National Award-winning filmmaker Aditya Vikram Sengupta's third film, Once Upon a Time in Calcutta, has been selected in the Orizzonti (Horizons) section of the 78th Venice International Film Festival. It is the only Indian film to have its world premiere at the festival, which will be held from September 1-11.
Sengupta's association with Venice Film Festival is not new. His debut movie, Asha Jaoar Majhe, won the FEDEORA award for the best debut at the festival’s Venice Days section in 2014. Speaking about what the festival signifies for him Aditya told The Quint, "I am grateful to the Venice Film Festival because it discovered me. Just being introduced to the world of cinema, meeting and interacting with other people, trying and understanding how things work, how the business of films work - it's really very special".
Once Upon a Time in Calcutta has been shot by Palm d’Or winner, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s cinematographer, Gokhan Tiryaki. Speaking about collaborating with him Aditya said, "We went through two-three choices and then zeroed in on Gokhan. He is not very fluent in English, so we translated the film into Turkish. After Gokhan came to Calcutta, I narrated the entire film. It's such a complex film and so difficult to narrate, but they were really cooperative. They were an amazing team and always had our backs while we were shooting".
Aditya also spoke about his habit of randomly connecting with people across film industries, and how actor Tannishtha Chatterjee was fascinated by an email he once wrote.
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Editor: Veeru Krishan Mohan.
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