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Mira Nair and Balaji Rao Launch
New Film Production Company,
INTERNATIONAL BHENJI BRIGADE
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEW YORK, NY April 5, 2004 Mira Nair's Mirabai Films is teaming up with Bala Entertainment International Pvt. Ltd. in April 2004 to establish International Bhenji Brigade (IBB), a film production company that will create independent Asian cinema for the global marketplace. Bhenji, meaning "not-so-hip sister," refers to the resourceful women on Nair's film crew whom she teasingly calls her "International Bhenji Brigade." IBB celebrates these women and embraces all filmmakers, men and women, who embody their independent spirit. "If we don't tell our own stories, nobody else will," says Nair.
Mr. Balaji Rao has enjoyed tremendous success as the Director of Venkateshwara Hatcheries Group, the largest integrated poultry group in Asia; Bala Entertainment International, a division of the VH Group, will be his first film venture. "I am pleased to establish a platform with Mira Nair that will expand the global presence of Asian Cinema," says Mr. Rao.
Inspired by Mirabai's commitment to telling stories that are rarely seen or heard, IBB will produce Asian talent to create cinema that explores the specifically local and becomes significantly universal. IBB plans to develop, finance and produce a slate of three or more feature films from Asia and the respective diaspora communities. Nair intends to harness resources from her network of acting talent, creative production personnel, talent agencies, distributors, sales agents, as well as her relationships with film schools and film festivals.
Long before the term "crossover film" was ever coined Nair's Academy-Award- nominated film Salaam Bombay! became the first Indian film to secure worldwide commercial distribution. Her subsequent films have garnered international acclaim, with Monsoon Wedding emerging as her biggest commercial success in 2002. Nair has won several prestigious international awards in recognition of her ground-breaking work in cinema, including the Camera d'Or for Salaam Bombay! and the Golden Lion for Monsoon Wedding. IBB offers a younger generation of Asian filmmakers the opportunity to continue Nair's filmmaking tradition by making films which, as Nair puts it, "gets bums on seats".