Jigsaw Pictures' Sin. Seven People. One Act.

Humans have a perverse affinity towards sin. Imagine, just a casual whisper seduced Eve to bite into the sinful apple. That was, of course, a long time ago, but the relationship between man and sin hasn't changed over the years.

In India, the word is often synonymous with lust and that too, for a relationship which is forbidden by religion and society.

Surely, this must have played in the minds of producer-duo - Rajnish Lall and Vishal Sinha of Jigsaw Pictures - when they decided to do a film by this name.

The movie revolves around the seven Biblical deadly sins, and has seven popular ad filmmakers bringing alive their interpretation of sin. Each director will be allotted twenty-two minutes to present his story replete with a cast, crew and a song, which will be made into a music video.

Prasoon Pandey, Ram Madhvani, Abhinay Deo, Prakash Varma, Abhijit Chaudhuri alias Dadu, Ravi Udyavar and Shamin Desai are the directors of the film. The shooting will commence in September 2004.

"Prasoon will present his story on wrath, while Ram will work on envy, Ravi Udyavar on gluttony, Abhinay Deo on pride, Dadu on lust, Prakash Varma on sloth and Shamin Desai on greed," Lall explains.

"In other words, you will have seven separate stories focusing on each sin in a two-hour-twenty-minute-long movie," Lall adds, who started his production company with Sinha around three-four months ago. Investment in the venture is Rs 3.5-crore, while publicity will cost another Rs 1 crore.

This, of course, isn't the first time when a film is being made on the concept of sins. One of the most well-knows ones is 'Se7en', directed by David Fincher and starring Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey and Brad Pitt.

Coming back to Jigsaw Pictures' Sin, owing to the nature of the subject, emphasis will be towards a dark and twisted presentation, as opposed to a candy-floss rendition, says Lall. "We were keen on presenting an unconventional movie, and both Vishal and me felt there was nothing as evocative as sin."

For Lall, who was the erstwhile vice-president, marketing at B4U Network, Sin will be his second venture after 'The Fall', a short film, which had Rahul Bose and Nauheed Cyrusi in the lead roles.

The 7-minutes-and-forty-seconds-long movie has no dialogues, only music by Sandeep Chowta. It was made in exactly eleven hours with a tight budget of Rs 82,000, Lall says..

Screened privately in March this year, 'The Fall' draws inspiration from real-life, and dwells on a young executive in his late twenties (played by Bose), who decides to end his life by plunging to his death from his apartment balcony. "However, he stops short when he observes an attractive girl (played by Cyrusi) from his window, and decides to live for her because the serenity absent in him is visible in her."

Lall has plans to screen this film across theatres in the country after Diwali, while a world premiere is scheduled to happen on indiatimes.com in August this year. "The film was made with a global audience in mind, especially for people who are contemporary and who will appreciate a movie like this. Hence, it will not be screened at every centre or location in the country, but will debut at select outlets."

Sin, on the other hand, will be ready for release by mid-December this year. Its revenue streams include brand placements, selling of music and TV rights and merchandising.

Lall maintains that the company is still working out its tie-ups, and the picture should be clear in some time. The actors in Sin are "known" faces, who are not exactly superstars, he says. "We may have a big star or two on the project, but I can't reveal anything right now."

Even as Sin gets going, Jigsaw has set two other projects in motion, one of which is a psycho-thriller, says Lall. "We will make the relevant announcements about the films by Diwali," he says. "Our objective is to do something different, which is of global standards, and not produce regular Bollywood fare. Selling these concepts are not easy, but there are buyers for it." © 2004 agencyfaqs!