PRIZES AT AHMEDABAD INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Best Film of the Festival:
5000 USD

Best Fictional / Live Action Short Film :
3000 USD

Best Documentary Short Film :
2000 USD

TECHNICAL AWARDS

Best Screenwriting
Best Motion Picture Photography
Best Editing
Best Sound Design

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: MAY 20, 2009

Want to sponsor a prize?
Get in touch with us at info@aifilmfest.com

for more details visit the official festival website:
http://www.aifilmfest.com

AHMEDABAD INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2009 ANNOUNCES CALL FOR ENTRIES

~ 3 days, over 100 films and ‘reels’ of fun & festivity, the
1st Ahmedabad International Film Festival is here!! ~
~ Official Deadline for competitive categories is 20th May, 2009

Ahmedabad, Thursday, April 23, 2009: The first edition of the Ahmedabad International Film Festival 2009, today announced the call for entries for Independent Feature Films, Fictional/ Live Action Short Films and Documentary Films. Submission forms are available online at the official Festival website www.aifilmfest.com. The Festival, organized by FulMarxx Integrated Filmed Entertainment Company in collaboration with Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival) and Tampere Film Festival, Finland, will be held on June 26-28 2009.

For the first time, Ahmedabad will play host to a never before experience of a unique film festival where 100+ independent films will be showcased. The festival will provide a platform for all those who can transform their creativity and vision into cinema. Also, in the backdrop of a rich cultural heritage of Gujarat, the festival provides an interactive platform for exchange and enriching of ideas

Speaking on the occasion Shiladitya Bora, Founder CEO, FulMarxx Integrated Filmed Entertainment Company, said “We are overwhelmed to be officially associated with Berlin International Film Festival and are humbled by their strong belief in Ahmedabad International Film Festival in its very first year. The vision is to facilitate dialogue between cultures and nations through cinema, making the Ahmedabad International Film Festival a melting pot of global ideas and ideologies, at the same time providing a platform to showcase India and international talent in storytelling. The Competition Section is a huge opportunity for upcoming filmmakers to showcase their work to a global audience. We urge filmmakers and writers to enter their works as early as possible this year so that we can keep up with the incredible response we’ve been so fortunate to experience.”

The festival, is not only just about remarkable films, it’s a wholesome package of sheer entertainment and fun. The festival schedule this year is packed with a special focus on children’s films and the revival of the Gujarati Film Industry. The festival will also assist in raising awareness on the AIDS issue with a special category under we care HIV+. Guests, jury members and film folks will have ample time to relax and soak into the unique culture of Ahmedabad with a specially designed Heritage Walk and the launch of a coffee table book on Ahmedabad.

For more information please be in touch with Ahmedabad International Film Festival announcements and news updates on www.aifilmfest.com

Shiladitya Bora talks at the International Entrepreneurship Forum

Shiladitya Bora, founder, FulMarxx was invited to be a part of one of the sessions – ‘Hottest Startups in India’, of the 8th International Forum held at Ahmedabad on 17th and 18th December 2008.

The participants were first generation entrepreneurs within the age group of 23-30 years of age.

To a jam-packed auditorium which included eminent people like Sergio Arzeni, Director, Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Local Development, OECD, Paris, Anna Heim, Founder, Cresco-East and Madi Sharma, MD, Original Eastern Foods, Nottingham, Shila talked about his journey – From Assam, to Ahmedabad, to the Los Angeles, to Mumbai and back to Ahmedabad! He also explained his Business Idea, why the idea and the hurdles he faced to set up FulMarxx.

Ms. Madi Sharma was mighty impressed with his story and congratulated him time and again.
The audience especially loved his ‘Tina Ambani’ incident and Shila received a standing ovation from them.

Ahmedabad Times features Shiladitya Bora

Today’s (09/01/09) Ahmedabad Times takes a look at the ’super achievers’ of Gujarat and talks about FulMarxx founder Shiladitya Bora!

Our very own CEO talks about FulMarxx and also about the movie he is co-producing with Onir and Sanjay Suri.

Shila, everyone at FulMarxx is delighted to see you featured again in a leading daily – Congrats and Good Luck from all of us!

Find us on Facebook!

In case you haven’t already done so, join our Facebook Group..

(Click on the image)

FulMarxx Founder Shiladitya Bora to deliver guest lectures at IIM Ahmedabad alongwith top Bollywood honchos.

(Originally published in The Times of India Ahmedabad edition on october 6, 2008)

Maverick politician Lalu Prasad told them about turning around The Railways. Former president APJ Abdul Kalam ignited minds here. And, for all you know Aamir Khan could be next, talking about what made ‘Tare Zameen Par’ touch so many hearts. Or even queen of K-soaps Ekta Kapoor, waxing eloquent on the boob-tube industry. 

    Beginning this December, IIM-A students of the flagship post-graduate diploma programme will be offered an elective course on ‘Introduction to Contemporary Film Industry’. Top Bollywood honchos like Karan Johar, Ronnie Screwvala, Om Puri, Ram Gopal Varma, Mahesh Bhatt and others have been approached to share nitty-gritties of the industry with students. 

    Sixty five second-year students have already shown interest in the course. “With the entry of heavyweights like Adlabs, UTV and Eros International, film business in India is getting increasingly professional. This has created a need for professional managers,” says IIM-A professor Tejas Desai, who has designed the course. Perhaps the first such course in a B-school, it will cover production, economics and marketing in the film industry. “From film financing to branding, students will learn about creative and business models of the industry,” adds Desai. 

    IIM-A is hoping some big and upcoming names from the industry will be visiting faculty for them. Even independent film-makers like Shiladitya Bora and Ankur Singh have been approached. Among others approached by the institute are chairman & CEO of Eros International Kishore Lulla, actor Kamal Hassan, directors Apoorva Lakhia and Madhur Bhandarkar, head of theatre operations at Adlabs Puja Shetty and Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

FulMarxx nominated for the prestigious TATA NEN India’s Hottest Start-Up Award : Vote for us : sms HOT 336 to 56767

     

Our one year old start-up venture ‘FulMarxx’ which played a significant role in bringing Gujarat and especially Ahmedabad to the world cine-map has been nominated for the coveted TATA NEN India’s Hottest Start-ups Awards. The first ever ‘Public Choice Awards’ to recognize India’s new wave of growth, the TATA NEN Hottest Startups is an online contest where people can nominate companies & vote for them on internet & through SMS.

The Awards are a unique collaboration between the Tata Group, India’s most respected business conglomerate and National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), the largest representatives of new & future entrepreneurs in India. The Awards aim to showcase and recognize high potential young companies in India, with the goal to attract visibility for over 800 entrepreneurs & their ventures in India, and engage over 5,00,000 people.

FulMarxx is a unique, thought-of-but-never-ventured-into concept, the first ever Integrated Filmed Entertainment Company that explores a lot of disciplines like motion pictures, entertainment marketing, short films and film festivals with robust worldwide distribution capabilities. Just as how Larry Page and Sergey Brin became ‘Google-struck’ at Stanford, a bunch of young ones were ‘FulMarxx-struck’ at MICA. Defying the paranoia, shattering the myths and taking uncharted avenues, the team believed in itself and with total conviction and unbridled passion jumped into creating a phenomenon.  The first ever and one of its kind, exclusive short film festival of India went international spanning over 18 countries. The financial growth has been healthy (0 to more than 7.9million in a year) and the people behind it only strive to better it. FulMarxx believes that the youth symbolizes the talent trove and hence has the entire team comprising of fresh designers to high flying lawyers recruited from institutes of repute. FulMarxx is not only creating dreams, but living them.

Winners of TATA NEN Hottest Startups will receive a potent combination of publicity and business support, designed to spur their growth to the next level.

Prizes in the TATA NEN Startup Awards include:

Business training, mentoring and incubation support of upto Rs. 50 lakhs by IIM-A and CIIE ; Incubation opportunity to a befitting venture by IIM-B and NSRCEL; Admission to Microsoft’s StartUp Accelerator Program for at least one winner and all shortlisted startups will get admission to TiE Mumbai’s nurturing program.

Lending support in the cause are Helion Ventures, Seedfund and Wadhwani Foundation. In addition, all the established entrepreneurial, academic and corporate communities including, Microsoft, IIM-Bangalore, IIM-Ahmedabad, Open Coffee Club chapters, Mumbai Angels, Indian Angel Network, Venture Woods, Proto.in, Kickstart and TiE are partnering in the initiative.   

Think BIG, Think FAST, Think AHEAD : Happy Birthday FulMarxx

Young Turks

It’s been 12 months, 360 days and beyond. Of us continuing to believe.
Believe in us. Believe in FulMarxx and everything else that seemed almost impossible initially.

Most start-ups begin with a few people kicking around ideas. Some grow into Google. Most fail. And the critical period is usually the first year where success rides on smart decisions and even the smallest mistake can mean failure. And today we complete our 1^st year.

The past one-year has been the most exciting phase of our lives. A tremendous learning period. Of course it was not easy. It never was meant to be. Not for a bunch of postgraduate students trying to run a full fledged company from a classroom set-up. Then there were not so kind words. But its all have been taken in good faith. For every brickbat received, we’ve received ten bouquets.

FulMarxx right from its inception has travelled a journey plagued with snags, only to battle them and emerge a victor each time. We have recently started our second office in Kolkata. We are coming up with three new verticals in next 3 months. These will be joint ventures with TASOL GLOBAL, our web technology partner.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Gautam Jain and Prof. Rajesh Asrani for having guided us at every step. Professor Atul Tandon (Director, MICA) for taking as keen an interest as he has and who’s silent support has carried us through. KGK Pillai( Registrar MICA) who’s dispensed some invaluable advice. Prof. A.F.Mathew  who’s love and passion for cinema has made us the individuals we are today. My classmates of PGPCME who’ve let their support unconditionally.  And of course MICA for the sheer fact that we are privileged to be here and can say it with pride.

Nothing spectacular has ever been achieved alone. The same also applies to FulMarxx as well. Everyone of you all, who’ve stood by us; Ankur Kumar Singh, Pooja Ganeriwala, A.Jain, Shakti Mohanty, Abhishek Kadam, Jay Gotecha, Anand Parikh, Neeraj Sharma and Vipin Kandwal. The strong pillars of FulMarxx as I call them. The extended team of FulMarxx at Kolkata comprising of Aditi Roy and Neil S Mitra who have made enormous efforts to see it a success.

I strongly believe there is no better occasion than this to welcome the new members of the FulMarxx family. Sandeep Malhotra and Lakshmee Narayanee who inspite of their rigorous academic schedule are passionately striving hard to bring out an inspirational case study on FulMarxx. Also Aman Ranchan, Sonal Shekhawat, Reha Rewal, Amit Srivastava and Shreyams Betur the young enthusiastic team who will make our dream of  FulMarxx DOT TV a reality.

I take this opportunity to thank each one of you’ll for having been with us and take the liberty to believe that support will extend to all our forthcoming endeavors.

Warm Regards,
Shiladitya Bora
Founder CEO, FulMarxx Integrated Filmed Entertainment Company 

 

Sattar Minute

“Itni Shiddat se maine tujhe paane ki koshish ki hai; ki har zarre ne mujhe tumse milane ki saajish ki hain”.

(re-posted with permission from Vipin Kandwal)
It was drizzling Sunday evening of July 2008 with a short film maker who recently owing to his diligence proved that he stands tallest amongst all around him. Last April, he marvelously brought to life his long cherished dream of organizing largest international short film festival of India. With infusion of life into his dream, the walled city of Ahmedabad witnessed the rising of a new name “Shiladitya Bora”. I was with him to chit chat with him on what next?

He was real warm in greeting and with all formal hospitality stuff settled on sofa across the table standing between him and me. Aviator fame ‘Howard Hughes’ peeping from a poster behind him, his room was fragrant with his passion for celluloid and every element inside testified his zeal of making a mark in film industry. With half finished cigarette butt held delicately dangling between his fingers, Shiladitya, told about what plan he has for future. He was still modest and had no sign of air of achievement. It was now he talked about ‘Zindagi 24 frames per second (Z24FPS)’, his maiden full length feature film. Believe it or not, as the conversation progressed, quite casually and friendly, I breathed, ate snacks, drank beverage, heard him and saw around but what Shiladitya did, I observed was, sipped, breathed, drank, saw, felt, ate and heard only and only his plan on how he will bring to life ‘Z24FPS’ exactly replicating his imagery of the story and creative aspirations. 

I was increasingly curious to understand why he is so passionate about just another project. Is it because Z24FPS is the first project, which can make or break his fortune in Bollywood? May be it because failure of the project financially will drag him several years behind and discourage him to take another leap? Or is it because he has dropped out of college placements which necessitates requirement of backup support? Can it be due to just another step to look like a passionate producer? I was really struggling to construe what Z24FPS really means.

My struggle was brought to halt soon when I realized that irrespective what Z24FPS finally comes out to look like, but Shiladitya wishes to create a masterpiece of art which shall frame by frame be enjoyed by audience irrespective of geographies, histories and language they come from. Z24FPS, Bollywood or Hollywood are not tantalizing terms for him. Due respect to all existent and non existent masters of film industry, he has a desire of being like nobody but himself. His style and persona like any individual is unique and if reflected in his movie shall essentially make Z24FPS more than a film. Keeping cost, revenue, star cast etc aside Z24FPS anything less than a grandeur is not acceptable to him. I was eager to meet the man after I recently joined the Z24FPS community on two of the social networking websites and read about him. About Z24FPS, if I divulge details it would be like stealing from audience a fun of enjoying a real treat, hence, I shall restraint myself from doing it, however, the audience agape I believe, will appreciate international treatment of the film, rich in content and full of finesse. Right from the first public imagery available on Orkut/Facebook, Shiladitya was personally involved in every small aspect of creative process and looks continuously doing so until Mr. perfectionist finds absolute alignment of his visualization and the engineered end product. When asked how he has managed to achieve all that he has, he shyly and modestly quoted “Itni shiddat se maine tujhe pane ki koshish ki hai, ki har zarre ne mujhe tumse milane ki saazish ki hai”

(re-posted with permission from Vipin Kandwal )