Literary News: Singapore Vignettes, co-produced by Kitaab, shines light on NRI filmmakers

3 min read

An PTI article published in Outlook explores the low-budget short films being made by NRI filmmakers in Singapore, bringing out their creativity and reaching out to global audiences through various YouTube and OTT platforms.

Outlook recently covered the movie makers of Singapore where they explored how there are good options to turn stories into films, especially taking a Singapore angle.

The article spoke about Lad Bhamray (Author and Scriptwriter) and Zafar Anjum (Founder, Kitaab), highlighting their foray into film production with stories based in Singapore.

Singapore Vignettes a compendium of three short films mentioned in the article is co-produced by Kitaab. Two of the stories in this film are on the Indian expatriate community here and one on a Singapore corporate tussle. The film is streaming on Singapore-headquartered streaming platform MX Player.

In the words of Zafar Anjum,

“The growing number of Singapore NRI filmmakers with a focus on Indian culture is the making of a mini-Bollywood. Though these are not typical commercial films like those made in thousands every year in India, we have a special focus that combines, at times, a slice of life from Singapore.”
Zafar ANJUM (Founder, kitaab)

He further added, “In the last couple of years, more than a dozen films have been produced in Singapore. This includes both short and feature films. Some of them have gone on winning international awards or have been released on OTT platforms or on popular Youtube Channels such as Large Short Films.”

As mentioned in the article,

Besides Anjum (”The Sacrifice”, and ”Singapore Vignettes”), filmmakers like Shilpa Krishnan Shukla (”Tashi”, ”Kathaah@8”, ”Dots”), Aditya Kripalani (”Tikli & Laxmi Bomb”, ”Tottaa Pataaka Item Maal”, ”Devi aur Hero”), Anshul Tiwari (”Bin Bulaye”, ”Sugee Cake”, ”New Neighbour”), Amit Agarwal (”Son of Kali”, ”Farewell Goddess”), Sangeeta Nambiar (”A Gran Plan”), Tagore Almeida (”A God of Sinners”, ”Uss Din”) and Anand Paga (”Grahanam”) have been active in the filmmaking space.

You can read the full article HERE.

About Author

Editor_Kitaab

Namrata is a published author who enjoys writing stories and think pieces on travel, relationships, and gender. She is a UEA alumnus and has studied travel writing at the University of Sydney.

She is also an independent editor and a book reviewer. Her writings can be found on various sites and magazines like the Asian Review of Books, Contemporary South Asia Journal of King’s College-London, Mad in Asia, The Friday Times, Daily Star, The Scroll, Feminism in India, The Brown Orient Journal, Inkspire Journal, Moonlight Journal, The Same, Chronic Pain India and Cafe Dissensus.

Her short stories have been a part of various anthologies . She has also published two short story collections of her own along with two solo titles as well. She is currently working on her debut novel. She loves travelling the length and breadth of the world and enjoys capturing the magic of life in her words. She is always in pursuit of a new country and a new story.

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