India’s Yoodlee Wraps Four Projects Amid Pandemic

As the coronavirus pandemic rages on in India, boutique producer Yoodlee Films has managed to complete production of four projects while adhering to COVID-safe guidelines.

Kanu Behl, known for “Titli” which played Cannes in 2014 and “Binnu Ka Sapna” that won Clermont-Ferrand in 2019, is now is post-production on “Agra,” starring Rahul Roy (“Aashiqui”) and Priyanka Bose (“Lion”). The film that was at Busan’s Asian Project Market in 2015, explores confined spaces and suppressed sexuality in small town India, and is headed for the festival circuit.

Heist caper “Bahut Hua Samman,” directed by Ashish Shukla (“Banned”) and starring Sanjay Mishra (“Masaan”) completed post during the pandemic and will premiere on Disney Plus Hotstar on Oct. 2.

Yoodlee has also completed principal photography on two films, both romantic comedies: “Comedy Couple,” directed by Nachikent Samant (“Habaddi”), starring Saqib Saleem (“Bombay Talkies”) and Shweta Basu Prasad (“Hostages”); and horror-comedy “Zombivali,” directed by Aditya Sarpotdar (“The Raikar Case”), starring Amey Wagh (“Asur”), Lalit Prabhakar (“Anandi Gopal”), and Vaidehi Parshurami (“Simmba”).

Set up in 2017, Yoodlee Films is the film division of Saregama India, India’s oldest music label. It has produced 17 titles in three years. Its first film, Devashish Makhija’s “Ajji,” played at Busan, Rotterdam and Gothenburg.

“We had set out three years back as a rank outsider, (but) with a thriving desire to create cinema that affects and engages and to bring some order and method into the madness of film-making,” said Vikram Mehra, MD of Saregama India. “Today we have proved ourselves to be the fastest-growing movie studio in the business, ready to take up challenges, such as those we faced in the last few months, and create a new work principle, which is both effective and economical.”

During India’s lockdown, Yoodlee released BFI London Film Festival title “Axone” and comedy “Chaman Bahaar” on Netflix.