Born in Singapore and having spent most of her formative years in Mumbai, LFS filmmaker Natashja Rathore’s affinity towards Hindi cinema is understandable: "India has done as much for cinema as America, and there are as many great Bollywood films as there are great Hollywood films. However, despite being the second largest movie industry in the world, Hindi films are often indefensibly ignored.”
For Rathore, a stepping stone towards changing the mind-set of people towards Indian cinema came in the form of her documentary STILL ROLLING: THE DDLJ STORY. The subject of her film is DILWALE DULHANIYA LE JAYENGE (DDLJ), which was released back in 1995 spent over 1000 uninterrupted weeks in a cinema in Mumbai, tugging at the heartstrings of people across the world. On STILL ROLLING’s Indiegogo page, the question is asked "What does it take to create a phenomenon of this magnitude? What does it take to touch more than a billion hearts? It is a film that anyone can watch over and over again - we want to find out what makes it so magical even after 20 years?” Having watched the film herself over 50 times, Rathore set out on a journey to discover exactly what was so captivating about the record-breaking film.
With a small team, which induced Co-Producer Hinnaa Sulharia, Sound Recordist Zoya Machkina and Director of Photography Daniel Zafer, Rathore took a journey from the bustling heart of London Yash Chopra’s scenic Switzerland and finally to the land of colourful Bollywood. Through meetings with Bollywood experts, encounters with fans and intimate interviews with the faces behind the epic tale, they aimed to rediscover the magic of one of Hindi Cinema’s most iconic films.
The Jaipur International Film Festival (JIFF) is one of the world's fastest growing film festivals, and will play host to STILL ROLLING: THE DDLJ STORY’s premiere on 9th January 2017. The purpose of the festival is to promote newer movie makers and facilitate an exchange of knowledge, information, ideas & culture between India & other nations in context of their social and cultural ethos. JIFF also promotes friendship and co-operation among people of the world through the medium of films & documentaries.
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