I wonder if this will release as an album, or was it just a leak?

Mongrel Media
presents

A David Hamilton Production of

A film by Deepa Mehta


WATER

"Deepa Mehta's Water is a magnificent film. The ensemble acting of the women in the widows' hostel is exceptional: intimate, painful, wounded, jaundiced, corrupted, tender, tough. The fluid lyricism of the camera provides an unsettling contrast to the arid difficulties of the characters' lives. The film has serious, challenging things to say about the crushing of women by atrophied religious and social dogmas, but, to its great credit, it tells its story from inside its characters, rounding out the human drama of their lives, and unforgettably touching the heart."
- Salman Rushdie


Distribution


1028 Queen Street West
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M6J 1H6
Phone: 416-516-9775
Fax: 416-516-0651
E-mail: mailto:info@mongrelmedia.com
http://www.mongrelmedia.com


Publicity
Bonne Smith
Star PR
Tel: 416-488-4436
Fax: 416-488-8438
E-mail: mailto:starpr@sympatico.ca

High res stills may be downloaded from http://www.mongrelmedia.com/press.html


SYNOPSIS

Set in 1938 Colonial India, against Mahatma Gandhi's rise to power, the story begins when
eight-year-old Chuyia is widowed and sent to a home where Hindu widows must live in penitence. Chuyia’s feisty presence affects the lives of the other residents, including a young widow, who falls for a Gandhian idealist.

.BACKGROUND OF THE FILM

It was once rumoured that Bal Thackeray was quoted as saying that the person he hates most in the world is Deepa Mehta. Thackeray is the leader of Shiv Sena, one of the most powerful right-wing Hindu fundamentalist groups in India and is reputed to have a stranglehold on everything that transpires within the massive metropolis of Bombay. This is a powerful and dangerous adversary and one must wonder what it is that Mehta did to raise the ire of the man who was named by a judicial inquiry as the provocateur of frenzied Hindu mobs that in 1992 burned Muslim homes and businesses and killed 1,200 in Bombay. The answer is simple: she made films which questioned the interpretations that current Hindu leaders were giving to the Sacred Texts and in particular as they related to the treatment of women.

Mehta’s first run-in with Thackeray came during the 1998 release of Fire, the award-winning first film in her trilogy of the elements, which was followed by Earth in 1999 and finally by Water, which was completed in 2005. Using a politically correct mix of men and women and alerting the news media beforehand, Thackeray’s so-called Shiv Sainiks (i.e. members of Shiv Sena) rampaged through a matinee show of Fire in Bombay, smashing glass and burning posters. The next day, theatres in New Delhi, Pune and Surat were similarly hit. “Is it fair to show such things which are not part of Indian culture?” Bal Thackeray, asked in a magazine interview. “It can corrupt tender minds. It is a sort of a social AIDS.” Thackeray was referring to the lesbian relationship between the two main female characters in the film, relationships which he claimed did not exist in India. Every newspaper in India and many around the world including the New York Times carried coverage of these events and thus Thackeray achieved his objective of being seen as the protector of the Hindu faith. In spite of the fact that the Supreme Court ordered that troops be mustered to protect the theatres and armed guards be provided for director Mehta, the theatre owners were too intimidated to re-open Fire to the public. Fire became the highest-selling pirated DVD in India.

Mehta’s next battle with the fundamentalist element did not occur until 2000 when a rioting mob of 2,000 attacked and burned the sets of the production of Water and issued death threats against the director Mehta and the actresses Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das. This confrontation was organized by the RSS, another Hindu fundamentalist faction closely aligned with the Shiv Sena and the cultural arm of the BJP party, who were in power in New Delhi at that time. The Indian government publicly decried this effrontery to free speech and provided 300 troops to protect the production and heavily armed security for Mehta. This did not hinder the well-organized opposition to the film who, it was alleged, had a mole in the production office and found a way of tapping the cell phones of the producer and director. For two weeks the production held on in Benares, soliciting support from the local religious authorities and government, but to no avail. Mehta’s effigy was being burnt in cities across the country daily, in each case covered broadly by the Indian media feeding onto the objectives of the perpetrators. Finally, following a protester’s attempted suicide jump into the Ganges in opposition to the filming, the local government shut down the production under the issue of “Public Safety.” During this period, support poured in from around the world, including a full-page ad placed by George Lucas in Variety encouraging Deepa to continue the fight. None of this unfortunately had any impact on the radical fundamentalists or the local government.

It took almost five years to put the production of Water back together and it was finally shot in Sri Lanka under an assumed name and strict code of secrecy.

Water is set in a house for Hindu widows in a Holy City in 1938 India and it is assumed by many that the living conditions of the characters in the film are not found in present day India. This is sadly untrue and the desire of the right-wing fundamentalist elements to partially hide this explains the vicious attacks on the production and the director.

The film is now complete but the struggle with the fundamentalist element is not. Mehta continues to receive calls from unknown men and women who offer “friendly advice” that she not release this film in the West as audiences there will not understand the complex religious and social order of India.

DIRECTOR’S NOTES

There are some images that become indelible in our minds. One such image that has stayed with me for 10 years is that of a Hindu widow in the Holy City of Varanasi in India. Bent like a shrimp, her body wizened with age, white hair shaved close to her scalp, she scampered on all fours, furiously looking for something she had lost on the steps of the Ganges. Her distress was visible as she searched amidst the early morning throng of pilgrims. She was paid scant attention to, not even when she sat down to cry, unsuccessful in her attempt to find whatever she had lost.

It was this image of a widow, sitting on her haunches, arms outstretched on her knees, head bowed down in defeat that became imprinted in my mind and led to the idea of a screenplay which was to become the film Water 10 years later.

I was in Varanasi directing an episode of Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, a television series for George Lucas. As a part of prep, I spent early mornings at the banks of the Ganges trying to get a feel for the city that attracted pilgrims from all over India. Amongst them were Hindu widows who, because of convoluted religious beliefs, were relegated to a life of deprivation and indignity. They came to Varanasi to die. Dying by the banks of the Holy River guaranteed them instant salvation.

Though a Hindu myself, Hindu widows remained a bit of an anomaly to me until I started researching them for Water, the third film in my elemental trilogy of Fire and Earth. Their plight moved me enormously. These women lived out their lives as prescribed by a religious text that was nearly two thousand years old.

Water is set in India in the late 1930s when the practice of child marriage was still prevalent. Young girls were often wed to older men for economic reasons. When the men died, they left behind young widows who were farmed out to ashrams (institutions). Considered a financial burden by their families, this was generally the fate of most widows. I decided to follow an eight-year-old widow and her life in an ashram where her presence starts to disrupt and affect the lives of the other residents, particularly Shakuntala and Kalyani.

In the year 2000, armed with the requisite permissions and script approval from the government of India, we assembled the cast and crew of Water in Varanasi. After six weeks of pre-production, we started to shoot on the banks of the river Ganges. Two days into the shoot, what transpired next was unexpected and unprecedented. Overnight, violent protests by Hindu fundamentalists erupted in the city. Accusations of Water being anti-Hindu were cited as the cause of the film sets being thrown in the river, my effigy being burned, and protesters marching in the streets of Varanasi, denouncing the film and its portrayal of Hindu widows. Nobody had read the script. Bewildered by the turn of events, we tried to muster help from the state government who had given the script its approval, but to no avail. Amidst escalating protests and violence and personal death threats, we were forced to shut down production.

In retrospect, Water reflected what was taking place in India in some form or other; the rise of Hindu fundamentalism and high intolerance for anything or anybody that viewed it with skepticism; therefore, we were a soft and highly visible target.

To complete Water had become a personal mission, but it took four years before David Hamilton, the producer, and myself resurrected the project in Sri Lanka. To risk making the film in India again was dangerous and foolhardy at best. I had to recast. The luminous Nandita Das, the lead in Fire and Earth, had to be replaced by the younger Lisa Ray. Seema Biswas, of Bandit Queen fame, accepted Shabana Azmi’s role as Shakuntala. John Abraham, a star from Bollywood would play Narayan, the young Gandhian idealist and the fragile widow Kalayani’s love interest. For the role of eight-year-old Chuyia, I found a young girl in Sri Lanka. Sarala came from a small village near Galle. Though she had no experience in front of the camera, she was a ‘natural.’ The challenge was that she spoke neither Hindi nor English. Sarala learned her lines phonetically and I directed her through an interpreter and hand gestures. She was amazing.

Shooting in Sri Lanka was a breeze after our horrendous experience in Varanasi. Giles Nuttgens, who shot Fire and Earth, was behind the camera again. I think Giles is brilliant. Dilip Mehta did the production design. To create India in Sri Lanka was a daunting task. We decided not to even try to re-create Varanasi. To do so would have meant the budget going through the roof. Instead, our modest ghats were only a one-third of a mile long, peppered with the requisite Hindu temples. Colin Monie cut the film in Toronto. I had seen The Magdalene Sisters, which he had edited, and felt that he had the right balance of sensitivity and passion.

Now that the film is complete, I can look back on the journey it has taken to make it. The anguish, the death threats, the politics, the ugly face of religious fundamentalism – we experienced them all. Has it been worth it, I often wonder? Then the image of a widow 10 years ago surfaces in my mind, as she sits on the steps by the Ganges, her toothless mouth making gasping sounds of despair. I found out later that she had lost her only pair of spectacles. Without them, she was half blind.

ABOUT THE CHARACTERS

Chuyia is an eight-year-old girl with bright, sparkling eyes and a long, untidy braid that falls well below her waist. Her tiny wrists have two red bangles each and silver anklets encircle her bony ankles. Her family recently married her to a successful older man of their village with the prospect that when she came of age she would move to his home and become a proper wife. This plan is quickly thrown into disarray when the husband becomes ill and dies, leaving Chuyia a widow. Tradition dictates that Chuyia be forced to move into a house for Hindu widows to spend the rest of her life in renunciation. As a widow, she is expected to atone for the past sins that resulted in the death of her husband.

Madhumati, a widow in her mid-70s, is the house matriarch. By day she sits in the courtyard ordering instructions to the other widows, while at night she lies in her room, smoking ganja and listening to the latest gossip from her only friend, Gulabi, a eunuch and pimp.

Shakuntala is one of the 14 widows sharing the household into which Chuyia is forced to move. Perhaps the most enigmatic of the widows, she is good-looking enough, intelligent and educated. Quiet and reserved, Shakuntala is caught between the hopelessness of living out her remaining years as a widow and her devout adherence to the dictates of the Hindu scriptures.

Kalyani is breathtaking, and the only widow whose hair is not shorn, as a nod to her profession which was forced upon her at an early age by the powerful head widow Madhumati. Uncomplicated and gentle, she radiates a child-like innocence. Kalyani spends her day either playing with her puppy Kaalu, or talking to the small statue of the God Krishna she has in her room. Her nights though are surreal. Gulabi ferries her across the waters to the mansions of the rich gentry in Rawalpur. This she accepts with a quiet equanimity; it's her karma. Besides, she feels that perhaps this is a test that the God Krishna is putting her through and as the holy books dictate “she should live as the beautiful lotus flower untouched by the dirty water in which it resides.” The rest of the widows ostracize her as they feel that close contact will result in a sullying of their purity. When she meets Narayan, the spiritual acceptance of her fate begins to disassemble and she becomes resistant to Madhumati’s will.

Narayan, who has just finished his law degree, is an idealist and follower of Gandhi's ‘Quit India Movement.’ Through pure chance Narayan meets Kalyani. There is an immediate attraction, but the restriction placed on interaction with widows makes it difficult to find a way of pursuing any kind of relationship. Gandhi’s movement is not solely dedicated to removing the British from Indian soil but also focuses on social justice particularly as it relates to the treatment of women. Narayan ignores the cultural taboos and continues to meet Kalyani in order to marry her. But marriage to widows is strictly forbidden.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

Water was shot over a period of 45 days in Sri Lanka under the title “Full Moon.” “We were taking no chances and kept a very low profile while on the shoot,” says producer David Hamilton. “Although we did not expect the kind of troubles that we had in India we were making no assumptions. Most films hire a publicist to provide the press updates on the progress of the film, whereas we had an anti-publicist whose responsibilities were to divert attention from our activities.”

Hamilton had also been the producer on the original attempt to shoot Water in India as well as Mehta’s producer on the first two films of the trilogy, Fire and Earth, and on her Canadian box office hit Bollywood/Hollywood. “Over the past ten years of working together we have developed an uncanny silent language which quickens the pace of mounting a production,” states Mehta. “We don’t always agree but it never takes us too long to resolve our differences. Over the past five years, this was of immeasurable value in maintaining our determination to put Water back together again.”

Giles Nuttgens has been Mehta’s cinematographer on all three films in the trilogy and the collaboration was so important to Mehta that the production was delayed from January to April so that Nuttgens could finish Bee Season starring Richard Geer and Juliette Binoche. As a result, Nuttgens had very little prep on this shoot, but his close relationship with Mehta and their shorthand communication made it possible to integrate their respective visions very quickly. Nuttgens recounts that their discussions concluded with an understanding that “Water, unlike the reds of Fire, unlike the rich browns of Earth, needed the calmer moods of blues and greens. Despite the murky, silted and dirty water of the Ganges, we would need a clarity and sobriety that didn’t exist in the other films. Deepa and I had talked about Satyajit Ray, about The Apu Trilogy, about the lack of camera movement in films of this period and the way Ray used it to show a life that had not changed over centuries.”

Mehta first met Nuttgens on the shoot of The Indiana Jones Chronicles that they were doing for George Lucas. He went on to become one of the cinematographers on Lucas’s Star Wars Episodes I, II and III. Nuttgens was as passionate as anyone in the desire to complete the “Trilogy of the Elements” for Mehta. His cinematography on this film pushed the technical limits of the film medium, especially in some of the night scenes. The lighting of the entire width of the river in one night scene was particularly challenging but the results were stunning.

The original shoot was located in the holy city of Benares on the river Ganges and the first challenge in Sri Lanka, a largely Buddhist country, was to create a Hindu temple complex with “ghats” – steps which lead down to the river bank so that devout Hindus can easily perform their daily prayers. This did not exist in Sri Lanka. Production Designer Dilip Mehta was clear in his vision that he was in no way attempting to re-create Benares. “Benares itself was not essential to the story of Water and it would have been foolhardy at best to make any attempt to replicate a thousand-year-old city facade on an independent film budget,” Mehta stated. What he did create was a set almost half a mile long on a deserted riverbank south of the city of Colombo. His focus was on authentic detail and the set became so convincing that, within weeks of its completion, a local hotel began to offer boat tours “of the ancient Hindu ruins.” This became an annoyance as their boat would constantly have to be chased out of the shot. This along with the local hand-paddled ferry, the monitor lizards who lived in a swamp nearby and a 20-foot python who seemed to like the warmth of the concrete ghats became challenges to the Canadian crew who were more accustomed to raccoons or at worst bears.

The other major location was the “Widows’ House” which was found in the centre of Colombo. The small Hindu community had built a temple complex about one hundred years ago and the house in which the trustees of the temple lived was generously made available to the production. Again Dilip Mehta had to build. The script required a second floor and it was necessary to age the interiors so as to create the sense of 1930s India. The art department added to this faithful re-creation by bringing in from India trunks of brass pots, reed umbrellas, wooden doorways and antique household accessories. The original materials which were to be utilized in the Benares shoot had been stored in a warehouse north of New Delhi but unfortunately were washed away during a Monsoon two years ago and had to be replaced. “The challenge was in creating a space that was vibrant for the camera yet a space that would echo the paucity of the lives of the widows,” said Dilip Mehta. “But then Deepa’s script made it simple. The script was light and shadow alike. The colours baited you. The absence of colour made you weep. It was all in the script. It was hard, almost impossible for a production designer to blunder. The script was akin to a GPS. A blueprint of the soul. So, in all honesty the challenge never wore me down, the humidity did.”

Costume designer Dolly Ahluwallia had already created the costumes for Water once before and, as with the props, the previous costumes had been destroyed in the Monsoon and were created anew. The challenge this time was finding materials and tailors who knew Indian dress as Sri Lankans tend to wear different clothing from that of Indians. Ahluwallia made many of the costumes in India and brought them to Sri Lanka with her. In her usual organized and regimented way she had the entire department set up in a large room in the basement of the crew hotel within days of her arrival.

The background score for the film was created by the incomparable Mychael Danna whose compositional scope provided the range to deal with reflective and intimate scenes involving one or two characters as well as those of more epic proportions with thousands of extras. The Indian songs, which are utilized as background for many scenes, were composed by A.R. Rahman, India’s most accomplished and lauded film composer. Danna had worked with Rahman before and took great pleasure in merging Rahman’s songs with his own background score so as to create a seamless soundscape.

ABOUT THE CAST

SEEMA BISWAS
Shakuntula

Seema Biswas, who plays Shakuntula, attended the National School of Drama in India where she was recognized as one of the most promising actresses on the scene at that time. This early recognition was well-founded as she went on to become an award-winning stage actress across the entire country. Her film debut was as the lead in Bandit Queen, which was based on the true story of a female bandit in North India who returned to her village to kill all of the men in retribution for the violence that had been perpetrated on her in the past. This film became an international favorite and she had subsequently been cast in numerous roles in both Bollywood and international cinema. Mehta and Biswas had been attempting to work together in the past but their respective schedules never permitted it until Water.

LISA RAY
Kalyani

Lisa Ray, who plays Kalyani, was voted by readers of the Times of India as one of the “Top Ten Most Beautiful Women of the Millennium in India”, and as a “Star of the Future” at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival for her role in Bollywood/Hollywood. Ray
is not only one of the most successful cover models in Asia, but she is also an acclaimed actress.

A self-described gypsy or ‘sufi-soul,’ Lisa Ray is a product of a mix match of cultures, and globe-trotting experiences. Born and raised in Toronto, her earliest influences were an unusual combination of perogies and fish curry (her mother is Polish, her father is Bengali) which probably contributed to her chameleon-like ability to adapt to any surrounding – a skill which she puts to good use both in her acting and personal life.

While on vacation in India she was approached by a celebrated fashion magazine to model for them. Though she was just finishing high school and had no modeling ambitions, she agreed on a lark. Ray ended up on the cover and was catapulted into a state of instantaneous recognition. Her high-profile career got her noticed by Indian filmmakers but she preferred to branch out into music videos and presenting, rather than follow the conventional route into mainstream Bollywood. Ray has left a memorable body of work behind her in India, whether it is advertisements, videos or television. Some of the stand-outs include the Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan video, “Afreen, Afreen”, her long-running film review show on Star Movie called “Starbiz” and endorsements of products like L’Oreal, Lakme, Garden Sarees, De Beers Diamonds, Camay and Bombay Dyeing. She is also a guest presenter for BBC’s Asian Network.

She kept refusing acting offers until she was offered the lead in the thriller Kasoor (2001) directed by Vikram Bhatt. In the film, Lisa plays Simran, a lawyer who helps get her client acquitted for murder, but then fears for her own life, as he might actually have been guilty. This got her noticed by award-winning Canadian director Deepa Mehta who cast her as the female lead in the cross-over romantic comedy Bollywood/Hollywood (2002). The film had its world premiere at a gala screening at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival and went on to be a huge success in Canada and other foreign markets. Not long after, Lisa led in the UK / US co-venture feature film Arrangement, a romantic comedy about arranged Indian marriages which was shot in Austin, Texas.

Realizing that acting was something she wanted to pursue more seriously, Lisa moved to London to concentrate on a serious career in the performing arts. While there, Lisa studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama, The London Centre for Theatre Studies, The Desmond Jones school of Physical Theatre, BADA and graduated from the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA) in 2004 with a post-graduate degree in Acting.

While studying, Ray made a conscious effort not to accept any film offers until she had graduated. However, whilst studying at ALRA, Deepa Mehta called her and made her an offer she simply could not refuse – the lead role of Kalyani in her highly controversial and much anticipated feature Water.

Ray has kept herself busy by playing a cop in the thriller Seeking Fear which was shot in Vancouver, and leading in the American romantic comedy Quarterlife Crisis which was shot in New York. She also led in the festival short It’s a Mind Thing.

Lisa Ray is a long-running ambassador for Rado Watches of Switzerland and she finds herself shuttling between her homes in Toronto, London and Mumbai. She loves Indian art and
co-curated an art exhibit in Mumbai entitled ‘Art Aegis’. Writing is another one of her loves, and she has published articles in various publications throughout India and Asia, including Cosmopolitan, the Times group of publications and the Indian Express.

Ray endeavors to be involved in meaningful cinema and theatre projects. ‘What do you expect’ she laughs “I’ve been brought up by a Bengali father, watching the cinema of Satyajit Ray - of course I’ve been corrupted - I’m an idealist.”

Filmography:
1. Quarterlife Crisis (2006) .... Angel (Female Lead)
2. Water (2004) .... Kalyani
3. Seeking Fear (2004) …. Nina Atwal (Female Lead)
4. The Arrangement (2004) .... Saima (Female Lead)
5. It’s a Mind Thing (Short) Natalie (Female Lead)
6. Bollywood/Hollywood (2002) .... Sue (Sunita) Singh (Female Lead)
7. Kasoor (2001) .... Simran (Female Lead)



JOHN ABRAHAM
Narayan

John Abraham, who plays Narayan, is of Iranian Catholic descent. He began his career as a media planner after completing his M.B.A. He established himself as successful model after winning “Gladrags Supermodel of the Year,” a nationwide competition.

In his first film Jism (2002), Abraham played Kabir Lal, an alcoholic lawyer. He meets sexy, rich housewife Sonia Khanna (Bipasha Basu) and starts a passionate affair fueled by lust that eventually leads to the murder of her husband. The film was a Bhatt family production. Jism not only showcased Abraham’s good looks and heroic physique, but also proved him to be an expressive and vulnerable actor.

Abraham worked twice more with the Bhatts over the next two years. In the Anurag Basu directed suspense thriller Saaya (2003), Abraham performed alongside Tara Sharma and Mahima Choudhary. This was followed quickly by Aetbaar (2003), directed by Vikram Bhatt with Abraham playing the role of tempting rebel to the daughter of an overprotective doctor. Dhoom became a blockbuster when released in 2004. John played Kabir, a cool leader of high jinx thieves whose signature escape was via high performance motorcycle. In 2004 Abraham shed his macho image to become Narayan, the young Gandhian idealist in Deepa Mehta’s Water.

Filmography:

1. Water (2004) … Narayan
2. Dhoom 2004) … Kabir
3. Aetbaar (2003) …Aryan
4. Saaya (2003) … Dr Akash (Akki)
5. Jism (2002) … Kabir Lal

AND INTRODUCING

SARALA
Chuyia

Sarala who plays Chuyia is a new discovery from the tiny village of Galle on the south coast of Sri Lanka. She was one of over 50 young girls auditioned by Mehta for the part and although she could not speak either English or Hindi, Mehta recognized immediately her prodigious talent and cast her as Chuyia. Sarala was eight at the time and attended Sangamitta College in Galle. She has been passionate about acting, singing and dancing from a very young age and recently came in first place in the All Island Dancing, Singing and Speech competition. After her studies are complete, her ambition, not surprisingly, is to become a professional actress.

ABOUT THE FILMAKERS

DEEPA MEHTA
Director & Screenwriter

Deepa Mehta was born in India and received a degree in philosophy from the University of New Delhi.

In 1991, Mehta produced and directed her first feature film Sam & Me, the poignant story of an unlikely friendship between two outcasts who form a deep and permanent bond despite the fact that neither is welcome in the other's world. Sam & Me won the very first Honorable Mention by the Critics in the prestigious Camera D'Or category at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.

In 1992, she directed a one-hour episode of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (the adventures of Indiana Jones as a boy) produced by George Lucas for ABC television. "Benares" was filmed on location in Benares, India.

In 1993, Mehta directed her second feature film, Camilla, a Canadian / UK co-production starring (the late) Jessica Tandy and Bridget Fonda. Other cast members included Elias Koteas, Maury Chaykin, Graham Greene and Hume Cronyn. It was shot on location in Toronto, Ontario and Savannah, Georgia. Camilla had a worldwide release early in 1995.

Mehta directed the final episode of George Lucas's Young Indiana Jones Chronicles in 1994. “Travels with Father” was shot on location in Prague, C.R. and Greece.

Fire, Mehta's third feature film, based on an original screenplay, was written, directed and produced by Mehta. Fire opened the Perspective Canada Program at the 1996 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was runner-up (with Fly Away Home) for the Air Canada People’s Choice Award. It was one of 29 films selected from over 1400 entries, worldwide, for the prestigious New York Film Festival. At the Vancouver International Film Festival, Fire won the Federal Express Award for Best Canadian Film as chosen by the audience. At the Chicago International Film Festival, it won two Silver Hugo Awards for Best Direction and Best Actress. In Mannheim, Fire won the Jury Award and in Paris, it was voted Favourite Foreign Film. Fire has currently been sold to 30 countries and had its North American release on August 22, 1997, followed by releases in Europe, Australia and India in September 1997.

Earth, based on Bapsi Sidhwa's critically acclaimed novel, “Cracking India”, is the second film in Mehta's trilogy of the elements, Fire, Earth and Water. Earth was shot in New Delhi, India, in January of 1998. It had its world premiere as a Special Presentation at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival where it was received with a standing ovation and critical acclaim. Earth won the Prix Premiere du Public at the Festival du film Asiatique de Deauville (France) in March 1999 and the Critics' Award at the Schermi d'Amore International Film Festival (Italy) in April of the same year. Currently, Earth has been sold to 22 countries and was selected by the Film Federation of India as India's nomination for consideration for an Academy Award in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.

Her film Bollywood/ Hollywood opened the Perspective Canada Program at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival, and has remained in the top 10 grossing English movies since its Canadian opening on October 25, 2002. In 2003, Mehta co-wrote and directed Republic of Love, starring Bruce Greenwood and Amelia Fox, and based on the novel of the same title by the world-renowned author Carol Shields.

In the same year, Mehta won the prestigious CineAsia “Best Director” Award – an acclaim awarded to Steven Spielberg in 2002.

Water, the third film in the elements trilogy, will be released in the fall of 2005. Initially, the film was to be shot in India, but Hindu fundamentalist created riots, burned the sets and issued death threats to the director and actors forcing the film to stop production in early 2000. The film was remounted and completed shooting in Sri Lanka in June 2004.

DAVID HAMILTON
Producer
Executive Producer

DAVID HAMILTON was the producer on Water when it was shut down by Hindu fundamentalist factions during the attempted shooting in India and has worked together with Deepa Mehta over the past five years to re-assemble the production that was ultimately shot in Sri Lanka in 2004. He had previously produced Deepa Mehta’s critically acclaimed feature films Fire and Earth, which he sold in conjunction with United Artists to over 40 countries worldwide. Following the original shutdown of Water, Hamilton collaborated once again with Mehta by producing Bollywood/Hollywood, which was shot in Toronto in late 2001, and the following year opened Perspective Canada at the Toronto Film Festival. It was a box office success in Canada and sold in over 20 countries worldwide. He has also executive produced Lunch With Charles, a Hong Kong-Canadian co-production starring Sean Lau, Theresa Lee, Nicholas Lea and Bif Naked.

After completing his undergraduate studies at McGill, Hamilton went on to Harvard for a masters degree. While at Harvard, he wrote a book on decision theory that was published by MIT Press. A Harvard Sheldon Traveling Fellowship enabled him to travel and study for one year in the Middle East, Iran and India. His business ventures have taken him to every corner of the globe and span a variety of enterprises, including communications, publishing, and concert production and feature film production.

His passion early in life was gymnastics and theatre. He performed a tight rope act in a children’s circus and wrote and acted in numerous plays and musicals. A strong supporter of the arts, Hamilton has been an active member of the board of directors of the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, School of Dance and the Ottawa International Writers Festival.


GILES NUTTGENS
Director of Photography

Giles Nuttgens joined the British Broadcasting Corporation in the UK in 1981 as assistant film cameraman, working worldwide on documentaries for the renowned Natural History Unit. At the age of 26, he became one of the youngest film cameramen ever in the BBC and over the next few years shot many documentaries on environmental and social issues, working in locations ranging from the Amazon rainforest to the depressed urban jungle of Glasgow. In 1989 he shot his first feature for Film Four International on location in India, a place that was to become a second home over the next decade. At the beginning of the ‘90s he started working for Lucasfilm on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, where he first met Deepa Mehta to shoot an episode about Krishnamurthy in “Benares” (Varanasi). For cinema he collaborated on Bandit Queen (1990) with Shekhar Kapur and Fire (1994) for Deepa Mehta, two films that caused great political upheaval in India (ironically cinemas were burnt down for projecting Fire). Alongside the continuing work for Lucasfilm, he shot various seasons of TV police shows for British television and several films for cinema including Earth for Deepa Mehta and worked as 2nd unit director of photography on Episode I of Star Wars.

In 2000 he met up with David Siegel and Scott McGehee and photographed The Deep End around Lake Tahoe in California for which he won the Cinematography Award at Sundance the following year.

2002 brought a new connection when Nuttgens photographed Young Adam starring Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton, the first of his films for David Mackenzie. Over the last two years he has finished off both Episodes II and III of Star Wars with George Lucas, Asylum starring Ian McKellen once again for director David Mackenzie, Bee Season starring Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche (both for release in the fall) and the third of Deepa Mehta’s elemental trilogy Water.

DILIP MEHTA
Production Designer

Having reached the magical age of 52 (by his account), Dilip still ponders whether it has been ‘worth it.’

From his first cover of Time at the tender age of 24 (again by his account), to the miserable discotheques of Khabarovsk in Siberia, to the 87-member (numbers obviously play a vital role) joint family in Karnataka for German and French GEO – Dilip has pretty much ‘been there done that’.

As an editorial photographer, he has witnessed and recorded–- he calls himself a ‘visual historian’ – a plethora of wide-ranging events across the world. His photo essays –- incisive and often multilayered –-have been published in magazines, books and periodicals such as:
National Geographic, Geo, Life, Stern, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times,
Maclean’s, Figaro, Der Spiegel, Paris Match, Applied Arts, Chatelaine, Vanity Fair, New Yorker, Bunte, Merian, USA Today, The Atlanta Weekly, Liberation, LA Times, A Day in the Life of Canada, A Day in the Life of America, A Day in the Life of Spain, A Day in the Life of Italy, A Day in the Life of Australia, A Day in the Life of Thailand, A Day in the Life of China and A Day in the Life of Soviet Union.

Production Design for the feature film Water was his first foray into work that he calls ‘non brain-damaging’.

MYCHAEL DANNA
Music Composer
Mychael Danna has been scoring films since his 1987 feature debut for Atom Egoyan's Family Viewing, a score which earned Danna the first of his 11 Canadian film award nominations. Danna is recognized as one of the pioneers of combining non-Western sound sources with orchestral and electronic minimalism in the world of film music. This reputation has led him to work with such acclaimed directors as Atom Egoyan, Scott Hicks, Ang Lee, Gillies MacKinnon, James Mangold, Mira Nair, Billy Ray, Joel Schumacher and Denzel Washington.
He studied music composition at the University of Toronto, winning there the Glenn Gould Composition Scholarship in 1985. Danna also served for five years as composer-in-residence at the McLaughlin Planetarium in Toronto (1987-1992). Works for dance include music for “Dead Souls” (Carbone Quatorze Dance Company, directed by Gilles Maheu 1996), and a score for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's “Gita Govinda” (2001) based on the 1000-year-old classical Indian erotic poem, with choreographer Nina Menon.Recent projects include Istvan Szabo's Being Julia, Deepa Mehta's Water, Atom Egoyan's Where The Truth Lies and Terry Gilliam's Tideland.


A.R. RAHMAN
Song Compositions

A.R. Rahman is India’s most successful film composer and has redefined Bollywood film music over the past decade. He composed the music for Mehta’s previous two films in the Indian trilogy of the Elements (Fire and Earth) and has composed the music for the songs in the film Water. In addition to composing for films, A.R. has written and performed his own pop songs. Rahman has garnered many achievements in his relatively short musical career. He has already worked with internationally reputed artists like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Michael Jackson, Jean Michel Jarre, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Deep Forest, Apache Indian, Zakir Hussain, Dominic Miller, L. Shankar, David Byrne, Kadri Gopalnath, Vikku
Vinayakram, Ustad Sultan Khan and Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. In 2002 he composed the music for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Bombay Dreams” and is currently writing the music for the stage adaptation of “Lord of the Rings.” He combines the ethnic music of China, India and Turkey with the sound of the traditional Western symphony orchestra.


MARK BURTON
Executive Producer

Mark Burton graduated from USC and has produced over 25 theatre productions in Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok and India. He has produced several Indian feature films including The Terrorist, directed by Santosh Sivan and presented by actor John Malkovich. The film screened at the Sundance and Toronto film festivals in 1999 and was released theatrically in 2000, garnering an Independent Spirit award nomination for best foreign film. Burton was the executive producer of Santosh Sivan's second feature, Asoka, which premiered at the 2001 Venice and Toronto Film Festivals. Burton's other films include Cherish, directed by Finn Taylor, which premiered at the 2002 Sundance film festival and was released by Fine Line Features – and also, Richard Jobson's 16 Years of Alcohol, which screened at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival, the Locarno International Film Festival, and won a special commendation at 2003 Edinburgh Film Festival. It was nominated for six British Independent Film Awards, winning for best screenplay and best supporting actress. Burton also produced Bigger Than The Sky, released by MGM in 2005.

Most recently, Burton executive produced the third film in Deepa Mehta's elemental trilogy (Fire, Earth, Water). Burton's next project is Beautiful Ohio, a drama scripted by critically acclaimed novelist Ethan Canin, which the author adapted from his short story "Batorsag and Szerelem." Academy Award-winning actor William Hurt has come aboard to star in the film, which will mark Emmy award-winning actor/director Chad Lowe's feature film directorial debut and begins shooting in the fall.

AJAY VIRMANI
Executive Producer

Ajay Virmani has been active in the film industry, producing the Bollywood films Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi and International Khiladi. He was an executive producer and the main financier of Water in India when it was shut down. He also became an executive producer on
Bollywood/Hollywood. He worked diligently with Hamilton and Mehta to put Water back together and assisted in its re-location to Sri Lanka.

Virmani has enjoyed a tremendous business career – as president and CEO of Canada's largest cargo airline, Cargojet – and truly defines the word entrepreneur.

DOUG MANKOFF
Executive Producer

In 1997 Doug Mankoff started Echo Lake Productions by raising a private equity fund to finance and produce independent films. Since then, Echo Lake has financed and produced 15 films. Mankoff executive produced David Riker’s La Ciudad, winner of awards at numerous film festivals, including Havana (best foreign film), South-By-Southwest (best narrative film), Santa Barbara (best narrative film), and Taos (best feature). Mankoff served as producer on Allison Anders’ Things Behind The Sun, which won a Peabody Award for its “searing exploration” of the consequences of rape. Mankoff also executive produced Jill Sprecher’s Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, which became Sony Classics’ highest grossing film of 2002. He executive produced Ed Solomon’s Levity, which was chosen as the opening night film of the 2003 Sundance Film Festival prior to being released by Sony Classics. He produced The Big Empty, a comedy starring Jon Favreau, which premiered at the 2003 AFI Film Festival prior to being released by Artisan Entertainment. Most recently, Mankoff executive produced Deepa Mehta’s Water, which was selected as the opening film of the 2005 Toronto Film Festival. Mankoff executive produced two other 2005 Toronto Film Festival selections: 12 And Holding, directed by Michael Cuesta and Tstotsi, directed by Gavin Hood.

Before founding Echo Lake, Mankoff worked for film financier and visionary Michael Nesmith managing Nesmith’s library of film and television properties. Mankoff received a B.A. in History from Duke University and then attended the graduate film program at NYU. He later received his MBA from Harvard. In addition to his interest in Echo Lake, Mankoff owns CAMP TV Media, a production company he founded in 1986 to make videos for schools and summer camps around the country. A native of Dallas, Mankoff lives with his wife and daughters in Los Angeles.

DU, any info, on availability, source of Water CD?

I think it will be released in INDIA too?

Zillendra Oru Kaatril - Expect some nice melody here. In tamil ARR melody has good orchestrization compared to hindi.

Sivaji - Starring Rajni - Shankar ARR is the best ever, so expect some great "mass" songs here

Dasavatharam - Starring Kamal (10 act by Kamal) - You can expect 1 or 2 classics here due to Kamal's involvement in music.