The Power Of Surprise and Affability
Vicky Kaushal in conversation with Smriti Kiran

Date: 13^th August 2020, 5 pm

Finding The Magic In The Mundane
Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari in conversation with Smriti Kiran

Date: 20^th August 2020, 5 pm

Notes From A First Time Writer-Director
Sheetal Menon in conversation with Smriti Kiran

Date: 3^rd September 2020, 5 pm

Sound Overlap: A Tool of Editing For Time Compression and Smooth Transition
Prerna Saigal in conversation with Smriti Kiran

Keeping It Real: Simplifying The Myth of Acting
Sayani Gupta in conversation with Smriti Kiran

Date: 6^th August 2020

Actor and producer, Sayani Gupta grew up surrounded by the performing arts - theatre, dance, music, cinema, she got a front-row view to all. In this session, she talks about how FTII shaped her as an actor, and how she mines her instinct and life experience for her performances.

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A Life Beyond Cinema
Taapsee Pannu in conversation with Smriti Kiran

Date: 2^nd August 2020

An actor and entrepreneur by profession and an engineer by education, Taapsee Pannu's life has always been about seizing opportunities. In this session, Taapsee talks about the art of balance, the need to diversify, the perks of having a life beyond cinema, asking questions and the misogyny she has faced in her career.

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Intentionally Yours
Juhi Chaturvedi in conversation with Smriti Kiran

Date: 27^th July 2020

From illustrating columns for Times of India to writing screenplays, Juhi Chaturvedi's characters are extensions of us on screen. Her work invokes a sense of nostalgia even about the present and her writing makes us long for that ponderous pause, that playful interlude, and time spent without purpose. In this session, Juhi talks about her engagement with writing, her constant partners in crime - Shoojit Sircar and Ronnie Lahiri, about creating men and women on screen that we want to see, not treating senior citizens as placeholders and why she is not in a hurry.

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The Battle Inside: Keeping A Creator’s Mind and Spirit Strong
Vikramaditya Motwane in conversation with Smriti Kiran

Date: 12^th July 2020

Vikramaditya Motwane speaks about the battle within while pursuing your dreams in the industry. How can you pursue your passion, to persevere, brace yourself for disappointment, move on from failures, to stay focused while waiting, not get swept away by success, wallow in rejection, to hold steady and keep going? Through his 26 year-long journey, from Teen Talks to Udaan his first film as a director in 2010, to the present as filmmaker, writer and producer, Motwane takes us on this tumultuous but deeply satisfying, joyous and self-driven ride.

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Shapeshifting Narratives Across Formats
Ruchi Narain in conversation with Smriti Kiran

Date: 5^th July 2020

Feature films, ad films, films for digital and web series - for over two decades, writer-director Ruchi Narain has told stories across mediums. In this session get a peek into her writing and directing process as she traverses diverse platforms and molds her stories to fit the medium.

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The Narrative Spine: Why It Is Cardinal To Know What You Want To Say
Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti in conversation with Smriti Kiran

Date: 28^th June 2020

In the session, Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti talk about the difference between the story of the film and what the film wants to say (theme). They discuss the process of defining the story and the theme during the writing stage. How is the core theme imbibed through the film and what happens when there are multiple themes? Watch two of the leading writer-director duos discuss their partnership and writing process.

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Finding The Cutting Point: The First Step In Editing
Shweta Venkat Mathew in conversation with Smriti Kiran

Date: 25^th June 2020

In a career spanning 16 years, Shweta Venkat Mathew has whipped out over 20 films from her chopping board including the modern classic, Gangs of Wasseypur. In this session, Shweta takes us through the critical steps before an edit begins, the factors that influence your decisions at the edit table, the challenges in making those decisions and how to overcome them.

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Collaboration: The Alchemy Of Filmmaking
Bejoy Nambiar in conversation with Smriti Kiran

Date: 21^st June 2020

Bejoy Nambiar spoke to Smriti Kiran about his journey and how it has its foundation in deep and strong collaborations. He recounts how he got a superstar like Mohanlal to say yes to his first short film, how working with Mani Ratnam became his film school and why he believes so strongly in empowering the people you work with and more.

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Blocking And Camera Movement: Finding The Rhythm Of A Scene
Shakun Batra in conversation with Smriti Kiran

Date: 20^th June 2020

Shakun Batran talks about the elusive nature of rhythm, the tools and techniques that he uses to create it in his films and who are the key collaborators in the process of creating it. The session provides an insight into what is rhythm, who controls it through a film, blocking and staging a scene, why editing can sometimes be re-writing and why he belongs to the school of constant quest.

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Politics in Cinema
Kabir Khan in conversation with Smriti Kiran

Date: 18^th June 2020

Kabir Khan grew up in an ecosystem rich in political discourse, debate, discussion and spent his formative years as a documentary filmmaker where having and honing a political opinion was part of the job. The conversation explores why being apolitical is a myth and a sign of potential complicity and how every choice you make on screen is political.

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The Art Of Building Characters
by Parvathy Thiruvothu

Date: 7^th June 2020

Beyond the writing and direction, what is an actor’s process in creating memorable onscreen characters? The indomitable Parvathy Thiruvothu gives us a window into her process and what went into the making of enduring characters like Dr. Annu, RJ Sarah, Marakatham, Kanchanamala, Tessa, and Sameera.

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Inside The Mind Of A Genre Filmmaker
by Vasan Bala

Date: 21^st May 2020

Vasan Bala demystifies the terms 'genres' in filmmaking and what has come to be a genre in itself: genre films. What are genre films? How have they evolved? How did they come to be recognized as a category? The process, the craft, the sensibility: Inside the Mind of A Genre Filmmaker by Vasan Bala is the first session in the knowledge series Dial M For Films curated by Artistic Director Smriti Kiran.

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