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Dev Benegal and Hungama Mobile team up for unique fest

Participants will be asked to send in their entries on the theme, ‘Laughter and Terror’, for short feature films ranging from 24 seconds to 24 minutes

Hungama Mobile has teamed up with Dev Benegal’s 24x7 Making Movies, of ‘English August’ fame, to announce a unique festival. In a press conference on March 24, they announced the 2006 programme, in which participants will be encouraged to send in their entries on the theme, ‘Laughter and Terror’, for short feature films ranging from 24 seconds to 24 minutes.

Forty films will be short-listed, after which the participants will be given 24 hours to conceive, shoot and edit their films. The festival to showcase the movies will then be held in May in Mumbai at Fame Malad. The fest is open for people aged 24 years or below.

Dev Chugani, GM, entertainment business, Hungama, explains to agencyfaqs!, “The festival will feature the 40 short-listed entries. In the next round of the same fest, over the next year, we will take this festival around the different cities in India. The best part is that anybody with the ability to write, show and shoot can work with us. And all this for free!”

Digital video cameras will be given every day of the festival to the selected participants, along with state of the art Apple Macintosh computers running Final Cut Pro to edit their films, which are the systems Hollywood studios use for their million-dollar projects.

This is another innovative step to take movies to contemporary audiences, wherein the movies are not restricted to big-budget productions.

Hungama Mobile promises to take the short feature films to different media like iTunes Video, Internet and broadband, mobile phones, MMC Cards and even home video, besides offering them a theatrical release. Hungama Mobile has already partnered with more than 47 leading wireless operators globally to take 24x7 Making Movies to the threshold of new forms of entertainment for a digitally connected and mobile economy.

According to an official communique, Neeraj Roy, MD, Hungama Mobile, says, “Hungama Mobile is the ideal partner to take 24x7 Making Movies to the threshold of new forms of entertainment for a digitally connected and mobile economy. Hungama Mobile is the only company in India to digitally distribute entertainment content on Apple iTunes, MSN Music and 47 mobile operators around the world.”

© 2006 agencyfaqs!

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