Cpics' "The Next Gen Filmmaker Project" Announces Inaugural Mentee Class for Program Elevating South Asian Creatives
illi News/10180818

LOS ANGELES - illiNews -- The Next Gen Filmmaker Project, a mentorship program dedicated to paving the way for South Asian creators in entertainment, has selected their 2022 class of mentees. This inaugural class consists of a group of four filmmakers with respective projects that will be produced with the support of the program.

The selected participants will have support and guidance to develop a treatment and script for their project idea. They will then have their stories produced by Cpics, a streaming service dedicated to South Asian content that will launch later in 2022. The final content produced during the course of this program will be distributed on Cpics' platform for subscribers to view in 2023.

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The mentees were chosen from a competitive pool of candidates, and have each created a synopsis of a project that they're eager to share with a larger audience through Cpics. They will work with veteran producer and actor Kavi Raz, who is serving as the lead mentor.

The mentees joining the program and the projects they are developing are:

• Ronak Shah, a filmmaker working on her project Chutney Manor, which follows a motel owner in rural, small town America who is reunited with his estranged daughter after the sudden death of his wife. Ronak's previous projects have been screened at festivals, including Austin Film Festival.
• Reyva Dhillon, a writer who is passionate about sharing stories focused on mental health awareness. Her project, Model Minority, focuses on the story of an Indian-American high school student who is dealing with her own mental health struggles.
• Priyanka Samra, a writer/director/actor who is working on her project The Brow Bar; mockumentary style series about two sisters running a family business.
• Sikandar Sidhu, a writer and a director who is developing his project Patel Motel, a sitcom about an Indian family who moves from North Carolina to Lancaster, California after they purchased a hotel.

"I am ecstatic to be a part of this family," says mentee Ronak Shah. "Chutney Manor has been in my mind for over five years now and it is such an honor to finally be able to build this series with Cpics and bring it to the South Asian diaspora across the world."

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The selected mentees have expressed their excitement for the mentorship program and look forward to the opportunity to tell their stories. The mentorship program aims to bring the industry one step closer to proper representation on screen, reflecting the reality of the diverse world we live in.

Cpics will be launching summer 2022. For more information, go to http://cpics.tv.