Creative Link Between India And Wales Forged With High Profile Visit

One of the most influential figures in the Asian film and television industry is in Wales this week on a tour designed to forge closer links between the buoyant creative sectors in Wales and India.
Sandeep Marwah yesterdy met Andrew Davies, Minister for Enterprise at a lunch in Cardiff co-hosted by film director Ken Russell, the Skillset Screen Academy Wales Visiting Professor at the International Film School at the University of Wales, Newport.
Marwah is the founder president of the Asian Academy of Film and Television and leads the Asian School of Media Studies, which has been instrumental in placing more than 4,000 media professionals from countries around the world into positions in TV and film.
The Academy, now ranked by Cine Premiere magazine as one of the top ten film schools in the world, has brought recognition and economic prosperity to the Asian film and TV sector.
His visit to Wales has been arranged by the Welsh Assembly Government’s Creative Business Wales team and partner organisations. The aim is to forge links between Welsh educational institutions, the AAFT and the Asian School of Media Studies and encourage opportunities for placement and work experience for students from Wales and India.
The visit will provide an opportunity to highlight the breadth of expertise in Wales, the facilities and the range and variety of film locations.
Andrew Davies said the visit coincided with a number of recent events and successes that was putting the Welsh creative industry sector in the spotlight.
These included the recent Bafta nominations for Family Ties - Dreams and Desires, an animated film co-production by Wales based S4C and Beryl Productions International and Welsh actor Michael Sheen who is in the running for the best supporting actor award for his role in The Queen.
The Screen Academy Wales has just announced that a graduation animated film 't.o.m', has been shortlisted for the Sundance Film Festival in Utah this month, one of only four animated short films selected from 4445 international entries.
This week 'Flick', which stars Faye Dunaway and Leslie Phillips and had funding from the Film Agency for Wales and the Wales Creative IP Fund, starts filming in Wales, while a film based on the early life of Dylan Thomas, The Best Days of our Lives, starring Keira Knightley and Lindsay Lohan, is due to start production in the spring and will be shot in Wales and London.
(DS/SP)