Writer-director producer and actor Sohrab Khandelwal’s film Que Sera Sera recently won the award for the Best Feature Film at the BAFTA qualifying Carmathen Bay Film Festival thereby qualifying for BAFTA.
Khandelwal is incidentally the great grandson of former Indian president Giani Zail Singh who was recently seen in the film Sardar Ka Grandson.
The film also was a finalist at the New Filmmaker’s New York Film Festival and Kino Duel Film Festival in Russia apart from being nominated for the Paris LIFT-OFF Film Festival, Idyllwild International Film Festival and the Fusion International Film Festival.
The filmmaker is elated. “It is great to win at the BAFTA qualifying festival,” he says. “I wanted to make a film that would be sort of a reminder to old school romance, when love was for keeps and people had time for each other. But at that time I had no resources until I thought resources shouldn’t stop me from telling a story. I wanted to tell a story that would leave the audience with some positivity and I also wanted to reflect on the things that affected the society in India – things like the fascination with the white skin or the family pressures that force people to not take up artistic careers. I wrote Que Sera Sera with all this in mind. and then I found a crew brave enough who would help me bring this vision alive. I wanted to shoot Mumbai in a way that had never been shot before in places where you normally wouldn’t get permissions to shoot. I wished to make films that people can relate to all around the world, that’s what the free spirited characters Kabir and Lucia bring to the story,” says Khandelwal.
Que Sera Sera is a story of two strangers meeting on their last day in Mumbai. Shot in and around Mumbai, it’s the story of Kabir the poet and Lucia the ballerina finding comfort in each other’s company as they explore the city together. What will become of them – Que Sera Sera! Lucia is played by Nira Suarez.
