Gulf News

Dubai producer to tell stories of hope

Co- producer of Bollywood film ‘ Hera Pheri’ is looking for ideas from regular people

- By Jennifer Barretto Assistant Editor Features

UAE residents with a passion for the screen could get a chance to be a part of an anthology film being created by Dubaibased movie producer Arjun Kumar.

Kumar, who has co- produced Bollywood films such as Welcome Back and Hera Pheri, is inviting people of all nationalit­ies and background­s to send in stories — whether fictional orbased on real life — that he says will be enacted by establishe­d actors as six short stories.

The founder ofMumbai- basedAnthe­m Entertainm­ent spoke to Gulf News about why hewas inspired to showcase stories written by and about regular people.

“Whenwe did ‘ Welcome Back’, we spent big money and wewere able to show the glamour, the glitz of [ the UAE],” he says, referring to themovie thatwas partly shot in Dubai and star red AnilKa poor, John Abraham, Shruti Haasan and others. “[ But] we’ve actually not spoken about the people.”

Having to stay put in the UAE for the past year gave Kumara lot to think about.

“This [ past] year gave me time to spend and when I had all this time I started meeting people,” he says. “Alot of people have started taking online classes, a lot of people are following their passion. And I said that there’s no better time than this... give them an opportunit­y, let’s listen to stories.”

According to a statement, submission­s of original story ideas a rewelcome from profession­al and non- profession­al writers. If chosen, a creative teamwill help develop the story idea into a script. The story ideas/ synopsis can be emailed to uae story teller. aei@ yahoo. com

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Photos supplied

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