Rakeysh Mehra, Ketan Mehta, Anu Malik to be part of Whistling Woods film event

Film school Whistling Woods International is all set to organise a two day festival celebrating different aspects of Indian cinema — trends of today and what lies ahead for the future. [caption id=“attachment_4068365” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Celebrating Cinema 17. Image courtesy: Twitter/@Whistling_Woods[/caption] Celebrate Cinema 2017, as the event is called, will see a bevy of writers and filmmakers gather to discuss Indian cinema and share their insights with the audience. The event commences on 22 September in Whistling Woods’ campus in Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari (Film City) in Mumbai. - Day 1 - On the first day, the event kicks off with the screening of Leena Yadav’s internationally acclaimed film, Parched at 9.00 am. The screening will be followed by an YouTubers Panel which will have Satya Raghavan, Head of YouTube, India along with Anirudh Pandita from Filter Copy; Ruchir Joshi, Content Head from Culture Machine; Sofia Ashraf, producer, Blush, and YouTube celebrity Prajakta Koli as part of the discussion which starts at 11.30 am. Post this, at 1.00 pm, there is a Music Panel with the likes of Anu Malik, Irshad Kamil, Leslie Lewis and Harmeet Singh (of Meet Bros duo) discussing the role of music in the entire narrative of a film. This discussion will be moderated by Whistling Woods International founder and filmmaker Subhash Ghai. At 3.00 pm, there is a discussion with Bollywood writers, who will throw light on the art of writing for biopics and how they pen a story of a life. The Writer’s Panel, as the event is called, will have Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Saiwyn Quadras and Ketan Mehta sharing their own thoughts with the audience. This section will be moderated by Anjum Rajabali who is known for his screenplay in Bollywood movies like Aarakshan, Satyagraha and Rajneeti. Day 1 ends with the screening of Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt-starrer Badrinath Ki Dulhania. - Day 2 - The second day starts with the screening of Alia Bhatt-Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Dear Zindagi at 9.00 am followed with a panel discussion on depression as a theme in Indian films. It will be attended by the team of Dear Zindagi that includes director Gauri Shinde, lyricist Kausar Munir, associate writer Krishna Hariharan and DOP Laxman Utekar. At 3.30 pm, there will be an extensive discussion with Amole Gupte, Shashank Khaitan, R Prasanna, Juhi Chaturvedi and Leena Yadav, moderated by film critic Rajeev Masand.