Filmmaker Karan Johar Launches The Trailer Of Is Love Enough? SIR, Rohena Gera’s Cannes- Critic’s Week Award-Winning Romantic Drama

Jyothi Venkatesh

Rohena Gera’s internationally acclaimed debut feature, ‘Is Love Enough? SIR  starring Tillotama Shome (Monsoon Wedding, A Death in the Gunj, Hindi Medium), Vivek Gomber (Court, Mira Nair’s A Suitable Boy, Bombay Begums) and Marathi actress Geetanjali Kulkarni (Court, Taj Mahal 1989) is slated for Pan-India theatrical release on 20th March 2020.

The film had its World Premiere at the 71st International Cannes Film Festival, in the Critic’s Week competition section making Rohena Gera the first woman filmmaker to bag the Gan Foundation Award for distribution. 

Produced by Inkpot Films (Brice Poisson and Rohena Gera), and co-produced by Ciné-Sud Promotion, the film is a story of a Marathi widowed domestic worker played by Tillotama Shome who finds a complicated romantic spark with her recently single employer Ashwin (Vivek Gomber), who’s just returned from the U.S. after breaking off his engagement.

The film has travelled to nearly 45 international and Indian festivals including AFI Fest Los Angeles, São Paulo International Film Festival, Beijing International Film Festival, Zurich Film Festival and has won 16 awards including, Best Film, Best Actress, Best Director & Audience choice awards. 

Is Love Enough? SIR is among the top 5 highest-grossing Indian films released theatrically in France including Salaam Bombay and Lunchbox. The film is theatrically released or sold in nearly 30 countries across the world and garnered critical acclaim and popular success.

The India release is spearheaded by Shiladitya Bora of Platoon One Films, with PVR Pictures Limited distributing the film.

The film is shot by a senior French DOP, Dominique Colin (Carné, Russian Dolls, Summer of Sangaille), edited by Jacques Comets (known for award-winning films such as Wajib and Fortuna.  Parul Sondh Colin (Titli, Agra, Daddy for which she won Filmfare) has done the Production Design,

Chetna Rawat and Kimneineng Kipgen have done the costumes, Pierre Aviat has scored the music filmmaker, Pushpendra Singh (Laila Aur Satt Geet, Ashwatthama) has done the casting together with Abhinav Gupta.

The writer-director-producer, Rohena Gera says, “Sir is a film about love, and hope… I believe that love can change the world, because when you love someone you see the world through their eyes… you see differently.  If you really see another’s point of view, it can change you“

The lead actor, Vivek Gomber, who plays the lead role of Aswin, says, “Looking forward to the release and very excited and happy for the crew. Just Curious to know what the audience will think, hope they like it. I hope the film sticks it out in the Cinemas.”

Tillotama Shome who plays Ratna, the Marathi domestic help in the film says, “SIR has received so much love from across the world and I am excited and nervous to see how the Indian audiences will respond to our film “

Synopsis

Ratna (Tillotama Shome) works as domestic live-in help with Ashwin(Vivek Gomber), a man from a wealthy family. Although Ashwin seems to have it all, Ratna can sense that he has given up on his dreams and is somewhat lost… On the other hand, Ratna who seems to have nothing, is full of hope and works determinedly towards her dream. As these two worlds collide and the two individuals connect, the barriers between them seem only more insurmountable.

Rohena Gera’s Biography and Filmography

Educated at Stanford University (B.A.) in California, and Sarah Lawrence College (M.F.A.) in New York, Rohena has worked in film and television for almost 20 years. Starting her career at Paramount Pictures Literary Affairs office in New York in 1996, Rohena has since worked in a range of roles from Assistant Director to screenwriter to independent producer/director.

Rohena’s most recent project What’s love got to do with it? a micro-budget feature documentary premiered at the Mumbai Film Festival in 2013.She independently produced and directed a non-profit campaign called Stop the Hatred to fight communalism. This featured 16 national icons including Amitabh Bachchan, Zakir Husain, Aamir Khan, Ashutosh Gowariker, Sachin Tendulkar and various others. This was screened in 240 cinemas nationwide and across all national television channels that are members of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation. She has been commissioned to write for mainstream Hindi cinema directors including Kunal Kohli and Rohan Sippy as well as Santosh Sivan and Ram Madhvani (who represent independent Indian cinema). She co-wrote Kuch Na Kaho (featuring Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, produced by Ramesh Sippy) and Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic (featuring Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukherjee, produced by Aditya Chopra) She has also written more than 40 episodes for the very successful television series Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin, adapted from the same source as Ugly Betty (Betty La Fea).

In her tenure as Communications director for Breakthrough (an international non- profit headquartered in New York) she released one of their music albums through Sony Music and executive produced a music video featuring Rahul Bose and Anupam Kher. The UN Foundation invited her to serve as an advisor for their wildlife conservation campaign in India.

Having grown up in India, but having lived in California, New York and Paris, she is both an insider and an outsider to Mumbai. SIR, Rohena’s current feature film project was selected by Critics week at Cannes for the competition section, and has already been picked up by MK2 films for international sales as well as by a well-known French distributor Diaphana. It also received the support of the World Cinema Fund (Cinémas du monde) of the CNC (National Centre for Cinema) in France for post-production.

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