India’s top animation-filmmaker Gitanjali Rao’s animation feature Bombay Rose will be the Out of Competition opening film at the Venice International Film Festival’s Critics Week Section. The animation film will be screened on August 29.

Bombay Rose is the story of a flower seller who has to make the choice between protecting her family or allowing herself to fall in love. This touching story is set on the streets of Mumbai and moves from real life to fantasy, accompanied by much-loved Bollywood songs from the cinema halls. Painted frame by frame, for which Gitanjali is famed, Bombay Rose is a chronicle of the people who migrate from small towns, seeking minimal life in the maximum city.

“I have always wanted to paint stories about people who live and love in the streets of Bombay, never become success stories, yet their struggle for survival makes heroes out of them. This is the city with its cast of unsung heroes and heroines that I want to share with the world and why I started this labour of love 6 years ago. My hand painted short films have travelled the globe and I have found connections to my films in the most unusual places from Cannes to Kanpur. These fans of my stories give me confidence that my first feature film, Bombay Rose, about simple people with their simple yet impossible dreams can connect with people around the world. I am thrilled that Bombay Rose will be the first Indian animation film to open Venice Critics Week,” says
Gitanjali Rao, –

Produced by Anand Mahindra and Rohit Khattar of Cinestaan Film Company (who also recently executive produced the 3 Academy Award-nominated ‘Cold War’), Bombay Rose has been written, designed and directed by Gitanjali Rao. The film is in co-production with Film d’Ici and was produced at Mumbai based PaperBoat Animation Studios lead by Soumitra Ranade. Working creatively alongside Gitanjali was acclaimed sound designer PM Satheesh.

“Gitanjali’s beautiful film has made us and India proud by being invited to open Critics Week at Venice. It has been our privilege to work with Gitanjali and PaperBoat Studios over the last 2 years to bring this piece of beautiful cinema to life. We are thrilled to share that the prestigious Venice Film Festival shall be the first of many international festival premieres for this stunning love letter to Mumbai and its people,” said Rohit Khattar, Producer and Chairman of Cinestaan Film Company –

Cinestaan Film Company is a boutique film studio committed to nurturing our rich cinematic legacy, by supporting both national and international cinemas. Cinestaan Film Company develops, produces, sells and distributes films across the world and were recently Executive Producers of Cold War, nominated for 3 Academy Awards including ‘Best Foreign Film’.

C International Sales, its Sales Agency specializes in the sale of both Indian and international films seeking global audiences and has successfully represented critically acclaimed films internationally like Hotel Salvation”(Mukti Bhawan) internationally which has been released in over 30 countries.

Cinestaan AA Distributors, it’s JV with AA Films, is the leading overseas distributor propelling big Indian audiences throughout the world into cinemas. Some of the films distributed by Cinestaan AA Distributors are Baahubali 2 – The Conclusion, Stree, Badhaai Ho, Gully Boy and most recently Bharat and Kabir Singh.