Jio MAMI 21st Mumbai Film Festival engages the literary world directly with content creators for film, television and digital. This will give the filmmakers an opportunity to discover the untapped reservoir of Indian classics that can become the next hit. By Team Viva

What do films like Gone With The Wind, Fault in Our Stars, Harry Potter series or Kai Po Che and 3 Idiots have in common? Yes, all of them have been inspired by books and were discovered by a content creator who then crafted them into films.

Now imagine another scenario. What if Yash Raj Films or Sanjay Leela Bhansali decide their next film by interacting with the authors and publishing houses directly? The mind boggles at the exchange of ideas and the great content that films would have access to. The audience would also get to know about books which might be embedded with a great idea but have ended up in the back shelves of the publishing houses.

Therefore, it is very important to have a platform where the literary world engages directly with content creators for film, television and digital. This word to screen market gives filmmakers an opportunity to discover the untapped reservoir of Indian literature that can become the next hit story of Indian cinema.

It is this idea that Jio MAMI 21st Mumbai Film Festival with Star group has decided to put it into practice. In the fourth edition of the ‘Word to Screen Market’ it takes a big format leap that will enable the authors and content creators to have more face time with each other.

Focussing on what is different in this edition, Smriti Kiran, artistic director, MAMI says, “In the earlier editions we would ask authors and publishers to pitch their work to us. And then we curated some of their works and created a list. But we have upgraded our system this year because it is important to consistently learn from what is happening in the market and adapt to it.”

This year the festival has asked the publishers to bring forth the backlog of books that people are not aware about and pitch it directly to the content creators. This will showcase the hidden gems that have been lying neglected with publishers and open up avenues for both the directors and the writers.

The platform will witness 550 titles ranging across 30 genres — thrillers, romance, spy drama, paranormal, biographies, historical fiction, mythological fiction, sports drama, sci-fi, corporate drama, politics, social satires and several non-fiction bestsellers on subjects ranging from history, society, culture and politics to environment and spirituality.

Some of the renowned publishers such as — Harper Collins, Penguin Random House, Juggernaut Books, DC Books, Westland Publications and Rajkamal Prakashan will take part in the festival. There will also be 40 buyers and 24 authors including New York-based award-winning author Manreet Sodhi Someshwa of The Taj Conspiracy fame, Amazon bestseller Sundari Venkatraman, Jagran-Nielsen bestselling authors, Satya Vyas, Nikhil Sacchan, Nilotpal Mrinal, Divya Prakash Dubey and Shashank Bharatiya.  as well as several other new voices from the literary world. 

The stories will be presented to 40 content creation companies — Jio Studio, Netflix, Aamir Khan Productions (AKP), Disney India, Amazon Prime Video, Dharma Productions, Yash Raj Films (YRF), Sony Pictures Entertainment and many others.

Swati adds that this will help the authors, publishing houses and content curators to interact closely and build relationships and explore the stories which can be portrayed on the silver screen.

However, the transformation of a book to a film is not easy. The director has to plot deviations, condense plot points and jot down set pieces that could be showcased on screen. It is almost like retelling the story, this time visually.

Such festivals play a vital role in this scenario especially because the avenues for storytelling have gone up. The web space has paved way for more people to showcase their talent and bring more content forward. Anu Singh Choudhary, consultant and an expert in the publishing industry says, “This is the best time for a storyteller. There is an unquenchable thirst for riveting stories across mediums and we are constantly going back to our bookshelves and bookshops in search of magic that narratives deeply rooted in Indian sensibilities hold.”

Swati adds that the people who will be benefitting from this shared space will be the end target consumer — readers, viewers and audience. A rise in such platforms is important because they push the boundaries of Indian content by celebrating literature as a potent muse.