EXCLUSIVE: Indian indie filmmaker Aneek Chaudhuri has launched Mono Studios Entertainment.
The Kolkata-based production house is being positioned as a “creative sanctuary for emerging directors, enabling them to find their voice and take their vision to the world stage,” with a focus on connecting Indian filmmakers with international counterparts.
Chaudhuri is focusing on “the bold, the experimental and the uncompromising,” with a goal of fostering a new alternative film movement in India. He launches his business with four features on the slate.
Namely, they are Indrayudh Sarkar’s Chhader Bagan (The Terrace Garden), Rupsa Banerjee’s East is East, Pradipta Bhattacharya’s Atalantik and A White Horse’s Neigh, the feature from Chaudhuri himself that Adler & Associates bought for worldwide distribution during the Cannes Film Festival in May.
Chhader Bagan is billed as a “narrative feature steeped in intimate storytelling, exploring the quiet poetry of urban life from the vantage of a Kolkata terrace,” while East is East is a “deeply personal documentary chronicling the journey of a Japanese musician who migrates to India and immerses himself in the mystical world of Baul folk music, blending cultures through song,” per Mono Studios.
Detail on Atalantik is thin, but is being positioned as “a cultural bridge between Indian creators and the international art film community.”
A White Horse’s Neigh premiered in Cannes. Its cast includes Tamalynne Grant, Ranjan Giri, Usha Banerjee, Rahuul Gupta, Shalini and Rashmi Kumari, and as a plot that mixes Indian storytelling traditions with Norse mythology. It’s based around the legend of eight mythical horses and a quest for one lost steed that is believed to come from a future realm, and is set across Kolkata and the Sundarbans.
“The idea was to create a space where a filmmaker’s courage is celebrated as much as their craft,” said Chaudhuri about Mono Studios’ founding. “Indian cinema has always had an alternative heartbeat, but it needs platforms that don’t just showcase films — they nurture them from inception to release. Mono Studios will stand for fearless storytelling and the art of cinema without compromise.”
