Believe Media has signed director Abhinay Deo for commercial representation. Additionally, a strategic partnership has been formed between Believe and Deo’s own India-based production company, RDP.
Born and raised in Bombay, India, Deo started on the path to film 20 years ago as the in-house director for Ogilvy and Mather India prior to founding RDP in 2000. Today Abhinay has over 450 spots to his credit, including well-known ads for Nike, Tata Safari, The Times of India, and the soul-stirring Mumbai Mirror newspaper campaign, which earned Abhinay the 2012 Cannes Gold Lion for Direction. The standout spot, “I am Mumbai,” documents four real citizens as they boldly and publicly vocalize personal accounts of headlines broken in the Mumbai Mirror. With voices personified by anger and courage, the film amplifies the powerful unheard stories of Mumbaikars that the paper brings to its readers.
Adding to the list of accolades is the 2013 Clio, Bronze Lion, and six Spikes Asia Awards for Deo’s passion-infused Nike campaign out of JWT India. In the spot “Parallel Journeys,” he intersperses footage of the daily rituals of the world’s top cricketers with glimpses into the lives of young athletes relentlessly pursuing that level of greatness all across cricket-obsessed India.
Of the partnership with Believe, RDP’s producer Apurba Sengupta said, “We’re elated that our leading director Abhinay Deo will be represented by Believe internationally and that we will get to represent their roster in India. We look forward to an extremely exciting and creatively fulfilling collaboration ahead.”
Believe founder/EP Luke Thornton added, “Believe is thrilled to represent a preeminent filmmaker such as Abhinay Deo and to join forces with India in this ever-expanding market, especially with a partner as established and creatively daring as RDP.”
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More