Set in the slums of Mumbai and with its heart firmly beating to the music of Bollywood, Gitanjali Rao’s debut feature is a stunningly realised work of animated film-making. - Screen Daily
Bombay Rose Premieres on 8th March on Netflix
~ Bombay Rose is Netflix’s First Indian Animated Feature from India. ~
~ Featured by Variety and others as a potential contender for an Oscar nomination. ~
After a global run of over fifty festivals in India & overseas, Bombay Rose, the feature debut of Writer & Director Gitanjali Rao, premieres today on Netflix coinciding with International Women’s Day. The film has been produced by Anand Mahindra and Rohit Khattar for Cinestaan Film Company.
Painted frame by frame, the story of a flower seller who has to make the choice between protecting her family or allowing herself to fall in love has touched a chord with critics and audiences globally.
The Journey:
- – First Indian animation film ever selected to open Venice Critics Week.
- – North American premiere at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)
- – Selected as part of Special Presentations to play at the BFI London Film Festival 2019.
- – Asian premiere at Busan International Film Festival 2019
- – Won Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival
- – Won the Manish Acharya Award for ‘New Voices in Indian Cinema’ at the 21st Jio - MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.
- – In the shortlist for an Oscar nomination for 2021 in the Animated Films category.
What the critics have to say…
It’s the film’s lustrous visual evocation of Mumbai’s slums that lingers most here, whether painted in vivid, tactile spice-market hues or, in one remarkable time-lapse scene, stripped layer-by-layer to monochrome, like an oil painting in reverse. Rao proves she has no shortage of ways to fill a larger canvas. - Variety
A budding talent breaks through. Rao demonstrates a lightness of touch and a very Bollywood knack for melodrama and entertainment. - Hollywood Reporter
There may not be a title with quite the same level of fidelity and artwork as ‘Bombay Rose’. - HITC
Once in a while an Indian films comes, that knocks it out of the park. In fact, Gitanjali Rao's dazzling, debut animation feature, Bombay Rose, coolly tosses a grenade at
the Bollywood movie formula and sashays off. - Mid Day
Gitanjali Rao's "Bombay Rose", screening at TIFF is nothing if not an achievement of epic proportions. The visually captivating, emotionally beguiling film, marks a giant leap for Indian arthouse animation. - Business Standard
‘Bombay Rose’ Paints an Intimate Portrait of India’s Past and Present: For writer and director Gitanjali Rao, the ‘love’ within a simple rose inspired her compelling and beautifully hand-painted animated film about people in India living unfulfilled lives as they struggle to survive. - Animation World Network
The film is in co-production with Film d’Ici and was delivered at Mumbai based PaperBoat Animation Studios where a team of over 100 animators led by Animation Producer Soumitra Ranade painted a million frames to bring this film to life. Working creatively alongside Gitanjali was acclaimed sound designer P M Satheesh.