Franz Osten (23 December 1876 – 2 December 1956) was a German filmmaker who along with Himansu Rai was among the first retainers of Bombay Talkies. Osten partnered with Rai on a number of India's earliest blockbuster films like Achhut Kanya and Jeevan Naiya.

Early life[link]

He was born as Franz Ostermayr in Munich on 23 December 1876. He trained to be a photographer like his father and gave acting a try. In 1907, he founded a traveling cinema called the "Original Physograph Company" together with his brother Peter Ostermayr, who later established the predecessor to Bavaria Film Studios, today one of Germany's largest film studios. Amongst other films, he showed Life in India, a short documentary film about the Munich carnival. The run was not very successful: three days after the opening, the projector exploded in flames. Osten decided to make films and in 1911 directed his first feature, Erna Valeska. His career was abruptly interrupted by the beginning of World War I. He worked first as a correspondent, then became a soldier. After the war Osten made peasant dramas like The War of the Oxen and Chain of Guilt for EMELKA in Munich.

Filmography[link]

Franz Osten's silent films tell varieties of Indian stories. The Light of Asia (1925) dealt with the life of Buddha. Shiraz (1928) dramatises the events that led to the construction of the Taj Mahal. A Throw of Dice (1929) was based on myths and legends drawn from Indian epic Mahabarata. These movies contributed to increasing the understanding of eastern religions and offered a feast for the senses by showing elephants in festive decoration amid thousands of extras. His huge sets were ideal for escaping from reality; dark-skinned women aroused desire, associating sexuality with primitiveness.

Since early 2000s, there has been a revived interest in silent films in general and the trilogy of Osten are in focus. Shiraz was shown at the Castro Theatre at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in 2002, Prem Sanyas at the same festival in 2005, and A Throw of Dice in 2008.^[1] Prapancha Pash was re-released in 2006.^[2]

Director (Indian Films)[link]

• Prem Sanyas (1925) / Die Leuchte Asiens (German title) / The Light of Asia (English Title)
• Shiraz (1928) / Das Grabmal einer großen Liebe (German title)
• Prapancha Pash (1929) / Schicksalswürfel (German title) / A Throw of Dice (English Title)
• Achhut Kanya (1936) / Die Unberührbare (German title) / Untouchable Girl (English title)
• Jeevan Naiya (1936)

[edit] The Light of Asia

The Light of Asia was a unique collaboration which managed to satisfy the tastes of both German and Indian audiences began in 1924. The 28-year-old Indian solicitor Himansu Rai came to Munich in search of partners for series of films on world religions. He had studied law in Calcutta and London where as a student of Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore he had also directed a theatre group that promised to revive Indian acting and theatre traditions. He had heard that the passion plays of Oberammergau were a showcase for German culture and now wanted to create the Indian equivalent.

The Germans were to provide equipment, camera crew and the director, Franz Osten; Rai would provide the script, the actors, locations and all the capital necessary. On 26 February 1925, Osten and Rai, together with their cameramen, Willi Kiermeier and Josef Wirsching, and comedian Bertl Schultes as interpreter, boarded a ship for India. On 18 March they arrived in Bombay. There Osten began to shoot his first Indian film, Prem Sanyas - Die Leuchte Asiens-The Light of Asia, the first German–Indian co-production. The film tells the story of Prince Gautama Buddha, who according to an omen will "follow the sad and lowly path of self denial and pious pain" if he ever faces old age, sickness or death. To prevent this, the King keeps him imprisoned behind the high walls of his palace. One day Gautama leaves his golden cage and is confronted with human misery. At night a revelation comes to him in a dream. A mysterious voice bids him to choose between the carefree life with his beloved wife Gopa and a life in pursuit of eternal truth. In the early morning hours Gautama leaves the court of the King. Attacking common religious practices of sacrifice and self-humiliation, he soon builds up a sizable following. A young woman kneels before him asking to be received amongst his followers. The woman is Gopa.

In India the film was rejected for lack of credibility. The cost of 171,423 Rupees was ten times that of an average Indian film. Even after amendments in the contract with EMELKA, the film lost Rs 50,000. In the United States the film lacked success as "motion picture audiences in America do not care to pay an admission fee to see a prince become a beggar.^[3] But The Light of Asia was celebrated in Germany: "A foreign world where legend and reality are not yet torn apart ... - this amazing Indian world emerges in front of our eyes"^{[citation needed]}; "A Document of German skill and the German sense of duty".^{[citation needed]} Another German critic^[who?] noted: "Every now and then we see a film and know, that it was not just made for the money, but because of a spiritual principle, a bit of idealism".^{[citation needed]} The fairy-tale look "as from A Thousand and one Nights" was admired as much as the "documentary" quality of the images. Himansu Rai, who apart from managing the production also acted the lead role, was said to have "divine properties". In 1926 The Light of Asia was shown to King George V and the press reported a positive reaction by the Royal Family.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Franz Osten's 'the Light of Asia'
• Franz Osten at the Internet Movie Database

Nitin Sawhney
Nitin Sawhney in Lisbon, 24th Feb 2009
Background information
Born	1964 England
Origin	Rochester, Kent, England
Genres	Jazz, Drum and bass, Hip Hop, Orchestra, Trip Hop
Occupations	Producer, Songwriter, Multi-instrumentalist, DJ, Orchestral Composer
Website	NitinSawhney.com

Nitin Sawhney (born 1964) is an Indian-British musician, producer and composer. His critically acclaimed work combines Asian and other worldwide influences with elements of jazz and electronica and often explores themes such as multiculturalism, politics and spirituality. Sawhney is also active in the promotion of arts and cultural matters, and is a patron of numerous film festivals, venues, and educational institutions.

Early years[link]

Nitin Sawhney was raised in Rochester, Kent, England. As a child Sawhney studied piano, classical and flamenco guitar, sitar and tabla. He attended Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School, where he experienced racist comments, violence, and bullying from peers and community members who belonged to the National Front. He sought refuge in his music practice. ^[1]

Subsequently, he studied law at Liverpool University for a short time.^[2]

It was during this period that Sawhney met up with an old school friend, acid-jazz keyboard-player James Taylor. Sawhney then toured as part of The James Taylor Quartet.^[3] This experience led to him forming his own band, The Jazztones. He also joined forces with tabla player and DJ/producer Talvin Singh to form the Tihai Trio.^[4]

After dropping out of university, Sawhney took up a position with a firm of accountants called Day Smith and Hunter in Maidstone, Kent. He trained to become a chartered accountant but found that his music was proving too much of a distraction and quit after about two years. Sawhney moved to London, where he met Sanjeev Bhaskar; together they created the comedy team The Secret Asians. The pair were given a show on BBC Radio, which eventually grew into the award-winning BBC TV sketch show Goodness Gracious Me.^[5] Refocusing on music, Sawhney's solo career began in 1993, when he released his debut album, Spirit Dance on his own label.^[6]

Solo career[link]

Sawhney has released eight studio albums to date. His final album for Outcaste records, 1999's Beyond Skin, was his breakthrough, earning a Mercury Prize nomination^[7] and winning the South Bank Show's award for Popular Music.^[6] Subsequently, Richard Branson's V2 Records signed Sawhney to a six-album deal, and released Prophesy in 2001. The album went on to win a MOBO Award,^[8] an EMMA^[9] and the BBC Radio 3 World Music Award.^[10] In 2004 Sawhney issued two remix collections, All Mixed Up and FabricLive.15, released worldwide by London nightclub Fabric and featuring samples of Gipsy Kings' Nicolas Reyes vocals. Sawhney’s album, Philtre, released in May 2005, was awarded the BBC Radio 3 Culture Crossing Award.^[11]

2007 saw the release of In the Mind Of… Nitin Sawhney, the first release in District 6's new compilation series.

Scores[link]

In recent years Sawhney has been commissioned to write the scores for a number of different projects. He has established himself as an in-demand composer for film and television. His music for Channel 4’s Second Generation saw him nominated for the Ivor Novello Award for Film and TV Composition.^[12] He has also scored ads for the likes of Nike and Sephora.^[11] In 2006, Sawhney composed a new symphony to accompany Franz Osten's 1929 silent film, A Throw of Dice, which premiered with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, London.^[13] More recent works include scores for Oscar-nominated director Mira Nair's adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's, The Namesake,^[14] as well as Natural Fantasia for the BBC.^[15]

This work for film and television has led to recognition within the classical world as well. In 2001, Sawhney composed "Neural Circuits" for the Britten Sinfonia, a collaboration that has continued in the years since.^[16] In 2002, he worked with Akram Khan and Anish Kapoor, scoring the music to Khan’s choreographed work Kaash, which toured worldwide between 2002–2003.^[17] In 2004, Sawhney was commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to compose a new piece for their Harmony Project.^[18] His most recent scores include the new adaptation of Mahabharata by the Olivier Award winning writer Stephen Clarke,^[19] Simon McBurney's A Disappearing Number for Complicite,^[20] and first-time theatrical director Jonathan Holmes' Fallujah.^[21]

Sawhney produced the music for the Ninja Theory video games Heavenly Sword and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (both starring Andy Serkis) and will also score Fifth Beatle, a major studio film currently in production.

Collaborations and remixes[link]

Sawhney has remixed a wide variety of artists over the years, including Sting, Natacha Atlas, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Jeff Beck, Julian Lloyd Webber, Tina Grace and Paul McCartney (for McCartney's The Fireman project). He also collaborated with Paul McCartney on a song called "My Soul", which appeared on Sawhney's London Undersound album and on various Robert Miles projects such as Miles Gurtu and Organik. His own work has been remixed by 4hero, Talvin Singh, MJ Cole and Quantic. He produced several songs on Cheb Mami's album Dellali. Last year he co-produced the second album from songwriter Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly entitled Searching for the Hows and Whys released through Atlantic Records. During 2006-2007, Nitin Sawhney wrote the music for Akram Khan and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's dance piece "Zero Degrees"; Antony Gormley created the set.

Awards[link]

1998

• EMMA Award for Displacing The Priest

2000

• Asian Pop Award for Best Mainstream Fusion Act for Beyond Skin
• Technics Mercury Music Prize Nomination for album of the year for Beyond Skin
• South Bank Award for Popular Music for Beyond Skin

2001

• BBC Asia Award for Music for Prophesy
• MOBO Award for Prophesy
• Boundary Crossing Award, BBC Radio 3 Music Awards for Prophesy

2002

• Media Personality of the Year nomination, RIMA Awards
• EMMA Award for Prophesy
• Muso Award for Prophesy

2003

• Commission for Racial Equality Award

2004

• Ivor Novello Award Nomination for Best Film Score for TV

2005

• Boundary Crossing Award, BBC Radio 3 Music Awards for Philtre

2006

• Honorary Graduate Degree from South Bank University, London

2007

• Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Kent

2008

• Companionship From the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in recognition of his contribution to the world of art and entertainment.
• UK Asian Music Awards - "Commitment to Scene"^[22]

2009

• UK Asian Music Awards - "Best Alternative Act"^[23]

Additional information[link]

Much of Sawhney's attention remains focused on the areas of education and community building, accepting the role of Artist in Residence for no less than five separate performing arts organisations across Great Britain and Asia. Sawhney joined Sir George Martin as a patron of the British Government's Access-to-Music programme,^[24] and he is also patron of the Raindance East Film Festival and the British Independent Film Awards.^[25] Sawhney appears regularly as an arts and current affairs commentator on topical discussion and news programs such as the BBC's Newsnight, Newsnight Review, and HardTalk. He has also written for UK national broadsheet newspapers: The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, and The Observer.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• Spirit Dance (1994) World Circuit
• Migration (1995) Outcaste Records
• Displacing the Priest (1996) Outcaste Records
• Beyond Skin (1999) Outcaste Records
• Prophesy (2001) V2/BMG
• Human (2003) V2
• Philtre (2005) V2
• London Undersound (2008) Cooking Vinyl
• Last Days of Meaning (2011)

Compilations[link]

• Introducing Nitin Sawhney (1999) Outcaste
• FabricLive.15 (2004) Fabric
• All Mixed Up (2004) V2
• In the Mind of... (2007) District 6

Scores[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Nitin Sawhney Website
• Official Nitin Sawhney Myspace page
• BBC: Nitin Sawhney
• Performance of Songbird (Koyal) by Julian Lloyd Webber
• Interview with Graham Brown-Martin for Trace Magazine
• Indepth interview with Nitin Sawhney by Ashanti OMkar
• Interview with Nitin Sawhney from the German site www.theinder.net
• Article about the track "My Soul"
• Nitin Sawhney writes score for Human Planet series