The writers are Sehba Imam (The Imperfect Musical), Jyoti Kapur Das (Extra Class), Sanjita Majumder (Fireflies), Bridget Lawless from U.K. (Jikkijandi, already commissioned by Gurinder Chadha), Jagdish Metla (Curse Of The Rat-Eaters), Ajaz Rashid (Shejaar) and Mukul Srivastava (Atom, an animation film).

The biggest roles are played by the mentors - who take charge of the writers in small groups. The groups are exchanged the following day. The writers and their work are then enriched immeasurably through experienced writers and filmmakers across nations, like Arend Agthe, a much-awarded German filmmaker of children’s films in particular, Sanjay Chouhan, wandering minstrel who went from journalism to television and finally wrote films like Dhoop and Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara and Director Mentor Vipin Sharma (best known as the churlish father in Taare Zameen Par) who was in charge of the actors enacting the sequences.

Over the span of the lab, various guest mentors also visited the lab. Sannette Naeye, director, Cinekid, was one of them. Panda states that as a children’s film festival, this Amsterdam festival has no match in the entire world, and Sannette, travelling to the venue with this writer, was intensely curious about why a huge industry like India did not have children’s cinema of a much higher level in every sense.

John Newbigin, freelance consultant and entrepreneur and a distinguished member of several key organisations in the UK, Leontine Petit, co-CEO of Lemming Film, one of Holland’s leading film and television production companies producing features for children and Indian filmmaker-scriptwriter Paromita Vohra, who wrote Khamosh Pani, were the guest mentors along with Sankalp Meshram, filmmaker-writer-editor whose Chhutkan Ki Mahabharat won the National Best Children’s Film award in 2005 besides making film and television shows and now teaches Direction and Editing at Whistling Woods International.

The Lab was designed by Susan Benn, Founder Artistic Director, PAL (Performing Arts Limited), a charitable company established in England in 1989 to bring together creative talent to explore radical ideas across disciplines, sectors and geographical borders. Susan has been shaping laboratory programmes now for 20 years, creating research labs and initiatives. and has been awarded a 1-million sterling education award for her achievements by the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts. Jenny Thompson, co-director, has worked in UK television production for 20 years with Granada, Thames, and other companies and for children’s programmes including for UNICEF and Pygmalion Plus, the children’s media programme. Bidhu Bhushan Panda and Deepak Dhillon were lab coordinators.

The Lab was sponsored by MEDIA International, which aims to explore co-operation between European and third-country professionals from the audiovisual industry for mutual benefit, the 75-year-old British Council, the Goethe Institute from the Federal Republic of Germany which celebrates 50 years in India this year, Eon, the London-based film company, Prix Jeunesse, Munich-based TV-for-children promoters, Cinekid, the UK government- and media industry-funded Skillset and also the Children’s Film Society of India. “This is the first time that organizasions in the West have invested so much in an Indian enterprise to develop our cinema,” says Panda proudly.

When the lab concluded on December 14, it vowed to continue its effort to nurture talent from India and Europe to create good quality world cinema and children’s cinema. In a kept-under-wraps announcement, Eleeanora Images, Panda’s film company, announced that it would produce Curse Of The Rat-Eaters as an international co-production. This was the script developed here by Jagdish Metla.

In the two days Screen was present, there was good opportunity to interact with all levels of participants. Here are some of their standout remarks:
Nila Madhab Panda, Co-Director:
“50 per cent of India’s population is children and youth, but we have virtually no children’s cinema of quality. Even films like Taare Zameen Par and Paa are from an adult perspective. Children need their own kind of stuff - neither boring nor preachy and of good quality with entertainment. Today every child feels that lack and so even an average movie like Bal Ganesh 2 is huge on DVDs. This is a result-oriented lab. We are really ambitious and hope that the media supports us.”

Susan Benn, Designer Of The Lab:
“We want to really push the children’s industry and build a community of exceptional quality. We want Indians to make such cinema for Indian children as well as world markets, for the best stories have universal appeal. India has a strong literary tradition, so we want to find out what works, identify courageous filmmakers and financiers and actors who care. In this lab, the standout quality is that everyone is learning together and there are no hierarchies.”

Arend Agthe, German Mentor:
“Children represent the moral voice against establishment because they are always asking questions about traditions. We are growing older and so they are closer to reality. As mentor, my job is to treat these children’s scripts as plants that need the right amount of water, not too much and not too little. “

Sanjay Chouhan, Indian Mentor:
“Indian cinema will continue its transition phase for another 5-7 years. The old formula of stars will remain, but the scope for new stories is better, since multiplexes need software. In both kinds of films only content will work. We look at these new writers and try and facilitate what is lacking.”

Vipin Sharma, Director Mentor:
“As actors enacting sequences even before the final draft of the screenplay, we go beyond the script and bring in our own experiences besides getting into the writer’s mindset. Such exercises benefit them and also allow us to explore our skills because the sequence is not yet final and we can even contribute to its content.”

Jagdish Metla, Writer whose story is selected for an international co-production:
“Curse Of The Rat-Eaters is among the scripts you write for yourself. Others are written for those who commission you. I have grown up in the milleu of an inverse caste system in Andhra Pradesh, which I have tried to project in my film in a very entertaining way, because there it is the lower economic strata that is liberated while the upper ones have orthodox and outdated values.”