Webtalkies '09 takes off!

Nautanki.tv (www.nautanki.tv) presents Webtalkies ’09, an online short film festival which will take off on 1 September 09 on Mirch Masala, a channel owned by Nautanki.tv.

Entries for Webtalkies closed on 15th August 09 and we have with us films from across the country – interesting takes on universal topics like AIDS, love, money, suicide, marriage, art, poverty, sexual abuse, poetry, literature, supernatural, time, dreams and many more.

The films are from three to fifteen minutes, both fiction and non-fiction, across genres and languages.

Out of the 100 plus entries received for Webtalkies, 26 films were shortlisted in terms of concept, originality, storytelling and technical quality.

The shortlisted films will be screened on nautanki.tv from the 1st to the 30TH OF September 09.

They will be simultaneously judged by our panel of judges including Amole Gupte (originator, writer and creative director of Taare Zameen Par and actor in Kaminey and over a 100 student films), Paromita Vohra (Documentary Filmmaker and Writer, has made award winning films like Q2P, Unlimited Girls and Cosmopolis and writer of Khamosh Paani which won the Best Screenplay award at KARA), Niraj Voralia (Editor of Shwaas, India’s entry for the Oscars, Valu, Dahavi F and National Award winning Marathi film, Vastupurush) and Mahesh Aney (National Film Award winning cinematographer for Swades) – all exceptionally talented in their own fields - who will rate the films according to various criteria - Direction, Cinematography, Editing and Sound.

Jeroo Sam Patel, Chief Operating Officer, Nautanki.tv says, “Nautanki.tv has been encouraging independent filmmakers since inception via Mirch Masala – our in-house channel for independent short films and documentaries. Mirch Masala helps filmmakers showcase their films and also earn revenues while they are at it. Webtalkies is the first of its kind online film festival which will also have the winning films screened in theatres and other mediums.”

“We believe that the audience is very interested in independent content, as it is original, experimental and not run of the mill. The idea is to create platforms for independent content providers and interest them enough to create content and screen it to a larger audience across mediums instead of restricting it to traditional mediums alone,” she added.

The best three films will be chosen by the jury as per the following categories and will be awarded prize monies as follows:
• Best Short Film: Rs 50,000
• Best Editor: Rs 25,000
• Best Cinematographer: Rs 25,000
In addition, the film that gets the highest number of views on nautanki.tv will be awarded the
• Audience Choice Award and a cash prize of Rs. 30,000

The winning films will be announced and screened in INOX, Nariman Point and filmmakers can interact with the jury on various aspects of filmmaking.

Viewers can also rate, comment and review the films. The best 5 comments/reviews will win tickets to the Webtalkies screening at INOX, Nariman Point

About Nautanki.tv

Nautanki.tv is an online video broadcast platform based in Bombay and has the largest viewership of Entertainment content in South Asia. We have over 30 million videos viewed everyday through our network of widgets placed across 11,000 plus blogs and websites on the internet space. We work with some of the biggest names in the television industry and have a bouquet of television channels like Star Plus, Colors, MTV, Channel V, Zoom, ITN UK and Zee News to name a few.

Nautanki.tv owns an online channel called 'Mirch Masala' which showcases short films and documentaries. It provides opportunity and a platform to filmmakers across the world to screen their films and generate revenue on them. The film festival will run on Mirch Masala.