VMPL
New Delhi [India], January 24: 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
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