BHARATBALA
Simple emotions and big canvasses mark the working style of this Chennai (India) born man who has a fresh outlook to filmmaking. A person who breathes life into his visuals through real places and people, Bharatbala tells Indian stories with a universal sensibility to a world audience. Having grown up on a diet of international cinema, Bharatbala was deeply influenced by works of David Lean, David Lynch and Bimal Roy. Like Brazilian director Water Salles and the Chinese director Zhang Yi Mou who bring stories from their countries into world cinema space, Bharatbala too is someone who brings the world of cinematic fiction in India to an international audience. An indefatigable worker, Bharatbala has a penchant for finding his stories in the most exotic of locations in the Indian subcontinent.
FILMMAKER FACTS
Perhaps no one has captured the essence of India’s visual landscape as evocatively as Bha ratbala. A man who translates the emotion of his country into film with effortless ease and beauty, he has worked with different genres of film communication in his 20-year career. Over the years, he has made popular television commercials, worked on docu-features and created novel concepts, especially for public campaigns.
He also happens to be the first person in India to have worked on the IMAX format. A person who has the ability to transform everyday emotions into big ideas, he has many ‘firsts’ to his credit.
Bharatbala was also the Jury for the Prestigious National Awards for Feature Film 2011.
FEATURE FILMS
Bharatbala is well known for making feature films for world audiences. His first film, “Hari Om”, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (2004), has been loved by festival audiences across the world. It had traveled all across the globe, visiting 35 interna tional festivals, and winning audience hearts throughout its journey. It had won 8 Audience Choice awards at international film festivals, which include the Bangkok International Film Festival, Puchon International Film Festival (South Korea) and Vancouver International Film Festival.
His second film “Maryan” was released worldwide in July 2013 was highly critically acclaimed and has been garnering lot of praises from all walks of life. Maryan songs were topping the charts for Indian Cinema across the world for almost 2 weeks on iTunes and almost 8 weeks in India. Starring Dhanush & Parvathy, Maryan’s music was composed by Academy award winner AR Rahman and Marc Koninckx, who has also been a part of Academy award win ning movies like “Jhonny Mad Dog”, did cinematography.
(In production) Taj Mahal-The Heart of India: is the first IMAX format film on India. It stars one of the most recognizable faces in Indian cinema today-Aishwarya Rai as the lovely Mum taz Mahal. A film based on the story of the creation of the seventh wonder of the world, this haunting love saga is still under production.
ADVERTISING
Bharatbala has directed more than 500 TV commercials in India since 1985. An outdoor person, he has filmed across the subcontinent’s most beautiful and exotic landscapes for some of the leading international and domestic brands in India and won awards from the country’s advertising industry. His recent projects included the Incredible India campaign for the Ministry of Tourism, India that recently won the 1st prize at The International Exhibition of Tourism TOUR SALON 2005.
FLAGSHIP PROJECTS
Vande Mataram – 1997 Series Celebrating 50 years ofIndia’s Independance: A campaign that took the world of film communication by storm, Vande Mataram was an example of the director’s grand scale vision that materialized into a very successful television campaign. It captivated popular imagination in India and boasted a viewer ship of millions of people at its launch.
On the 50th anniversary of India’s Independence, Bharatbala took the salutation ‘Vande , A Salute to our Motherland as the key idea behind a music video and 200 short films. The concept brought together some of the leading artists of the nation, including the ‘Nightingale Of India’, Lata Mangeshkar, music maestro A.R. Rehman and the culture, art and personal ities of India in full splendor.
Two versions of the music video won prestigious awards for their conceptual novelty and technical execution both at the Cannes Lions 98 International Advertising Film Festival and the New York Film Festival.
Jana Gana Mana – 2000 Series Celebrating 50 years of India’s Republic: Conceptualized in-house in 2000, Bharatbala convinced the 30 most respected Indian musicians to perform the Na tional Anthem (together as a group as well as individually) for a music album, which was also made into music videos. The compositions and videos were appreciated for their concept and quality across the world.
GLOBAL PROJECTS
The Government of India appointed Bharatbala as the Creative Director for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games 2010, wherein he conceptualized and designed both, the Opening as well as the Closing Ceremonies for the Games. An estimated 2 billion people watched the ceremonies across the world. Under his leadership, the Opening and Closing ceremonies were lauded by the public and media from across the world and were compared to the ceremonies held during the Beijing Olympics.
DOCUMENTARY
Gurus of Peace (In Production): This is a unique idea, conceptualized by Bharatbala, where he has traveled across the globe to film Nobel Peace Prize winners Dalai Lama, Shimon Peres, Yaseer Arafat, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela, F W de Klerk and more. What has emerged is a documentation of peace as a universal morality, a comparative analysis of the different processes of transformation in each society towards peaceful resolution of internal conflicts. Work is in progress on this unique project.
SHORT FORMAT PROJECTS
School Chalein Hum: A film shot with children from across the country in the most diverse landscapes for the “Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan” campaign for the ministry of HRD.
Incredible India campaign, which was a film for the Ministry of Tourism, India, showcasing the splendor and beauty of the country. Bharatbala was asked to conceptualize, produce and direct the campaigns over 2 years – 2005 & 2006. The campaign won the 1st prize at The International Exhibition of Tourism TOUR SALON 2005 & 2006 in Poland, among others, and was widely appreciated across the world for its visual appeal.
India Brand Equity Film, a film showcasing India as one of the fastest growing free market economies in the world. The film was created for the Indian Brand Equity Foundation (CII) and was first screened at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in 2006.
Greece Tourism Film: A film to promote tourism in Greece filmed for the Greek Tourism Ministry in 2006
Music Video for CWG 2010 Theme Song: A music video filmed with A.R. Rahman and some of India’s sports personalities like Milkha Singh, Saina Nehwal & Samresh Jung to popu larize the Commonwealth Games 2010 them song composed by A.R. Rahman
Bharatbala!s most recent endeavour Virtual Bharat, a series of 1000 films on untold human stories of India. The stories are under 10 minute films spanning people, landscapes, litera ture, folklore, dance, music, traditions, architecture, and more in a repository of culture.
AWARDS
Bharatbala has won several awards in his career. These awards have been for advertising films, feature films and special film projects that include:
▪ New Voices Award & Best Debut Filmmaker Award at Bangkok International Film Festival in 2005 for “Hari Om”
▪ Citizen’s choice Best Film Audience Award at Puchon International Film Festival (South Korea) in 2005 for “Hari Om”
▪ Audience Choice Award at Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles in 2005 for “Hari Om”
▪ Runner Up (along with “Motorcycle Diaries”) for the People’s Choice Award for Most Popular International Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 2005 for “Hari Om”
▪ Best Foreign Film Award at Tahoe International Film Festival (USA) in 2005 for “Hari Om”
▪ 1st prize at The International Exhibition of Tourism TOUR SALON 2005 & 2006 in Poland for “Incredible India”
▪ 1st prize at the International Tourism film competition, The Golden Stadttor, 2007 in Berlin for “Incredible India”
▪ 4 awards at the 13th World Travel Awards in 2007 in the UK for “Incredible India” ▪ Finalist at the Cannes Lion International Advertising Film Festival in 1998 for “Vande Mataram – Timeless India”
▪ Finalist at New York Film Festival in 1998 for “Vande Mataram – Ma Tujhe Salaam” ▪ Channel V, India, voted “Vande Mataram” as the Best Audio Product, Best TV Ad Campaign & Best Music Video in 1998.
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