 |
 | |
| Company type | Film & Television Production Company |
|---|---|
| Industry | feature films, television commercials, |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Sridhar Rangayan Saagar Gupta |
| Website | |
Solaris Pictures is an Indian film production company based in Mumbai. It was created by Sridhar Rangayan, and Saagar Gupta in 2001. The two have gone on to create several award-winning films under Solaris Pictures' banner, focusing on LGBT issues and HIV/AIDS.
Solaris Pictures is an Indian film production company that has makes films covering issues such as homosexuality and gay rights.[ citation needed ]
Previous productions include: The Pink Mirror , which has won two Best Film awards, and was screened at over 72 festivals; Yours Emotionally , which was played at several international festivals; and 68 Pages , which won the Silver Remi award at the 2008 WorldFest Houston. These films are made in a unique style that combines Bollywood melodrama with international avant-garde film techniques. [1]
Solaris Pictures is the associate producer of Project Bolo, an Indian LGBT oral history project that interviews 20 Indian LGBT people in Mumbai, Pune, Lucknow, and New Delhi. [2]
Solaris Pictures has produced two documentary features about the LGBTQI community in India - Purple Skies (2014) and Breaking Free (2015). Purple Skies highlights the stories of LBGT people victimized and subjugated by the law, the family and society, as well as stories of youngsters who have come out of the closet bravely. The film was telecast on India's National Network Doordarshan in 2015. The film screened at 27 international film festivals.[ citation needed ]
In Breaking Free - Sec 377 , filmmaker and gay activist Sridhar Rangayan exposes the human rights violations faced by the LGBTQ community in India due to a draconian law Section 377, and homophobic social mores of a patriarchal society. It won the Barbara Gittings Human Rights Award at qFLIX Philadelphia in 2016. [3]
The company has also collaborated in producing more than 100 hours of television content for serials like Rishtey, Gubbare, Kagaar and has produced advertising for companies like Life Insurance Corporation of India, H & R Johnson, Godrej, Rupa, Zee TV. Their social awareness films and spots for the National Institute for Hearing Handicapped, Cancer Patients Aid Association and Cama & Albless Hospital have been telecast on both DD National and Mumbai Doordarshan.[ citation needed ]
Solaris Pictures is one of the principal organizers of Kashish Mumbai Queer Film Festival that was first held in April 2010 in Mumbai at PVR Cinemas and Alliance Francaise and then in 2011 and 2012 at Cinemax Versova and Alliance Francaise.[ citation needed ]
Solaris Pictures has also organized Flashpoint Human Rights Film Festival in Mumbai and New Delhi in 2010/2011 and 2011/2012. [3]
Drama/ 102 mins / India / 2018 / Hindi with English subtitles
Directed by Sridhar Rangayan
Written by: Sridhar Rangayan & Saagar Gupta
Producer: Solaris Pictures
Evening Shadows - In a small town in Southern India that lives within a cocoon of traditions and social morality, when a young gay man Kartik (Devansh Doshi), comes out to his mother Vasudha (Mona Ambegaonkar), her entire world comes crashing down. She has no one to turn to dispel her fears and doubts, to understand her loving son's truth. Moreover, as a woman, trapped within a patriarchal conservative society, her biggest challenge is to deal with her dogmatic husband Damodar (Ananth Narayan Mahadevan), and the conservative society around her. Evening Shadows is a universal story about a mother-son bonding and its emotional strength to withstand the ravages of time and harsh realities.{ Source: imdb}
The film has won 19 awards and screened at 72 international film festivals. It is currently streaming on Netflix.
Documentary/ 82 mins / India / 2015 / English, Hindi subtitles
Directed by Sridhar Rangayan
Written by: Sridhar Rangayan & Saagar Gupta
Producer: Solaris Pictures
Breaking Free – Sec 377 is a 2015 movie directed by Sridhar Rangayan and produced by Solaris Pictures. In this documentary, filmmaker and gay activist Sridhar Rangayan embarks on a personal journey to expose the human rights violations faced by the LGBTQ community in India due to a draconian law Section 377 and homophobic social mores of a patriarchal society. The film was selected to be part of the Indian Panorama (non-Fiction) and screened at International Film Festival of India in 2015. [4]
It won the Rajat Kamal National Award for Best Editing (Non-Fiction) in 2016 for its editors Pravin Angre and Sridhar Rangayan. It also won the Barbara Gittings Human Rights Award at qFLIX Philadelphia in 2016. [5] [6] It is currently streaming on Netflix. [7]
Documentary/ 66 mins / India / 2014 / English, Hindi subtitles
Directed by Sridhar Rangayan
Written by: Sridhar Rangayan & Saagar Gupta
Producer: Public Service Broadcasting Trust and Solaris Pictures
Purple Skies is a 2014 movie directed by Sridhar Rangayan and produced by Public Service Broadcasting Trust and Solaris Pictures. It documents the opinions of lesbians, bisexuals and trans men in India. It was also broadcast on Doordarshan in 2015. [8]
The documentary film showcases stories of the LGBT community about living in India and is the first documentary on LGBT topics to be screened on a national network, Doordarshan. [9] As of 2015, it has been screened at 27 international film festivals.
Drama/ 90 mins / India / 2007 / Hindi with English subtitles
Directed and Written by Sridhar Rangayan
Producer: Humsafar Trust
Associate Producer: Solaris Pictures
Coming from a country like India that is still in denial, where being HIV+ is still a curse, 68 Pages rips open the underbelly of its society to reveal how it stigmatizes and shuns those who are HIV+ or even those who just want to be what they are. Through 68 Pages of a counselors diary, we see the stories of Paayal, a sex worker; Nishit, an ID user; Kiran, a gay man and Umrao, a transsexual bar dancer - their stories of pain and fear, humiliation and rejection - not only by the society, but even by their loved ones. While these stories expose the shallowness of the system, it also offers hope and healing by trying to bring about a better understanding of their fight to live with dignity. The film is a tribute to the human spirit of optimism and survival. { Source: imdb}
Drama/Gay / 86 mins / UK-India / 2006
Directed and Written by Sridhar Rangayan
Producer: Wise Thoughts (UK) Associate Producer: Solaris Pictures (India)
Two Brits, Ravi and Paul travel to India where they meet Murthy and Anna an older gay couple that have managed to form a partnership and live together for over 20 years. When Ravi meets and falls for Mani an Indian national who is betrothed to be married. He turns to the older couple for advice and help but traditions die hard in India. {Source: imdb}
Drama/Gay /40 mins / India / 2003 / Hindi wst English
Directed and Written by Sridhar Rangayan
Produced by Solaris Pictures (India)
The Pink Mirror pits two Indian drag queens against a westernized gay teenager in a battle to woo a handsome hunk. It's a clash of the east and west. The drag queens, who are expert in the art of seduction with their wit, innuendo and cunning or the young teenager who is saucy, slutty and sly? Underneath the campy humorous exterior, the film is an exploration of the Indian gay landscape and understanding of the deep, humanly tender bondings that exist between drag queens in India who form unique, non-patriarchal families. Using the Bollywood soap idiom of song, dance and drama and for the first time in the Indian drag queens' very own language, Hindi, the film also explores other veiled issues related to the Indian gay community: the lurking threat of HIV/AIDS. {Source: imdb} The film is screening on Netflix [10]
Solaris Pictures' films and television projects have won several awards, both Indian and international.
(for film “Gulabi Aaina)
Ramesh Sippy is an Indian film director, actor and producer in Hindi cinema. He is particularly known for being director in Sholay (1975), which is regarded as one of the most influential films ever made in India. The Government of India honoured him with Padma Shri in 2013.
The Pink Mirror, titled Gulabi Aaina in India, is an Indian film drama produced and directed by Sridhar Rangayan. It is said to be the first Indian film to comprehensively focus on Indian transsexuals with the entire story revolving around two transsexuals and a gay teenager's attempts to seduce a man, Samir. The film explores the taboo subject of transsexuals in India which is still much misunderstood and ridiculed.
Yours Emotionally is a United Kingdom-Indian co-produced film written by Niranjan Kamatkar & Sridhar Rangayan and produced by arts charity Wise Thoughts (UK) & Solaris Pictures and directed by Rangayan. It stars Premjit, Pratik Gandhi, Jack Lamport, Ikhlaq Khan, and Ajai Rohilla. The film was selected for participation in LGBT film festivals in San Francisco, New York (NewFest), and others.
Sridhar Rangayan is an Indian filmmaker who has made films with special focus on queer subjects. His queer films, The Pink Mirror, Yours Emotionally, 68 Pages, Purple Skies, Breaking Free & Evening Shadows have been considered groundbreaking because of their realistic and sympathetic portrayal of the largely closeted Indian gay community. His film The Pink Mirror remains banned in India by the Indian Censor Board because of its homosexual content.
Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, also credited as Anant Mahadevan, is an Indian screenwriter, actor, and film director of Hindi and Marathi as well as Tamil Films and television shows. Having been an integral part of the Indian television serials and Hindi films since the 1980s, he is also involved in the professional English and Hindi theatre.
Sai Paranjpye is an Indian movie director and screenwriter. She is the director of the award-winning movies Sparsh, Katha, Chasme Buddoor and Disha. She has written and directed many Marathi plays such as Jaswandi, Sakkhe Shejari, and Albel.
68 Pages is a 2007 Indian film about an HIV/AIDS counselor and five of her clients who are from marginalized communities. The film is directed by Sridhar Rangayan and produced by Humsafar Trust in association with Solaris Pictures. It had its world premiere at the International Film Festival of Kerala and screened at several international film festivals. It won the Silver Remi award at WorldFest Houston International Film Festival 2008, USA. The film was also screened in the Pink Ribbon Express, a National AIDS Control Organisation initiative.
The KASHISH Pride Film Festival is an annual LGBTQ event that has been held in Mumbai, India, since 2010. The film festival screens gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer films from India and around the world. It is voted as one of the top five LGBT film festivals in the world.
Flashpoint Human Rights Film Festival was a four-day festival held in Mumbai, India between 8–10 December 2010. It screened eight films from around the world that dealt with human rights issues at a macro as well as at a micro level; from global concerns to indigenous issues. The festival coincided with the International Human Rights Day on 10 December 2010.
Humsafar Trust is an NGO in Mumbai that promotes LGBT rights. Founded by Ashok Row Kavi, Suhail Abbasi, and Sridhar Rangayan in 1994, it is one of the largest and most active of such organisations in India. It provides counselling, advocacy and healthcare to LGBT communities and has helped reduce violence, discrimination and stigma against them. Humsafar Trust is the convenor member of Integrated Network for Sexual Minorities (INFOSEM).
Yeh Hai Chakkad Bakkad Bumbe Bo is a 2003 Indian children's film directed by Sridhar Rangayan, and written by Vijay Tendulkar and Sushma Bakshi. The film is based on a short story by Shakuntala Paranjpye and was shot on location over 20 days in Mandangad, Bankot and Mumbai.
Anwar Jamal is an Indian documentary filmmaker, based in New Delhi. He has been awarded the National Film Award on several occasions and had made critically acclaimed feature, short and documentary films a wide array of social, political and cultural themes. He has served as jury in many international film festivals including National Film Award Jury.
Mona Ambegaonkar is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films and television. She has featured in over 15 plays, 18 feature films, 38 TV projects, 37 advertising campaigns. She had a minor role in film Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa and medical drama Dhadkan as Dr. Chitra.
This is a timeline of notable events in the history of non-heterosexual conforming people of South Asian ancestry, who may identify as LGBTIQGNC, men who have sex with men, or related culturally-specific identities such as Hijra, Aravani, Thirunangaigal, Khwajasara, Kothi, Thirunambigal, Jogappa, Jogatha, or Shiva Shakti. The recorded history traces back at least two millennia.
Chennai International Queer Film Festival is a three-day LGBT- event that usually takes places on the last weekend of July as a part of the city's pride events. The main organizers are SAATHII and Orinam in partnership with Goethe-Institut, Chennai. The other volunteers include various community groups and NGOs, including Nirangal, East-West Center for Counselling, and RIOV. The last day is usually performances along with a panel discussion, usually to discuss and bring out the challenges faced by community members.
Purple Skies is a 2014 movie directed by Sridhar Rangayan and produced by Public Service Broadcasting Trust and Solaris Pictures. It documents the opinions of lesbians, bisexuals and trans men in India. It was broadcast on Doordarshan in 2015.
The Delhi International Queer Theater and Film Festival (DIQTFF), is a queer cultural festival curating films, plays, talks and performances. It is organised by a queer collective in Delhi called Harmless Hugs. The film festival is intended to connect with larger diaspora of the Indian LGBTQ struggle for equal human rights and to reach out to masses via omnipotence of Media, Theatre and Cinema. Movie screenings and plays are well complemented by a round of panel discussions and debates, including some of the biggest names from the Indian LGBTQ Movement. Discussions around tumultuous territories of politics, gender disparity, coming out and involvement of families and more will also be a part of this two-day event, that is happening every December since its initiation in 2015.
Evening Shadows is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Sridhar Rangayan. The film stars Mona Ambegaonkar, Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, Devansh Doshi, Arpit Chaudhary, Yamini Singh, Abhay Kulkarni, Veena Nair, Kala Ramnathan, Disha Thakur, Sushant Divgikar and Faredoon Bhujwala.
Breaking Free is a 2015 film directed by Sridhar Rangayan and produced by Solaris Pictures. In this documentary, filmmaker and gay activist Sridhar Rangayan embarks on a personal journey to expose the human rights violations faced by the LGBTQ community in India due to a draconian law Section 377 and homophobic social mores of a patriarchal society. The film was selected to be part of the Indian Panorama (non-Fiction) and screened at International Film Festival of India in 2015.
Saagar Gupta is an Indian screenwriter, lyricist and film producer.
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