South African director Meg Rickards, best known for her internationally acclaimed film “Tess“, says if she gets a chance to work in a collaboration project between India and South Africa, she would love to direct a film on Mahatma Gandhi.
“I would love to see more collaborations between India and South Africa as we have a lot of things in common like our culture and passion for cinema,” Rickards said at the panel discussion “BRICS Co-production: The Way Forward” here at the 1st BRICS Film Festival on Monday.
“I had a beautiful time talking to all the film experts here. One such similar aspect that I would love to showcase onscreen would be the life of young Mahatma Gandhi and all the time that he spent in South Africa. His philosophy of life was really inspiring.
“That would definitely be one film that I would love to do if there is a co-production between India and South Africa,” added the director, whose film “Tess” was screened at the festival on Sunday.
Asked about problems faced by Indian films regarding their release in South Africa, Rickards said: “We have some specially dedicated screens where Bollywood movies are screened. We do have some really well made Bollywood films, which are seen specially by Indian-South Africans. In the coming time, demand for Indian movies will get diverse there.”
Rickards believes that there should be a “treaty between India and South Africa if things need to be easily facilitated”.
“But before beginning a co-production we need to see whether the subject of the film is relatable to both the countries. Stories dealing with human emotions get easily travelled across the world, like ‘The Lunchbox’. It received good response in South Africa because of its universal theme of love,” she said.
The 1st BRICS Film Festival, which is part of the special events planned in the run-up to the 8th BRICS Summit to be held in India, kicked off here at Siri Fort Auditorium Complex on September 2.
The festival, which is screening films from BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – will end on Tuesday.
