Here is something interesting to know! Melbourne woman Mitu Bhowmick and her company “Mind Blowing Films”, is the leading distributor in Australia of Bollywood and Indian cinema. In addition to being a distributor, Bhowmick is the director of the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, a festival launched in 2010 showcasing South Asian cinema that has been sustained with Victorian Government support, then in 2016 she developed film production arm Mind Blowing World.
Wowsers! and yes she now has an OAM after her name as well! In a recent interview with The Age, Bhowmick reflects on her journey from India to Australia with her husband Roy in 2001 and “Salaam Namaste” – her first Melbourne film project and the first Bollywood film to be completely shot overseas (via The Age):
“Australia has been good to me. I’ve met so many great people and I have managed to create this whole little world,”
“[Salaam Namaste] went on to create so much awareness for Melbourne in India. There was a hike in tourism to Victoria from India, with students coming to study here,”
“We are all a product of our worlds and until we expand this world, there’s a limit to what we will see on screen.”
One point in the interview with Bhowmick which stands out is her reference about how we need to throw out western standards when it comes to films coming from non-Western regions. Asia cinema as a whole is a major industry which can now rival the likes of Hollywood.
“Western thought is not necessarily the benchmark the rest of the world follows. As the world is getting smaller and audiences get more global, diverse creative expression across cinema and the arts is important. Thanks to streaming platforms, people’s palates are changing. Audiences are willing to watch films with subtitles from Hindi language films to Telugu, Tamil and Urdu,”
If you would like to read more on the interview, please go here: https://www.theage.com.au/culture/movies/the-melbourne-woman-who-helped-indian-cinema-conquer-australia-20230131-p5cgt5.html?fbclid=IwAR3rnfy7mhzCQgYesv_Cte-_JKDdeGI_t7xDPfKVvtupywG7uaR0plEQzSk .
Images via Mitu Bhowmick Lange Facebook page