SHILLONG, Sep 23: Iewduh which showcases life as it is lived in the lanes and by-lanes of Iewduh – Shillong’s oldest market – was released in South Korea on Thursday across nine over-the-top (OTT) platforms including Google Play and one Internet Protocol Television.
The journey of Iewduh, however, began much earlier. The team of Iewduh has always had a connection with the market and somewhere down this journey also began the journey of the film Iewduh.
The story had been playing in their minds since 2014, started taking baby steps when the writing and the research began in 2016. But Iewduh only got wings when Shankar Lall Goenka, noted film producer, decided to take on the onus of producing Iewduh. Before meeting Goenka, the team did approach a couple of other producers who failed to connect with the story. Goenka however, both understood and was enthusiastic about telling the story of the liveliest and oldest market of the Northeast.
The pre-production and rehearsals took almost 5 months, and the actors almost became part of the market in this phase. The shooting of the film began sometime in mid-April 2018 and every morning as the cast and crew reached the market, they would be amazed by the support they got from the people of Iewduh. The film wouldn’t be what it is today without their support. The film was shot in about 20 months.
The journey of Iewduh the film began when it got selected for the Film Bazaar Recommends, for which the team is deeply grateful for. It is here that the director, Pradip Kurbah met Saurav Rai, a well-known film maker from Kalimpong, but based in Mumbai. Rai suggested that the team write to Park Sun Young the programmer of Busan International Film Festival (BIFF).
Sun Young watched the film and selected it for the Festival and this was the platform that gave Iewduh a new lease of life. The team was taken by surprise when the film was nominated for Kim Jiseok Award at the 24th edition of BIFF and went on to win it.
Iewduh also won the MIT-SFT Human Spirit Award at the Pune International Film Festival in 2019 and the Asian Cinematography award in Manila in 2020. In 2021 Iewduh won two awards at the 67th National Film award for the Best Khasi film and for Best Audiography.
Iewduh has since travelled to 22 film festivals nationally and internationally.
Iewduh released in Shillong on November 14, 2019, but due to the efforts of the producer Goenka the film went to release in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Kolkata which was a shot in the arm for a film from Meghalaya.
Due to the efforts of Kyoko Dan, a film producer from Japan who referred the film to Nasreen Kabir, Iewduh was selected for their Indian film seasons on Channel 4 TV (BBC) in the UK.
Iewduh was taken up by Inho, Jeong International Sales Representative for CMNIX and released in South Korea on September 23, 2021 across OTT platforms – KTBTVLGU+PLAYY, SKYLIFE, HOME CHOICE FILEJO WAVE, CINEFOX, GOOGLE PLAY, WATCHA, TVING, KAKAO PAGE and IPTV platform in BLUE COLORS.
The versatile and sensitive film maker-director Pradip Kurbah who has already won the National Film Award for three of his films, hopes that Iewduh’s journey will continue and that more films revolving around the lives of people who struggle for their livelihoods in Iewduh will be made in the near future.
