87 min | 2012 |  English, Luganda with EST | USA, Uganda

This is a documentary Feature film set around David Kato – Uganda’s first openly gay man who works with his fellow activists to get countermanded a new bill that threatens to make homosexuality punishable by death. Christian fanatics and local newspapers threaten Kato and his activists almost daily and call them “kuchus” – a derogatory word for the LGBT community of Uganda. Their efforts spread awareness to the country and shock the rest of the world.

5. GIGOLA 

Dir:  Laure Charpentier
(2010) 102 min / Feature | FRANCE |

Gigola is adapted and directed by Laure Charpentier from her own novel, Gigola. Set in the 60’s, Gigola narrates the tale of woman, Georgina who is devastated after her lover’s death and surrenders herself to lesbianism. It recounts her infamous nocturnal associations at the Place Pigalle, her clashes with prostitutes and pimps and eventually how she falls in love with a pandar and a prostitute at the same time.

The festival is themed `Towards Change’ this year. You can catch the films from May 22^nd to the 26^th at Cinemax Versova, Andheri West and from May 23^rd to 25^th at Alliance Française de Bombay, Marine Lines. Check www.mumbaiqueerfest.com for detailed schedule and listings.

By: Aditi Veena Gupta
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Bhol met Shweta Mohapatra, a visual artist at a design workshop in Bhubaneswar in 2005. She had illustrated several books for children and the two instantly connected through the idea of using Pattachitra artisans to produce animation films and books for children and that was the birth of Collective Craft.

Bhol spent a lot of time travelling extensively to the remote parts of the state where he lived with various craftsmen and artisans and worked with them to assimilate, gather and celebrate their craft traditions, while encouraging them to look at the different possibilities and opportunities with craft. He was appalled and disturbed by their living and working conditions. He tells us ‘At a design workshop in Bhubaneswar, I was confronted by a group of young artisans with a simple, straightforward question – Can you help us get some decent employment?’

Collective Craft, is trying to find a fresher and evolved context for craft traditions of Odisha while trying to generate sustainable rural employment. Their workshop is located in Bhubaneswar and the products are only assembled and finished there. Artisans from different part of Odisha work on the projects at home. ‘We try and take the work to the Artisan rather than ask them to relocate away from home.’ Says Bhol. Artisans form the backbone of this collective and are involved and engaged in every part of the process. The duo also makes sure that the artisans understand the change in design and the change in application of their craft.

The studio started out with two artisans and has expanded to about ten. Being a contemporary design studio, they try to interlace contemporary design aesthetics with traditional crafts to create environment friendly design solutions. ‘The Temple Architecture and its exquisite stone carvings inspire most of our work. The design process begins with an exploration of the Craft – its materials, techniques and skills. We study the existing craft language, explore the comfort zone of the Artisans and then design our products.’ Most of the work is product design, though the studio also takes up installations and spaces in collaboration with various other Architects and Designers. Their products are quirky, beautiful and unlike anything we’ve seen before. They range from beautiful candle holders which are lotuses carved from stone to wooden jewellery boxes inlayed with intricate stonework to larger spaces painted with Pattachittra tails.

Collective Craft through its small scale of enterprise, tries to answer larger questions about sustainability, craft revival and artisans’ livelihoods. Bhol and Shweta are now building a small gallery next to the workshop which would be constructed with rammed earth bamboo and hay. ‘I hope it will serve as a place of inspiration and encouragement to other people who want to build using mud.’ exclaimes Bhol.

By: Aditi Veena Gupta
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AVIAL| blueFrog, Mumbai | 22nd May | 10 p.m.
True to their name, Avial (a mixed-vegetable delicacy) blends Malayalam Poetry with Contemporary Alternative Rock Music. With elements of Indie Rock and Folk Music underlying an electronic feel, Avial’s music has overcome language barriers not only in India but is also drawing fans across the sub-continent and the globe. It has an increasing fan following, with a revolutionary approach in today’s contemporary music scene in India.

Escape Music Festival | Naukuchiatal | 24th May to 26th May | All day
 A unique festival started in May 2009 when a few musicians and like-minded people decided to get away from New Delhi for a few days. They chose a picturesque resort at Naukuchiatal, at the foothills of the himalayas which became their Escape. Escape, has grown since then to become one of India’s foremost outdoor art, music & camping festival.

Shaai’r and Func | blueFROG, Delhi | 18th May | 10.30 p.m.
Shaai’r and Func return to Delhi to launch their new Album. You don’t want to miss this!

THEATRE


Gandhi | IIC, Delhi | 23rd May| 6.30 p.m.
Director and writer R’jesh Bali’s masterpiece, Gandhi is set in post partition India. It revolves around Gandhi’s efforts to deal with widespread violence.

Manto| NCPA, Mumbai | 21st May | 6.30 p.m.
The Actors’ Studio of Whistling Woods International, Mumbai, present Manto, a stage production based on the stories of Saadat Hasan Manto. It is the birth centenary year of the leading writer of the sub-continent, who is credited with some of the most poignant short stories in Indian literature. The production picks three of Manto’s stories – Nangi Awaazein, Hatak and Akhri Salute as a tribute to the great writer.

FILM

Quartet screening | Epicentre, Apparel House, Sector 44, Gurgaon | May 21st  | 7.30 p.m.
A Japanese film narrating stories about a family of musicians who form a quartet.

Godard Film Festival | Russian Centre for Science and Culture, Mumbai | May 25th to May 26th  | 12 p.m.
Known for his experimentation with style, Godard is considered as one of the foremost names in cinema. The festival showcases four of his greatest films from the early 1960′s when he first came into prominence.

ART/ PHOTOGRAPHY

Something about Hair | Alliance Francaise, Delhi | Ongoing| 11a.m. – 7p.m.
French photographer Oriane Zerah explores the cultural associations with hair in different cultures and countries. Oriane Zerah has settled in Kabul. She works with different NGOs and Institutions, such as AFD (Agence Française de Developpement).

Freedom to march: Rediscovering Gandhi through Dandi | 1 AQ Qutb Minar Main Roundabout, Delhi | Ongoing| 11a.m. – 7p.m. 

Commemmorating 73 years of Dandi MArch, this exhibition includes artists like A. Ramachandran, Jaggannath Panda, Gigi Scaria, KS Radhakrishnan, Manjunath Kamath and Rameshwar Broota.

Battle Worn | Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai | Ongoing (Except Sundays) | 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
In any war, there are warriors and victims, and often they meet the same fate. Such is the scenario presented in K. G. Subramanyan’s 36 feet-long canvas Wars of the Relics, where those who bleed and those who invade, those who fall and those who attack, are dealt the same inevitable hand – that of destruction and great sorrow.

EVENTS
 

Comedy to go |blueFrog, Delhi | 24th May| 8.30 p.m. 

The international political thriller starring Riz Ahmed as the protagonist, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, Liev Schreiber, Martin Donovan, Om Puri and Shabana Azmi was premeried at the Venice Biennale in 2012. Mira Nair has been working on the film since 2009. She tells Platform, ‘It was the most challenging adaptation and it took us three years to get it right, because Mohsin’s novel is a monologue.’ Mohsin Ahmed co-wrote the first draft of the screenplay and Mira candidly recalls, ‘I was really interested in the Pakistani family. I love family – in my films, there is lot of ‘mazak’, a lot of ‘tamasha’. In fact Mohsin used to joke when we were writing the first two drafts [of the script] in Lahore. He would say, “You are making it another Monsoon Wedding!”’

Riz Ahmed shares his excitement, ‘It’s a dream role. I loved the novel, and I love Mira as a director, and I feel it’s a very resonant story of our times.’ He feels that the movie is very rich, and hopes that, ‘people walk away from this film with lots that they want to discuss and talk about.’

When we ask Mira what she would want her audience to take away from the movie, she enthuses, ‘I would love it that if people would see it and then reflect on their place in the world. And to try to reflect on that and to see or think – does it matter where they live? Where does one belong ultimately?’ Mira says she was deeply touched by the few pages in the novel about the Janissaries. The Janissaries were Christian children who were orphaned and trained ruthlessly by the Ottoman Empire to become deadly killers. She says the story takes a new turn when Changez realizes what he is becoming. The film attempts to bridge the East to the West, while questioning the so-called truth that is handed to us. Mira’s films have always beautifully weaved multicultural stories and complex narratives to leave the audience curious and introspective. We can’t wait to see what The Reluctant Fundamentalist has to deliver. 

The film releases on Friday, 17th May, 2013 in local theaters. In English and Urdu with subtitles. 128 minutes.

Mira Nair opens her world to Platform, sharing snippets of her life and journey as a filmmaker in Platform’s, Literature issue [May/Jun] ’13.

By: Aditi Veena Gupta
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What is your new label, Soup-Herb all about?
Ash: Soupherb Records is something that I wanted to start a long time ago but since I was doing Jalebee Cartel full time, I did not do it then. It’s basically a platform where we will be featuring artists from India as well as from the rest of the world. The aim of the label is to provide an outlet for forward thinking and experimental music producers in the genres of Techno, Minimal, House and all the sub genres that go with it.

Jalebee Cartel was one of the oldest and most recognized electronic acts. Now that it has been called off indefinitely, do you feel you’re starting from scratch now? What was your motivation to start this new project?
Ash: This is just an extension of whatever we have done in the past. We just thought that this is the right time to start.

Ashvin: You know, starting from scratch is not always a bad thing. It means we can build this label and our brand just the way we want to. Jalebee was out first big step and brought us to a certain place. Now we would like to move in another direction and so we must start at the beginning to tell a convincing story. I think what motivated us was the will to move forward and continue on our musical journey .

Tell us about some of the high (or low) points of your career so far.
Ash: There are a lot of situations that have been a high point, but the most favourite one is when we performed as Jalebee Cartel at Paradiso, Amsterdam for the first time. Paradiso is an old Church that they converted into a Live Venue/Night Club and a lot of legendary bands such as the Rolling Stones, Metallica etc have performed there. We were invited to perform there and the gig was spectacular but to top it off we also got the opportunity to listen to Rodrigo & Gabriela Live ‘coz they played before us. This was one of my high points in my career.

Ashvin: I think as artists we go through many ups and downs. The high points are there for everyone to see. All the great gigs and concerts we have had, but the low points are a lot more personal I guess. Even not being able to produce an idea into a piece of music can get you very low.

You’ve inspired and led the way for many young electronic artists. Are there any new kids on the block we should watch out for? What do you think of the current indie EDM scene in India?
Ash: There are quite a few upcoming producers in India who are really good. The ones you should watch out for are Arnold from Mumbai (AFM) & Audio Units, Vinayaka, Praveen Achary, Vipul Angrish, Hamza, among the others. The current indie EDM situation is just growing in India. We are just on a rise….I have a feeling that India is going to be one of the main hubs of EDM here in Asia.

Ashvin: Glad to be of assistance   The current scene in India is leaps and bounds ahead of when we began. We had to really fight for every gig and actually made our money from doing production work for TV, fashion shows and stuff like that. The gig money was just for drinks at that night. Now it is a career option and that is amazing.

Tell us about your live act. What are your rigs like? Are venues able to provide the kind of sound equipment that your music needs?
Ash: Yeah, when we used to perform as Jalebee Cartel LIVE, then our rig used to be huge. The only equipment the venue provided were the main PA’s, stage monitors and microphones. Most live venues are equipped with all this. Right now I carry my Mac Book Pro, Motu Microbook 2 Sound Card & Allen & Heath K2 Midi Controller. I carry my percussions only when required.

Ashvin: Currently we are working on another live act. This time we are trying to simplify our rigs so that we are able to perform more easily. We try to minimize the equipment that others have to provide so that there is less chance of something going wrong. Unfortunately, many venues are not built for a live band to perform and so the experience can be unfulfilling for the band and the venue.  The new live act would also be centered around a more live feel with more musicians joining in.

How do you feel about collaboration and remixes? Are there any artists out there you would like to do a mix for?
Ash: I would like to remix Josh Wink & Matador.

Ashvin: Collaboration is the backbone of musical growth. As an individual, I normally know exactly how I would produce a track but, when I work with someone else it always leads to exciting new areas as one tends to break the pattern one normally has. I would love to remix so many good tracks out there.. Difficult to choose.

What’s on the horizon for you guys as artists?
Ash: Many more interesting collaborations, playing gigs all over the world, finding new talent for our label, releasing our tracks on bigger labels….the list is long, it just doesn’t stop.

Ashvin: My new solo project Calm Chor is a completely experimental dance music project. I am also working on another band with Ash Roy and Madhav Shorey (Kohra) which would be a more live/song based experience.

You can listen to their music here, or catch them live by following them here.

By: Aditi Veena Gupta
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Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Karan Johar’s Bombay Talkies, is being featured as a tribute to 100 years of Indian Cinema. Bombay Talkies is an anthology film consisting of four short films, one from each director, giving their perspectives on films and their love for Indian cinema.

Amit Kumar‘s debut Monsoon Shootout will be featured in the midnight screening program. The structure for Monsoon Shootout finds inspiration from Akira Kurosawa’s classic, Rashomon. It explores the life of a rookie cop and the decisions he has to make in order to stick to his ideals.

Satyajit Ray’s Charulata finds its way to the Cannes Classics. Charulata is based on a story by Rabindranath Tagore, Nastanirh (The Broken Nest) and set in Calcutta in the late nineteenth century. It is a story of a strong, intelligent and beautiful woman who is falls in love with her husband’s younger brother.

Ritish Batra’s Dabba – The Lunchbox will be screened at the Cannes Critics’ Week. Dabba is a story of a young housewife and an old man, connected together by a mistaken delivery of a lunchbox, who then build a fantasy world by exchanging notes in the lunchbox.

Anurag Kashyap’s Ugly will be screened in the Directors’ Fortnight category of the Cannes Film festival. A thriller and drama, Ugly hasn’t released to the Indian audience yet.

Thomas Mathai and Sreeraj Nadarajan’s debut Alfie, a short experimental movie also finds its way to the festival. Alfie is based on the Freudian interpretation of dreams and explores the story of a young girl who falls asleep on a lonely island only to have unhinged dreams.

Vidya Balan will be part of the jury panel of 66th Cannes Film Festival and Nandita Das will be on the jury of the Cine Foundation and short film categories. If you’re not headed to the festival, then make sure you watch these at home!

 By: Aditi Veena Gupta
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Smoke House Deli

A fresher, bigger, and beautiful Smoke House Deli opened last Sunday in Hauz Khas Village. With tremendous attention to detail and narrative artwork floating across the walls, columns and certain parts of the ceiling, this cafe makes us fall in love with Smoke House all over again. Kriti, the founder of Turmeric Design and the girl behind the beautiful illustrations tells us, ‘The idea of the Smoke House Deli was creating a space that feels like walking into a sketchbook.’

When Smokehouse Deli began expanding, the designers started thinking about how this could be taken one-step further. ‘We saw people were connecting very well with the space. Unlike museums and textbooks or other forms of research which are like a history lesson, here you have a captive audience in a restaurant spending time, looking around at the walls, so it’s actually such a great canvas for being able to tell much richer stories.’

Previous branches of Smoke House done by the Busride Studio, intended to weave stories about food into the context and history of the immediate neighbourhood. Keeping the same ideas, Turmeric stepped in to do its Khan Market and HKV counterparts. It drew inspiration from the tales that  it could illustrate. ‘I have a great interest Delhi, the stories and the history of it. Delhi has layers and layers of stories that I absolutely love.’

Khan Market also happens to be where Kriti grew up and the Smoke House at Khan Market was inspired from the post independence nostalgia and history of the market. The one in Hauz Khas village narrates the evolution of the place through centuries reflecting upon various different layers of culture and stories.

Artwork with subtle references to the stories and songs of today

Artwork depicting the deer park

‘As you keep digging, there are layers and layers of history where you just stop your clock. You move back a 100 years, and it is entirely different. You move back another 400 years, and it is completely different. So, that’s what we did with HKV,’ shares Kriti. The artwork leads off with the rich 14th century culture; ideas about music, languages, hydraulic architecture and the built, intermittently meandering to whimsical and superimposed mix of fictitious and historical fables. The long and narrow length of the restaurant forms a kind of invisible timeline for the stories to unfold, and the stories move forward in time to when the village of Tarabad grew to become an urban village and saw the city of Delhi grow around it. The walls are painted with illustrations exploring the aspect of independent and alternative culture, depicting another revival when the designers, antique shops and indie artists moved in. Deer Park or the Lungs of Delhi also find their way in to frame the last part of the beautiful hand drawn illustrations. ‘For us it was very interesting to see how the culture has strangely sort of continued through time. It has meant this spark of a little place where like minded people would get together, develop stuff, collaborate and talk about interesting work. It’s like that place has always seen this interesting space for culture, learning and experimentation!’ exclaims Kriti.

Kriti’s optimism and her love for Delhi, its history and culture is contagious and she hopes that, ‘people will see more into the place that exists or be able to imagine that it used to be much better. And celebrate this dream vision of an area so that more and more people see that and come into a collective vision and start celebrating that place for what it is.’

Turmeric Design’s ability to attractively marry illustration and graphic design sets them apart, and gives them wider palette of options to choose from. They operate out of Delhi and are working on several visual and brand communication projects. If you have never been to Smoke House, then you should, and if you do, take a walk around the restaurant  to get infused by Kriti’s enthusiasm!

By: Aditi Veena Gupta
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The issue also features the iconic filmmaker Mira Nair who opens her world to us, and takes us through the various phases of her life, culminating in the release of her much anticipated, the Reluctant Fundamentalist. The iconoclastic storyteller, Qaushiq Mukherjee returns with a bizarre adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore’s Tasher Desh and reveals his interest behind creating the film. Romance seeps into the pages of our Fashion spread, as we pay homage to the literary staple, Pride and Prejudice that completes 200 years in print. Five illustrious fashion designers give their contemporary take on Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy through their beautifully thought-out ensembles.

We have all this and much more in our exciting new Literature issue (May/Jun ’13)!

RETROSPECTIVE
The Man Who Once Held A Pipe | Jeet Thayil

Jeet Thayil, author of Narcopolis. Photography Raoul Amaar Abbas

Join us as the Booker nominee and DSC Prize winner, Jeet Thayil pulls out stories and chapters from his life in an intimate one-on-one with Platform. The interview also carries an exclusive extract from this forthcoming novel, Sex Lives of the Saints.

LISTED
The Reading List | Mohsin Hamid | Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni | Paul Harding | Manil Suri | Amit Chaudhuri | Elizabeth Gilbert

Here's our Reading List for 2013!

Platform pens a reading list for you, putting together a formidable brigade of authors, whose books releasing this year should be on every word lover’s bookshelf.

FORECAST
Their Own Reality | Anjan Sundaram | Anthony Marra | Avni Doshi | Meena Kandasamy | Chinelo Okparanta | NoViolet Bulawayo

They are young, determined and have been touted as the most promising new comers to arrive on the literary scene. They share what the pages of their debut creations have to offer.

EXCLUSIVE
The Test of My Life | Cricketer Yuvraj Singh

A biography suffused with tales about struggles, denial, acceptance and uncharted victories, Yuvraj Singh’s personal account about his life before cancer, with cancer and after cancer, is as gripping as it is inspiring.

INTERVIEW
Salaam Mira Nair | Filmmaker Mira Nair

In an interview pickled with laughter and candid gestures, the cinematic demigod rummages through her memory to chronicle her journey as a filmmaker from the days of Salaam Bombay to The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

CENTRESTAGE
Tasher Desh | Filmmaker Qaushiq Mukherjee

‘I do not put people in a target group. Having said that, the resonance of it will be the loudest in people who know the script and know of the script, so mainly Bengalis. And then I tried to make it in a way that mirrored my affection for Manga and for design-oriented filmmaking and new musical like Dancing in the Dark. So this kind of temperament will make its appeal wider and reach the art house crowd as well.’ – Q Mukherjee on the celluloid adaption of Tagore’s Tasher Desh.

INFORM
The Catalyst | Brand Strategist Nik Thakkar

Nik Thakkar is a creative brand strategist who encourages accessibility and initiates cross-over creativity between fashion and consumer brands. The collaborations between Diet Coke and fashion icons such as Karl Lagerfeld (2011), Jean Paul Gaultier (2012) and Marc Jacobs (2013), is a prominent campaign Nik worked on.

NEW MEDIA
The Other Side of Time | Samanta Batra Mehta

Samanta’s work in her debut solo exhibition in India broadly maps connections between the human condition and the environment we inhabit. An insatiable collector of antiquarian books, historical maps, prints and objects of interest, Samanta has devlved into her personal collections to depict themes that incorporate personal identity, gender constructs and colonial history.

DESIGN | Fashion Designer Rina Singh, Eka

‘Layered indigo dyed voiles with hand-stitched kantha detailing on the neck…long dresses that fall on the body with little pleat details on the shoulder…thin khadi dresses that make you feel so rich and special,’ are a string of phrases that Rina uses to describe her indigenous fashion label, Eka.

STYLE

Platform celebrates 200 years of the immortal love story, Pride and Prejudice. We ask five master fashion designers to give their renditions of the present day, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy.

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