Lara Dutta takes it international with Bheegi Basanti Entertainment

March 28, 2018 - 2:10 PM IST

Actress Lara Dutta ventured into production with the film Chalo Dilli under her banner Bheegi Basanti Entertainment. The actress decided to opt for an unconventional venture with Vinay Pathak playing the leading man. And now, she has plans for expansion.

2018 is set to be an exciting year for the actors’ production house as she gears up to announce a slate that will include domestic and international ventures. A source close to the actress claims that this has been developed after that have resulted from two years of research and development into finding real stories that Lara feels will resonate with the current audience at home and abroad, who are looking for real life heroes and true events that inspire them.

Lara Dutta takes it international with Bheegi Basanti Entertainment

She is all set to kick start with an international drama series based on the book - The Meadow. The Meadow is a meticulous account of a brutal kidnapping that paved the way for 9/11. It is written by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott Clark, journalists who previously worked for The Guardian and The Sunday Times. The book is a gripping crime thriller featuring the situation and characters are real. The series will bring to light the real life story of the 1995 kidnapping of 6 westerners that took place in the Kashmir valley as it was documented by the writers. The book is being developed into a multi-season international series.

Along with The Meadow, Lara has also been working on a film she announced earlier based on the story of the women's basketball team from Chhattisgarh. A passion project for Lara that started out as a Bollywood film has now taken on its own destiny to become an international film that will now be produced by Lara’s Bheegi Basanti Entertainment along with UK based producer Jonathan Cavendish, who is known for producing the Bridget Jones series of films starring Rene Zellweger, as well as Elizabeth - the Golden Age that starred Cate Blanchett. This film will be directed by a UK based director.

Talking about her pet project as producer and telling stories on global platforms Lara said, "Stories are responsible for shaping mindsets and changing beliefs and we are fortunate to have found these stories right here in our homeland. When I read The Meadow many years ago, I knew it would be something I would definitely find a way to showcase and now with the rights in hand, this is definitely going to be something exciting that a global audience will see originating from India. The story of the Chhattisgarh women's basketball team has so much heart and I have been wanting to make it into a film ever since I heard it. It is a perfect example of the conversation the world is having right now about empowering women. As a banner it is incredibly satisfying to be able to give this story a much larger voice with a worldwide audience and joining hands with Jonathan has made that possible.”

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