Film Bazaar: Rinkel Film Boards Tamil Western ‘The Tempest’ (EXCLUSIVE)

By Naman Ramachandran

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Netherlands production outfit Rinkel Film (“Rafiki”) has reteamed with India’s Stray Factory (“Nirvana Inn”) for Tamil language Western “The Tempest” (aka “Aasaimugam”). It is to be directed by emerging Indian filmmaker Arun Karthick.

The two companies previously co-produced Karthick’s communal bigotry tale, “Nasir,” which benefited from a grant of €50,000 ($55,350) under the Netherlands Film Fund and Hubert Bals Fund co-production scheme, and is currently in post.

Set against the backdrop of the Western Ghats mountains in South India, “Aasaimugam” is the tale of two brothers who are pitted against each other for possession of their ancestral land. Reinier Selen and Ibo Karatay will produce for Rinkel, and Mathivanan Rajendran for Stray Factory. The project is budgeted at $500,000. Rinkel and Stray Factory are seeking partners at India’s ongoing Film Bazaar.

“We are happy to extend this relationship with Stray Factory on “Aasaimugam” and support the uncompromising vision of this young auteur filmmaker through our position in Europe with film funds, markets and sales,” Karatay told Variety. Karthick debuted with the voyeuristic drama “Sivapuranam” at Rotterdam in 2016, where it was nominated for a Bright Future award.

Efforts are on to secure a popular Tamil male star for the lead, in order to tap into the lucrative Tamil-language cinema markets of South India, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and the abundant Tamil diaspora in the U.K., Europe and North America.

Stray Factory’s “Nirvana Inn”, directed by Vijay Jayapal, had its world premiere at Busan in October. Its next, “The Displaced,” is part of the Bazaar’s co-production market.

The (Nov. 20-24) is organised by India’s National Film Development Corporation at Goa, and runs in conjunction with the International Film Festival of India that is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.