Mumbai: Reliance Entertainment and Phantom Films today announced an interesting project to remake the hugely popular French film, La Famille Belier, in multiple Indian languages simultaneously.
LA FAMILLE BELIER directed by Eric Lartigau, was initially released in 2014, and received both, wide critical acclaim and commercial success at the same time.
Written by Victoria Bedos, Stanislas Carre de Malberg, Eric Lartigau and Thomas Bidegain, the film tells the story of a girl who lives with her parents and brother, each of whom are unable to hear or speak, and discovers that she has the gift of singing, which she wants to pursue.
Her family, which relies on her for contact with the outside world, takes the news badly. The girl hates the idea of letting down her parents and her brother, but she loves singing, and goes through a painful dilemma.
The film won the prestigious Cesar Awards, 2015 in the category of Most Promising Actress (Louane Emera), besides getting nominated for Best Film, Best Actress (Karin Viard), Best Actor (Francois Damiens) and Best Supporting Actor (Eric Elmosnino). Apart from nominations in the European Film Awards and Globes de Cristal Awards, it also won Best Actress and Most Promising Young Actress in the prestigious Lumiere Awards in 2015.
The original French film is produced by Jerico and Mars Films along with other co-producers.
Reliance Entertainment and Phantom Films plan to remake the film across multiple Indian languages simultaneously, and currently scripting and pre-production is in process. Reliance Entertainment will distribute the film globally.
Anurag Kashyap, who has long been an admirer of French cinema and also won the prestigious ‘Knight of the Order of Arts & Letters’ in France, is currently working on the script, and said, “La Famille Belier is a great story to work on. I really liked the film and feel that with appropriate changes in sensibilities and the tone; it’ll become a very interesting story for our audiences.”
Vikas Bahl, who is currently working on developing the subject into multiple languages, said, “La Famille Belier, at heart, is a story about love and compassion for one’s family. We feel it is a beautiful story that will resonate with Indian sensibilities and culture, and we want to develop it in multiple languages, so that we reach out to as big an audience as possible.”
