After a rigorous multi-stage
selection from over 150 applications, three screenwriters advance to producer
partnerships through Cininfo’s inaugural Launchpad 2025 program.
Cininfo Launchpad 2025 announces the three final winners of its screenwriter
and film mentorship lab in India, after a multi-stage process designed to
discover, develop, and connect emerging talent with producers.
Cininfo
Launchpad 2025: overview
Cininfo today announced the three final
selected members of Cininfo Launchpad 2025, a mentorship-to-market lab that
takes screenwriters from early-stage ideas to meaningful producer
conversations. The program is built to bridge a critical gap in the ecosystem
by offering guided development, deep craft feedback, and access to producers
actively looking for new stories.
The inaugural edition of Cininfo
Launchpad 2025 received over 150 applications from across geographies and
backgrounds. Through a structured process of reading, interviews, and pitching,
the program identified projects with strong voice, clarity of intention, and
potential to grow into distinctive feature films or long-form narratives.
Cininfo Launchpad 2025 is a
screenwriter and film mentorship lab designed for emerging filmmakers, film and
media students, and early‑career industry professionals looking to develop
scripts and pitch to producers in India and beyond. The program combines
structured script development, one‑on‑one mentorship, and a live producer pitch
platform, helping participants move from draft to a production‑ready project
while building long‑term collaborators in the film and content ecosystem.
How
Cininfo Launchpad works
The Cininfo Launchpad 2025
journey unfolded across three key stages: an open call that drew 150+
applications from over , a first-round reading and screening, followed by
interviews and pitch briefings to select a focused mentorship cohort, and
finally a producers’ pitch to choose projects ready for the next phase. This
format was designed to mirror a real-world development arc—moving from concept
to a sharper draft while preparing writers to speak about their work with
confidence in professional rooms.
Cininfo’s motive with Launchpad
is simple yet urgent: to create a reliable pathway between promising new
storytellers and decision-makers who can meaningfully back them. The objective
is not just to select three writers, but to build a culture of development
where feedback, rigour, and collaboration become as central as the final
greenlight.
Selection
journey and final three
From over 150 applications, a
curated pool was first shortlisted through a comprehensive review and initial
screening. Seven writers were then chosen for a 5–6 week mentorship development
phase, where they worked closely with mentors on structure, character, tone,
and rewriting while preparing to pitch to a producers’ panel.
Following the final pitches,
three writers have been selected to move ahead into focused story discussions
and producer partnerships:
● Vinoo
Choliparambil – Mumbai, Maharashtra
● Abhay
Yadav – Mumbai, Maharashtra
● Shaheen
Muhammed – Kozhikode, Kerala
These three now enter the next
stage with Cininfo and the producers’ panel, aimed at deepening their projects
towards packaging, financing, and eventual production conversations.
Mentorship
cohort
The Cininfo Launchpad 2025
mentorship cohort of seven consisted of:
● Shaheen
Muhammed – Kozhikode, Kerala
● Vinoo
Choliparambil – Mumbai, Maharashtra
● Rigzin
Gurmet – Leh-Ladakh (Mumbai)
● Nimish
Tanna – Auckland, New Zealand
● Anshul
Agrawal – Mumbai, Maharashtra
● Adarsh
Singh – Mumbai, Maharashtra
● Abhay
Yadav – Mumbai, Maharashtra
Across 5–6 weeks, the cohort
engaged in sessions focused on editing their material, clarifying the emotional
core of their stories, and understanding the realities of today’s marketplace.
The lab combined one-on-one guidance with group learning, allowing writers to
benefit from both individual feedback and peer perspectives.
Producer
panel
Cininfo Launchpad 2025 was
anchored by an experienced and diverse producers’ panel:
● Tanaji
Dasgupta – Mumbai-based producer, writer, and co-founder of Kindling
Pictures, co-producer of Laapataa Ladies (TIFF premiere, Netflix hit)
and producer/co-writer on acclaimed titles such as The Hungry and Cat
Sticks, and former Head of Post Production on The Disciple.
● Nani
Sahra Walker – Academy Award-winning executive producer and independent
writer-director, with credits including Shakti and The Last Repair
Shop alongside teaching and mentoring roles with institutions like UC
Berkeley and American Film Showcase at USC.
● Tanvi
Gandhi – Award-winning producer with over 25 projects, former Executive
Producer at Phantom Films & Yash Raj Films (including Mardaani 2),
and founder of House of TeeGee Productions, with a slate that spans Queen,
Udta Punjab, Super 30, Vikram Vedha, LSD2, Priya’s
Mask, and international co-productions.
Together, this panel brought a
blend of mainstream, independent, documentary, and international co-production
experience, giving writers nuanced perspectives on both craft and strategy.
Mentors
and their perspectives
The mentorship was led by three
industry professionals with deep experience in their craft:
● Manas
Mittal (Mentor, Editor) – Award-winning editor with credits such as The
Sky Is Pink, Qala, A Death in the Gunj, and Mukti Bhawan,
and an alumnus of SRFTI, Berlinale Talents, and Asian Film Academy.
● Siddharth
Diwan (Mentor, Cinematographer) – Award-winning cinematographer known for Queen,
Bulbbul, Qala, Peddlers, and The Lunchbox, and a
graduate of SRFTI’s Motion Picture Photography programme.
● Nikhil
Mehrotra (Mentor, Writer & Director) – Film writer and director behind Dangal,
Chhichhore, Gunjan Saxena, Panga, Mr. & Mrs Mahi
and more, with multiple national and Filmfare awards.
Quote – Manas Mittal (Mentor,
Editor):
“Working with the Launchpad cohort was a reminder that emerging writers are
thinking deeply about form, not just plot. The most exciting part was watching
drafts become sharper simply because the questions became clearer.”
Quote – Siddharth Diwan
(Mentor, Cinematographer):
“What stood out in Cininfo Launchpad
was how fully the writers were already thinking cinema even on the page. Our
conversations were about meaning and experience: how rhythm, mood, and imagery
can shape what the audience feels, not just what they see.”
Quote – Nikhil Mehrotra
(Mentor, Writer & Director):
“Storytelling today demands both
honesty and craft. At Launchpad, the writers were willing to interrogate their
own material, which is often the toughest but most necessary step towards a
film that stays with audiences.”
Producers’
reflections
Quote – Tanaji Dasgupta
(Producer, Kindling Pictures):
“With Launchpad, Cininfo has built
the kind of pipeline producers always say they wish existed—a space where
projects are nurtured before they land on our desks. The pitches we saw were
rooted, specific, and ready to be developed further.”
Quote – Nani Sahra Walker
(Writer, Director, Producer):
“Programs like this are vital
because they give filmmakers a safe place to experiment and fail before the
stakes get higher. What impressed me was how each writer held on to their voice
even as they absorbed feedback from multiple directions.”
Quote – Tanvi Gandhi
(Producer, House of TeeGee Productions):
“In a cluttered landscape, it is
rare to find initiatives that are truly creator-first. Launchpad’s emphasis on
development over speed made the conversations in the room honest, textured, and
deeply aligned with how real films get made. The direct interactions between
producer-creator were productive and encouraging.”
Cininfo’s
vision and need for such programs
Cininfo statement (Founders
Dina Mukherjee and Raghav Gupta):
“Cininfo founders Dina Mukherjee
and Raghav Gupta have built Launchpad as an alternative route in
an industry where access is often determined by who you know rather than what
you are building. It gives emerging writers a structured way to be seen, by
mentors, by peers, and by producers, without having to already belong to an
inner circle.”
“Programs like Launchpad solve
for two critical gaps: they offer early, rigorous development for stories that
might otherwise stay in notebooks, and they create proximity between talent and
the nearest collaborator who can help the project move one step closer to a
screen. For us, the real success is when a writer leaves not just with a better
script, but with a clearer map of who they can walk the journey with.”
About
Cininfo
Cininfo
is an incubator-accelerator for filmmakers, focused on taking projects and
careers from idea to industry-ready outcomes. It combines film education,
project development, and networking so creators strengthen both their craft and
market readiness.
Through structured programs like
Screenwriters Lab and Launchpad, Cininfo supports writers, directors, and
producers move from early concepts to completed scripts, pitch decks, and
production-ready packages for investors, producers, and festivals.
Its mentorship and session
programs connect emerging and mid-career filmmakers with working professionals
across writing, producing, editing, and cinematography, so participants leave
with clear pathways, concrete next steps, and more competitive projects for
today’s film and OTT ecosystem.
For Partnership queries, please
contact info@cininfo.in