Dr. Arindam Chaudhari’s Planman Motion Pictures turns 20, plans 3 new projects

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Circa 2002, a group of enthusiastic professionals who consult blue-chip companies on various aspects of management and policy, want to bring about professionalism in the world of cinema and start their journey. Helmed by Management Guru, Dr. Arindam Chaudhuri of the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), with pure love for cinema and tempered with the discipline of an institution and a consulting organization, they marched into the domain of spotlights, studios, cameras and celluloid. The rest was— Entertainment.

Planman Motion Pictures (www.planmanmotionpictures.com) was born with the release of their first film Strokes and Silhouettes (Saanjhbathir Roopkathara) on  November 8, 2002 exactly two decades back. Due to his management background, founder Dr. Arindam became one of the initial leaders and core group members of the corporatisation movement for the Indian film industry even before the launch of his first mainstream Hindi film.

He worked with the FICCI FRAMES (an annual entertainment business convention) committee under the guidance of Yash Chopra to lobby for an industry status for cinema. His first mainstream movie was Rok Sako To Rok Lo, launched in a grand event of FICCI FRAMES with the muhurat shot given by Yash Chopra himself in the presence of Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini.

Two official invites at Cannes, 5 National awards, 4 Filmfare awards and countless other honors and top festivals later, Planman Motion Pictures is now all set to become one of the most important producers from India.

While in 2002, Strokes & Silhouettes became the first-ever regional film to be distributed by Hollywood’s Columbia Tristar, and Rok Sako To Rok Lo was the first film ever to premiered on mobilephones way back in 2004, their 2010 Do Dooni Chaar became India’s entry vehicle for Hollywood’s Walt Disney as its first live-action Hindi film, and The Last Lear became the first English feature of Amitabh Bachchan.

Today with 9 films under its belt in 3 languages and genres ranging from drama to comedy and romance to thriller, the team promises to deliver more entertainment.

Says, Dr. Arindam, “This year, we, first and foremost, plan to release a very, very special film that got stuck for a bit too long — Rituparno Ghosh’s last film, Sunglass. It is the maestro’s only mainstream comedy film. We have also finalized a script based on a female-centric story from the Ramayana, for which we are looking at finalising the cast soon. We are at the scripting stage of a period film in the alternate history genre. And, finally, we are setting up our UK office and planning our first totally international cinema for the world market, for which the script has been finalized.”

While Planman Motion Pictures had been lying low in film production for a few years, they did launch India’s most credible film awards, the Power Brands Bollywood Film Journalists’ Awards in 2017. “These are is India’s first absolutely transparent awards, decided by more than two dozen film critics through an open ballot online voting system. Now after five years, I believe we have laid the foundation of an award that India and the film industry can trust and garnered enough credibility to take the next leap and take it big!” This writer has been on the awards jury since inception.

With films lined up for release, new projects coming up and and an unique Open Ballot Transparent Awards ready to take the next big leap, Planman Motion Pictures looks set to launch a big 20^th year celebration.