A first of its kind initiative in India, and perhaps in the world, Palador‘s film Club REELOAD has completed an unprecedented 75 day run in Mumbai‘s Fun Cinemas by screening some of the world‘s best films day after day.
REELOAD is a Film Club that caters to discerning cinema audiences and will be screening 52 films for 52 weeks in the country, 365 days of the year. This unique treat where world cinema is shown using 35mm prints day-after-day, makes REELOAD the only film club in the country to have daily screenings in a theater. Currently this club operates at Fun Republic, Andheri and Eros Preview Theatre, Churchgate. Within weeks, REELOAD has already acquired more than 500 cinema enthusiasts as its members and is adding many more on a daily basis. The members of REELOAD are the who‘s who of the industry and include some of the most respected directors, actors and technicians. To cater to this level of members, all the screenings are conducted using quality 35mm prints only and ensure that every member gets an exquisite world cinema experience. An experience which was earlier only available at Cannes or Venice or Paris. In addition, each member gets to select 15 Palador DVD titles of his choice for his private collection absolutely free of cost. Palador, interestingly, is the only company in India which has released over 100 World Cinema titles on DVD.
Says Reeload member Shashanka Ghosh, director of films critically acclaimed films like Quickgun Murugan and Waisa Bhi Hota Hain Part II, "The great thing about Reeload is that I can now watch the world classics on screen instead of just Dvd. What a difference that is!"
Reeload‘s line-up includes cinema that has never reached Indian shores, with films like David Lynch's Inland Empire, Infernal Affairs by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak (the film that inspired Scorsese‘s Oscar winner “The Departedâ€), and Wong Kar Wai's masterpieces like Chungking Express, Fallen Angels and In the Mood for Love. Along with this, select Indian non mainstream films like Unni by Murali Nair (a Golden Camera winner at Cannes Film Festival) and Maya Memsaab by Ketan Mehta have been showcased in the Film Club.
Reeload is started by Palador Pictures, which has been working for the last 4 years to popularize World Cinema in India, and make it accessible to discerning film audiences. Armed with an impressive catalog of filmmakers from Sergei Eisenstein to David Lynch and Wong Kar Wai, Reeload aims to cover all the major movements in the history of cinema right from the era of Montage to the Post Modern Era via the French New Wave. Facing the problem of plenty, Palador has handpicked 52 finest films amongst its catalog of its 1000 plus films.
Having given cinema lovers in Mumbai a true reason to rejoice, Reeload is set to commence in cities of Pune and Bangalore in the month of December. Palador has already set up offices in both the cities and has a 10 member strong team across the two emerging cities. Says Gautam Shiknis, Founder & Managing Director of Palador, “World Cinema needs to spread into every corner of India, since there is a large base of people who are potential audiences for quality films. Palador‘s goal has always been to make cinema the best from across the world available to India and our move to spread into Pune and Bangalore is part of that vision. We will be operational in Delhi and Calcutta in the next phase, with 8 other cities targeted for the first quarter of 2010â€.
Besides an already impressive line up, being shown on 35mm, Palador plans to bring some more top-rung films to Indian audiences. “Upcoming movies at Reeload include revolutionary films like Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein, Science of Sleep by Michel Gondry and Shine A Light, which is a music documentary on the Rolling Stones by Martin Scorsese. Heritage classics of filmmakers such as Ingmar Bergman and Akira Kurosawa will also be showcased to visually treat all cinema lovers. The key difference between Palador‘s REELOAD and the various other film clubs is that we show our films on 35mm prints and not on DVD‘s. This makes all the difference to discerning audiences and we have taken enormous effort to bring these 35mm prints to India from across the worldâ€, adds Mohan Polamar, Founder & JMD of Palador.
Since members have access to all screenings across the country, Reeload aims to create a much needed unified world cinema movement in India, which will not just give access to award winning cinema from master directors, but also provide a strong platform for independent Indian cinema to release on. The rapidly growing member base to REELOAD is testimony of the need.
For more information, please visit the website at http://www.reeload.net or call Shomik Basu on 9920148880.