NEW DELHI: In perhaps a first, as many as 25 filmmakers including four from India, have put their heads and directorial skills together and made a film ‘The Owner' which premieres worldwide on May 25. Even if the film does not find favor with audiences, it could well make its way into the Guinness Book as there may not be another film that has 25 directors from five continents, who haven't even met once, face to face. They stitched the story together communicating over the internet and shot the film with each director making a separate clip of between three and five minutes. The film which is of a feature film length will premier in theaters worldwide including in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, South Africa and Dubai, besides of course the two Indian cities of Kolkata and Mumbai. In Kolkata, ‘The Owner' will be screened at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), which arranged for it by contacting one of the Indian directors from the group. According to Neha Raheja Thakker, she and the other three Indian filmmakers were approached by Ian Bommer and Marty Shea of the United States to join the collaborative effort. Thakker, who is a professional architect, earned a film-making diploma from New York University, and arranged the screenings in India. Another Mumbai filmmaker Asmit Pathare and two Delhi-based directors, Vishesh Mankal and Varun Mathur are the other Indians who were part of the project. “The Owner” is about an out of the box story of a backpack which globe-trots in search of its owner. A unique concept of film-making, Saikat Sekareshwar Rai, a member of the faculty at SRFTI believes this trend could attain cult status soon within the film-making fraternity.
