EXCLUSIVE: Siddharth Anand shares a special moment with Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar; says “White is the story of the GLORY of India”

In a significant meeting on January 20, India’s premier blockbuster filmmaker Siddharth Anand met global spiritual leader Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar along with producer Mahaveer Jain. Both Siddharth Anand and Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar have had several conversations before but this meeting was special. It was held in an atmosphere of deep reflection and vision, centred around the upcoming international thriller White, a project that marks a unique milestone in Indian cinema. The film, which features National Award winner Vikrant Massey alongside an international cast, is inspired by the incredible true story of the 52-year-long civil conflict in Colombia and its historic resolution through non-violence and peace. Reflecting on the film’s vision after his meeting with Gurudev, Siddharth Anand shared his excitement for the film, “In many ways, White is the story of the glory of India. At a time when the world is grappling with unprecedented division, this film is truly the need of ...

Berlin film festival 2023 roundup – prestige, politics and ethical starpower

This year’s Berlinale continued the tradition of combining earnestness with red-carpet glamour – featuring Kristen Stewart, Bono and Steven Spielberg, and this time some real crowd pleasers

Berlin may not be as glitzy as the other big European festivals, Cannes and Venice, but it knows how to make the most of what you might call “ethical starpower”. Hence Steven Spielberg, present this year to accept the Golden Bear for lifetime achievement, who made an eloquent and imposing speech about longevity, healing and – as befits the locale – the weight of history. And hence serious-minded Hollywood actor Kristen Stewart heading a jury including Iranian-French star Golshifteh Farahani and previous Berlinale-winning directors Carla Simón and Radu Jude – a lineup that seems highly likely to make some daring awards choices.

But there’s also that long-standing Berlinale tradition of combining red-carpet prestige with a certain earnestness that doesn’t always flourish on the screen. A prime example this year was Golda, a solemn, sluggish drama about Israeli premier Golda Meir and the Yom Kippur war, with Helen Mirren giving a solid, thoughtful performance, only to be upstaged by her uncanny prosthetic makeup. And then there was Sean Penn’s documentary about Ukraine, Superpower, co-directed with Aaron Kaufman, in which an understandably starstruck encomium to Volodymyr Zelenskiy was overshadowed by much narcissistic hyperventilating about what an amazing thing it was to be Sean Penn caught up in the Whirlwind of History. It was a phenomenally gauche, ill-advised piece; by contrast, Eastern Front, from Ukraine itself, was the real deal, a sober, urgent, profoundly troubling documentary by Vitaly Mansky and Yevhen Titarenko, based substantially on the latter’s footage, shot on duty with a volunteer medical crew.

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