Mumbai, October 7, 2014: The 16^th edition of the Mumbai film festival organized by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) officially announces the release of its promotional campaign. Cinema lovers are eagerly awaiting the first look of the campaign promos that will be first available on Film Companion, the online platform for film lovers, followed by a sweep across mediums such as television and theatres.

Cinema incites passion. And the Mumbai Film Festival in its 16^th year witnessed unparalleled passion and determination from Cinema lovers across the spectrum. Despite debilitating hurdles the Mumbai Film Festival is all set to open on the 14th of October with the enormous support from the Indian Film Industry, patrons and all those who have unwavering faith in the festival. 

The soon to be launched festival promotional campaign, conceptualized and crafted by filmmaker Shakun Batra, and produced by Roopak Saluja’s THE 120 Media Collective, features  12 leading  Bollywood celebrities including  film makers Anurag Kashyap, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Zoya Akhtar​, Imtiaz Ali​, Rajkumar Hirani​, Actors ​Varun Dhawan, Imran Khan, Arjun Kapoor, Siddharth Malhotra, ​Sonakshi Sinha, Huma Qureshi​ and Editor of Film Companion and noted film critic Anupama Chopra who has come on board as the Creative Director of the festival this year. The response from the industry to support the festival is staggering. 

The promotional campaign is directed by National Award winning directors Satyanshu Singh and Devanshu Singh.  Old MAMI loyalists, the directors did the campaign free of charge. The Mumbai Film Festival campaign promo is produced by the Digital and Content Partner – THE 120 Media Collective – a company that creates, produces, distributes content for audiences & brands across multiple platforms & geographies. THE120MC team is producing exclusive video content and managing the MAMI social media platforms with updates and content throughout the festival tenure.

Sharing the trajectory of the creation of the campaign and how her initial ideas about the festival came to life Anupama Chopra shared, “The MAMI promo is proof of how invested the Hindi film industry is in keeping this festival alive.  Director Shakun Batra brought everyone together. Devanshu and Satyanshu Singh directed the promo.  Actors and directors across the board came forward and shot for it, all without any payment of course. It’s heartening and I am so grateful to everyone for their support.”

Satyanshu Singh of the writer – director duo is thrilled to have been involved with the promo creation of the esteemed festival and expressed, “We have been hardcore MAMI fans, watching five movies every day at the festival every year. Since 2009, I (Satyanshu) have been writing about the festival on my blog every single day of the festival week. It is a great feeling to see the festival taking place despite the initial road blocks.  The moment Shakun approached us with the offer to write and direct the festival promo; we knew we had to do it. This is our little contribution to the festival we love the most.”

Promo co-director Devanshu Singh shared the experience of culminating their initial ideas to the much anticipated campaign promos and said, “Shooting these promos has been amazing. All the celebrities we shot with very patiently allowed us to do what we wanted to. Big thanks to them but Shakun, Anupama and her team deserve special thanks for trusting us with something so special.”

Shakun Batra, the curator of the campaign promos said, “I am just a very small part of a very big team of film lovers who’ve come together to support the festival. My only contribution was to put a team together and call all my friends and film buffs to contribute in some way. It was heartening to see so many people from the fraternity, give their valuable time to help the festival. I am very thankful to directors Satyanshu and Devanshu and the technicians who come on-board, purely out of their love for cinema.”

The soon to be unveiled campaign promos have been possible with enormous support from the luminaries of Indian Cinema and will hit various media platforms to reach the movie buffs who are eagerly waiting for a glimpse of what this mega festival has in store.

The 16^th edition of the Mumbai film festival organized by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) will be held from 14-21 October 2014 at PVR Citimall and Cinemax Versova as the main venue and Liberty Cinemas at Marine lines as the satellite venue. The 8-day long festival features over 185 films from more than 65 countries this year besides a lot engagement and interaction with the who’s who of world cinema.

About Mumbai Film Festival:

The Mumbai Film Festival is organized by Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) – a Trust comprised of Indian film industry stalwarts, was founded in 1997 by late filmmaker Shri Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Noted filmmaker Shri Shyam Benegal heads the body that consists of film directors including: Veteran film maker Ramesh Sippy, Director Sudhir Mishra, young directors Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap, Umesh Kulkarni, Kiran Rao, Vikramaditya Motwane and Farhan Akhtar, publisher Navin Berry and producer-director-lyricist Amit Khanna.