Medient Studios

INTRODUCTION

Mediente is a filmed entertainment production company founded by film producer Manu Kumaran, a second-generation filmmaker and son of national award-winning director K P Kumaran. Known for making entertaining and socially relevant films in multiple languages for audiences around the globe, Mediente has produced indie films like Yellow, directed by Nick Cassevetes (starring Sienna Miller, Ray Liotta), Aakshagopuram (Mohanlal, Nithya Menen) and controversial films like Battle for Banaras, a documentary on Narendra Modi’s Banaras elections that has been banned by the censor board and Mr Singh Mrs Mehta which got stuck at the censor board because of nudity.

HISTORY

Mediente’s first project was a musical act. The company created A Band of Boys (ABOB), India’s first and only boy band and their debut album, Yeh Bhi Wo Bhi was released in 2002. The album sold over three lakh units and featured super hit songs like Meri Neend, Gori and She Drives Me Crazy.

Featuring Sudhanshu Pandey, Sherrin Varghese, Siddharth Haldipur and Chaitnya Bhosale, the band was selected from over 1,000 aspiring artists from all over India. It went through 18 months of rigorous training in all aspects of their performance and was launched through Musicurry Records in September 2002.

Nominated as MTV’s ‘Ubharta Sitara,’ ABOB was officially launched on one of the biggest platforms ever in this country – The MTV Music AIDS Summit, where over 20 of India’s top artistes were called to perform - from Colonial Cousins, Adnan Sami, Shaan, Sunita Rao, Euphoria, etc.

In 2004 Mediente released its first film, Kiss Kis Ko.

Loosely based on the lives of A Band of Boys, this fictionalised tale of their lives was shot in and around Bali and Jakarta and was directed by Sharad Sharan. Produced by Manu Kumaran and Ram Punjabi, Kiss Kis Ko was released by Eros on October 29, 2014.

In 2006, Mediente opened its production office in UK.

In 2008 Mediente released critically acclaimed Malayalam film Aakashagopuram. An adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen classic Master Builder, the film was directed by KP Kumaran. Voted the best Malayalam film of 2008, 'Aakashgopuram' was both a critical and commercial success. Selected for film festivals like IFFI Goa, and International Film Festival of Kerala, it brought together the best of international crew - from Nigel Holland (sound designer 'Batman Returns') to John Harvey (visual effects 'Kingdom of Heaven') and featured music of John Altman ('Titanic). Featuring Mohanlal in the lead role, the film marked the debut of Nithya Menen. Considered a milestone in Malayalam cinema, Mid Day called Aakashagopuram ‘a brilliant tale of theatrical magnanimity and intellectual prowess... movies like this come once in a while.’

In 2009 Mediente produced Tera Kya Hoga Jonny. which was premiered at London Film Festival. Directed by Sudhir Mishra, the film premiered at London Film Festival. Dubbed as “The new Slumdog Millionaire” by Variety the film marked the completion of Sudhir Mishra’s trilogy of films on life on the streets of Mumbai (Dharavi & Chameli being the other two).

Starring Neil Nitin Mukhesh, Soha Ali Khan and Kay Kay Menon, the music of the film was composed by Pankaj Awasthi and Ali Azmat. On January 10th 2010, ahead of its theatrical release, the film was pirated and posted on Youtube.

In 2010, after a prolonged battle with the censor board over nudity, Mediente’s next film Mr Singh Mrs Mehta was cleared for theatrical release. Starring Prashant Narayanan and Aruna Shields, the film marked the directorial debut of Pravesh Bhardwaj who also wrote the film. 60 Indian actresses refused the lead role of Neera because of nudity before British actress Aruna Shields was cast in the role. Internationally renowned and Grammy award nominated sitar player Shujaat Hussain composed the music of the film.

Nikhat Kazmi in her review in The Times of India called the film ‘a rare experience.’ The adultery in the film she wrote ‘is dealt with a degree of understatement and maturity, with a great music score (Ustad Shujat Hussain Khan and Sharang Dev) to translate the emotional quotient on to the screen, makes it a decent watch.’

Mr Singh Mrs Mehta was premiered at PVR Juhu on June 24th 2010 and was attended by industry stalwarts like Anil Kapoor, Satish Kaushik, Poonam Dhillion, Padmini & Tejaswani Kolhapore, Shakti Kapoor, Vashu Bhagnani among others.

In 2012 Mediente produced Storage 24, its first film exclusively for western audience. A British sci-fi horror film, the film starred BAFTA award winning actor Noel Clarke (Dr Who, Brotherhood, Kidulthood) and was directed by Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down, The Other Side of the Door). The film was released by Universal Pictures.

Jeremy Clarke from The Guardian in his review said, "Johannes Roberts' warehouse-set monster flick is unexpectedly entertaining", giving the film four stars out of five. Kim Newman from Empire gave the film three stars out of five and called it "a superior British horror sci-fi."

Yellow, an indie drama produced by Mediente and directed by Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook) premiered at Toronto International Film Festival in 2012 to rave reviews. Nikola Grozdanovic from Indiewire called Yelloa, ‘a daring and bold film and just what the doctor ordered. Screen Daily declared the film ‘Destined for cult status...’. Global Mail called it the film ‘a genre-bending, generational drama...’.

Starring Sienna Miller, Ray Liotta, Melanie Griffith, Gena Rowlands, Riley Keough, David Morse, Heather Wahlquist and Lucy Punch, the film was awarded ‘Best Film’ at the Catalina Film Festival in 2013. The film was in competition at Tokyo International Film Festival (2012) and Sitges Film Festival and was official selection at SXSW, Munich Film Festival, International Film Festival Of India, Seattle International Film Festival, Deadcenter Film Festival, Florida Film Festival and Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival.

In May 2014, Mediente began shooting the documentary Battle for Banaras in Banaras that covered prime minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha election and captured the excitement, the madness and the noise behind the high- octane poll battle in the holy city.

Inspired by Nobel laureate Elias Canetti's book, 'Crowds and Power', Battle for Banaras is directed by Kamal Swaroop and was shot in 4K, over a 44-day schedule in Banaras. The film was screened in competition at the prestigious Cinema Du Reel Film Festival, one of the most respected documentary film festivals in the world in 2016.

The documentary was screened for the censor board on August 27th 2015. It was officially invited to play at the 17th Jio Mami Mumbai Film Festival but the invitation was withdrawn in the absence of clarity on the censor certificate. After a radio silence, the censor board on 17th October 2015refused to grant censor certificate on the grounds that the release of the film may cause communal disharmony unrest and disturbance.

“The theme is full of hate speeches/inflammatory speeches given by all the leaders falls on different cast, communal talks, derogatory remarks,” states the letter. The censor certificate has been denied under guidelines section 2(xii), (xvii), (xiii), (xviii)”.

The producers then approached FCAT. In its 4th April 2016 order, the tribunal upheld the censor board’s decision to ban the documentary.

Manu Kumaran, the producer of the documentary moved the Delhi High Court on Tuesday 31st May, 2016 against Central board of certification and Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) decision not to grant certificate to the documentary.

The writ petition argued that Impugned order dated April 4th of FCAT (upholding censor board’s ruling) is arbitrary, unreasonable and infringes on Manu Kumaran’s fundamental rights. It seeks quashing of the order and direction from the honourable court to the respondents to sanction and issue a certificate for universal viewing and public exhibition of the film. Ashim Sood has filed the writ on behalf of Kumaran.

The judgement is expected.

Mediente is remaking the hit Hindi film Queen in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. The Kannada version was launched in Bangalore on 7th June, 2017 on actress Parul Yadav’s birthday, who is also essaying the lead role. Amy Jackson has been shortlisted to essay role played by Lisa Hayden in original in all the four languages. Ramesh Aravind is directing the Kannada and Tamil versions of the film. Mamta Sagar is the dialogue writer for Kannada version while Tamil dialogues are being written by T Sumathy.