'Good Sharma'
One of the principals behind India's first state-recognized film fund is embroiled in a financial dispute over a film he made with a U.S. production company.
Sheetal Talwar is the co-producer on "Good Sharma," a movie about New York taxi driver Om Sharma, who raised money to start a girls school in his remote home village in rural India.
The project was brought to Talwar by former BBC producer Nicola Scott, who is based in Santa Monica, after she saw Sharma featured on "Oprah."
Featuring Joan Allen, Billy Connolly and Indian thesp Dalip Tahil, British helmer Suri Krishnamma completed principal photography in India and New York in 2006.
But Talwar's WSG shingle has since refused to release the Indian footage to Scott -- contravening a ruling by the Los Angeles-based Independent Film and Television Alliance's arbitration service that was confirmed by L.A. Superior Court in 2007.
Now Scott has filed a case for conversion, the civil law term for theft, against Mumbai-based Adlabs, the film processing facility that has the footage.
In the meantime, Scott can't help comparing her Indian feel-good movie to "Slumdog Millionaire."
" 'Slumdog's' much-deserved success is bittersweet for us," she said. "We have an inspiring story about an ordinary man doing extraordinary things, against all the odds. This is truly heart-breaking for all of us."
Talwar, replying to
Variety in a series of emails, maintains that he has met all the provisions of the IFTA agreement. Last year Talwar's Vistaar Entertainment Ventures pacted with financial services group Religare Enterprises to bow what the website calls the first film fund regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India. The Vistaar Religare Film Fund aims to raise 2 billion rupees ($41 million).
Contact Bobbie Whiteman at
bobbie.whiteman@variety.com