Alia Bhatt produced Difficult Daughters selected for Asian Project Market at BIFF

Mumbai, July 21 (IANS) As many as 30 projects have been selected for this year’s Asian Project Market, including Alia Bhatt’s “Difficult Daughters” among others, as announced by Busan International Film Festival (BIFF).

The line-up includes Difficult Daughters, directed by Soni Razdan, which is being produced by Alia Bhatt and her sister Shaheen Bhatt, along with veteran Indian indie producer Alan McAlex (Santosh).

As per deadline.com, Kani Kusruti, who starred in Cannes Palme d’Or winning film All We Imagine As Light, is teaming with the director of that film, Payal Kapadia, to produce The Last Of Them Plagues, directed by Kunjila Mascillamani.

Kusruti attended BIFF last year as a jury member for the New Currents competition.

The line-up also includes several other filmmakers with ties to BIFF, including Indian director Pradip Kurbah, recipient of the 2019 Jiseok Award, with new project Moon; Bangladeshi filmmaker Biplob Sarkar, previously invited to BIFF New Currents and returning with LGBTQ+-themed The Magical Men.

It also includes Malaysia’s Lau Kok Rui from the BIFF 2022 Asian Film Academy, who is presenting Wake Me up When the Mourning Ends, with Soi Cheang, Stefano Centini and Wong Kew Soon on board as producers, reports deadline.com.

The line-up also features five Chinese-language projects, with three from Taiwan focusing on female protagonists.

Japan is represented by three projects from established directors Shiraishi Kazuya, Fujita Naoya and Zhang Yaoyuan, with stories revolving around the realities of foreign laborers, a reclusive woman’s struggle for identity, and a multifaceted view of what Japanese youth face today.

Asian Project Market (APM) will be held for four days from September 20-23 during the 20th edition of the Asian Contents & Film Market at BEXCO.

Talking about Alia Bhatt, she was last seen in Vasan Bala’s “Jigra”. It featured the actress, who produced the project, as a troubled young woman who must rescue her brother from a foreign prison, after he is incarcerated for a crime he did not commit.

She will next be seen in “Alpha” along with Sharvari. The two will be seen playing super agents.

The film is directed by Shiv Rawail and will release in the big Christmas Holiday weekend of 2025.

“Alpha” will mark the seventh film in Yash Raj Films' expansive spy universe. This universe began with the “Tiger” franchise, starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif, starting with “Ek Tha Tiger” and followed by “Tiger Zinda Hai.” The saga continued with "War," “Pathaan,” and “Tiger 3.” Upcoming films in the franchise include “War 2,” directed by Ayan Mukerji, “Pathaan 2,” and “Tiger vs. Pathaan.”

--IANS

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