International Script Development Lab for Indian Children's Films:

The Indian Children's Film Lab focuses on the writing,development and production of high quality children's films. For the first time in India, this programme offers a unique opportunity for developing talent specialised in writing and film production for a young people's audience. The aim of the Lab is to develop Indian films which also have potential for international coproduction and distribution. European and Indian writers and producers work together with the selected writers to develop a slate of new Indian films for children and family audiences. Each writer brings one project to develop at the Lab, which is organized by Eleeanora Images and Performing Arts Lab (PAL)with the support of The MEDIA INTERNATIONAL programme of the European Union, The British Council, The Goethe Institute, EON Productions, The Children's Film Society of India (CFSI), The Prix Jeunesse, Germany, Cinekid, The Netherlands, and Skillset, UK.

2009 Lab

The 1stLab was organized in Matheran, near Mumbai, during December 4-14, 2009. The screenwriters selected to take part in it were:

• Mukul Srivastava - Atom
• Jyothi Kapur Das - Extra Class
• Jagadish Metla - The Curse of the Rateaters
• Sanjita Majumder - Fireflies
• Sehba Imam - The Imperfect Musical
• Ajaz Rashid – Shejaar
• Bridget Lawless - Nuts

India Screenwriting Workshop 2008, Goa

Designed to develop skills of Indian scriptwriters who want to write for a universal audience, the India Screenwriting Workshop had as its principal mentors noted screenwriters Sabrina Dhawan and Paromita Vohra. The guest mentors were Shekhar Kapoor, Vishal Bhardwaj, Abbas Tyrewala, John Newbigin and B R Sharan. The workshop, with Natasha Badhwar as programme director and Nila Madhab Panda as executive director and founder, was designed for aspiring screenwriters to interact in group and individual sessions with screenwriters of international repute with the aim of developing their writing skills. The idea behind the workshop was to address the gap that prevents Indian cinema from connecting with a larger global audience. Among those visited the workshop and shared their knowledge with the participants were Madhu Mantena, Simon Gammel, Nandana Sen, Frank Strazzeri, Barnali Rath, Uttam Sirur, Tasneem Vahanavati, Sheila wright and Natasha Dack.

The participants at the workshop, organized by Eleeanora Images during March 17-28, 2008 in Goa with funding from British Council India and with Saregama India Ltd as the corporate partner, were:

• Arti Jain
• Pubali Chaudhuri
• Suhani Kanwar
• Megha Ramaswamy
• Deepak Rajgor

• Laxmikant Shetgaonkar
• Amitava Mitra
• Jagadish m'Metla
• Jasvinder Bath
• Deepak Venkateshan