Mani Ratnam to be honoured at Venice Film Fest

Veteran filmmaker Mani Ratnam is all set to be bestowed with the Jaeger-LeCoultre 'Glory to the Filmmaker' award at the 67th Venice International Film Festival. In recent years, the award has gone to other major world filmmakers such as Takeshi Kitano, Abbas Kiarostami, Agnes Varda, and Sylvester Stallone. This year however, Swiss watch manufacturer Jaeger-LeCoultre celebrates its six years of partnership with the Venice International Film Festival by announcing Jaeger-LeCoultre 'Glory to the Filmmaker' award.

Speaking on why they chose Mani Ratnam for this honour, Marco Mueller, Venice Film Festival director says, "Mani Ratnam used to initially make movies only in his native tongue, Tamil, but has now been one of a handful of filmmakers to successfully handle the transition to the All-India market. One of the great innovators in contemporary Indian cinema, he helped introduce the auteur concept to contemporary Bollywood. His movies display precision and poise, and have always been removed from the bombast and bluster of mass-produced regional cinema. The lavish musical numbers in his films, some of the best-tailored in Mumbai and Madras in recent years, have influenced the style of many others (as well as the design of commercials and music videos). Ratnam's most celebrated films have become part of the cinematic imagination of the sub-continent."

On the occasion of the award ceremony, the Mostra will present the festival premiere of Mani Ratnam's much-anticipated forthcoming film Raavan, attended by the director and by its cast and crew including Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Bachchan, Vikram, and music maestro A.R. Rahman. Raavan is produced by Madras Talkies in association with Reliance Big Pictures and distributed internationally by Reliance Big Pictures and IM Global.

"Raavan will enchant audiences with its stirring drama and entrancing musical sequences," says Marco Mueller. "We are proud to be hosting the festival premiere of this wonderful film, which will be presented at the 2010 Mostra in both the Hindi and the Tamil versions."

As in previous editions, together with the award the director will be presented with a Reverso Jaeger-LeCoultre watch, a one-of-a-kind model with a commemorative engraving.