My Melbourne Producer Mitu Bhowmick Lange on bringing the diversity of Naarm to life on screen

The Curb

My Melbourne is a powerful and uplifting new collaborative feature made with an array of established Indian directors and emerging Australian filmmakers, alongside a diverse group of writers behind the scenes, who each bring one of four stories of Naarm-Melbourne to life on screen.

My Melbourne opens with the narrative called Nadini, it's directed by Onir with co-direction from William Duan. This story followed Indraneel, played brilliantly by Arka Das, and his partner Chris (Jackson Gallagher), who both prepare for the arrival of Indraneel's father, Mihir (Mouli Ganguly), in Melbourne to perform the Asthi Visarjan (ash-scattering) of Indraneel's mother.

This is followed by Jules, directed by Arif Ali, with Imtiaz Ali as the creative director and Tammy Yang as the co-director. Jules tells the story of Sakshi (Arushi Sharma), an Indian woman moving into the world of chef work at a prestigious restaurant. She encounters abuse and resistance from her distanced husband who demands she lives a life in service of him. Sakshi's life is disrupted in interesting ways by the appearance of the homeless woman Jules (Kat Stewart) who sleeps rough outside the restaurant.

The third story follows Emma, played by Ryanna Skye Lawson. Emma is directed by Rima Das with Samira Cox working as a co-director. Emma lives with Usher's Syndrome, which impacts her hearing and her ability to dance. We follow Emma's journey as a dancer as she encounters discrimination, all the while finding her path to dancing her way.

The final story is Setara's story, following the 15-year-old Afghan refugee Setara (played by Setara Amiri) as she immerses herself in her new school, and finds her way into the schools cricket team. Setara is directed by Kabir Khan, with co-direction by Puneet Gulati.

My Melbourne is a narratively rich, powerful and uplifting film about diverse lives in Melbourne. It's an enriching and grounded experience which encourages audiences to see their city differently - namely, through the eyes of diverse folk who we rarely get to see or hear on screen. Much like its northern counterpart, the 2022 film Here Out West, My Melbourne is a collaborative experience that aims to change what stories we hear on screen.

In the following interview with producer Mitu Bhowmick Lange, we talk about the journey to the screen for My Melbourne, while also touching on the importance of the collaborative relationship between Indian filmmakers and Australian storytellers. We also talk about the creative journey for the script writing process, and what it means for emerging filmmakers to be able to work alongside directors like Onir, Kamir Khan, Rima Das, and Arif Ali, who have each created rich bodies of work in Indian cinema.

My Melbourne is heading out into cinemas today, from 6 March 2025. I strongly encourage you to head out into the cinema to catch this brilliant film and to show filmmakers and funding filmmakers that diverse voices are important and what we need to hear on screen. As I mention at the close of this interview, I would love to see films like My Melbourne and Here Out West inspire filmmakers in other cities to create similar diverse stories of their home on screen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQhQEryxDQg

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