Shivani Pandya has led the Dubai International Film Festival with great success since its inception in the past decade, playing a leading part in the development of a film culture in the UAE - with the aim of seeing the flourishing of an indigenous film industry. Ben Flanagan reports
If Shivani Pandya's role is to put Dubai's film industry on the map, one of her first tasks was, literally, to do just that for Dubai. People were not sure of its location.
Back in 2004, a Dubai party at the Cannes International Film Festival did not attract too many Hollywood film executives. Nor did it prove much of a draw to the celebrities. When DIFF was launched, an A-list was something Ms Pandya drew up before going shopping.
The problem was, few members of the international film crowd could pinpoint Dubai on the globe. Some people thought it was somewhere in Saudi Arabia, Ms Pandya says.
"The UAE or Dubai did not feature on anyone's mind seven years ago. When we set up the first film festival, I remember I was in Cannes, and we were having a little reception. And … people were like 'who are you?'," she says.
"People didn't know where Dubai was - it was, like, in Saudi Arabia. You got the most ludicrous questions … The awareness levels of Dubai and the UAE in the US was absolutely non-existent."
Seven years on, the head of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) has, at the very least, let it be known that Dubai is a place that actually allows people to visit cinemas.
"I've seen it go from one extreme to the next," she says. "Now I don't think we have a problem getting a meeting with anybody."
Today, if you Google the name Shivani Pandya, one of the first images to appear is that of a woman in a black dress and pearls, standing alongside the actor Gerard Butler, best known for his role in the film 300.
Admittedly, it is not particularly surprising that Ms Pandya should be immortalised in celluloid, or at least on the web, alongside the stars. At this year's festival, which begins on Sunday, she will rub shoulders with the likes of Jean Reno, Sean Penn and Colin Firth.
But when sitting in a meeting room in her Dubai Media City office, the camera flashes along the red carpet seem far away. Dressed casually in blue jeans, blazer jacket, and white trainers, Ms Pandya seems embarrassed when the subject of her online cache of celebrity pictures is raised. In fact, she makes you feel a bit guilty about Googling her in the first place.
"I'm not sitting there hobnobbing with the celebrities all the time," she says. "That's a certain aspect. And then there's a huge other aspect where you cater to all their demands and the hissy fits they're throwing, and believe me that's not very attractive at all."
So the DIFF boss is not, by any account, star-struck and once "shied away" from those red carpet appearances. "I'm quite happy being at the back. I might be getting used to it a bit now, but it's something that I shied away from earlier. In the early days, I would never be there.
"I'm totally not in awe of just glamour. It's more if someone's done something, and achieved something, then that's far more exciting for me. I wouldn't say [the glamour] is my motivating factor. Because there's so much that goes on in the background."
Ms Pandya says DIFF was created with three core objectives, all of which have "very much" been realised. She describes this in an accent that reflects her 10 years as an Indian expatriate in Dubai, a mix of intonations that suggests both Bombay and Belgravia, with the occasional hint of Beverly Hills.
"The primary motive was to create a platform for excellence in cinema, with a focus on Arab, Asian and African cinema. We were looking at the development of the industry in the region … And then looking at creating a nice cultural event for the people of Dubai and the UAE. So really these were the three motivating and governing factors."
So aside from accommodating the extravagant rider demands of visiting celebrities, DIFF has assumed many roles in its efforts to boost the production of Arab films.
Ms Pandya is most animated when describing the Dubai Film Market, a series of initiatives designed to enable film-making. Its services include a market for co-productions; a hub for funding, workshops and networking; the Enjaaz fund, which distributes grants of up to US$100,000 (Dh367,250) for post-production support; and Dubai Filmmart, which covers content trade, acquisition and distribution.
Colleagues say that working behind the scenes on such initiatives, rather than parading the red carpet, is where Ms Pandya's strengths lie.
"She ain't no Oprah Winfrey," says Ziad Batal, the executive producer at All 4 Media, a film and TV production company based in the UAE. "She's not that outgoing, she's very shy and reserved. She's a behind-the-scenes woman, someone who gets the job done."
While Ms Pandya says she is extremely "focused" on her job, that has not prevented her switching careers. In her native India, Ms Pandya studied economics, before having a change of heart and pursuing a Master's in communications. She then worked in advertising, before a switch to media, managing a film studio in Delhi.
She moved to Dubai in 2000, working for the newly formed Dubai Media City, before working on the launch of the Gulf's first film festival.
Mr Batal, who says he has known Ms Pandya for seven years, pays testament to her "cordial" and "respectful" manner. "All my experiences with her have been extremely professional," he says. This is echoed by Ali Mostafa, the director of City of Life, the UAE's first major homegrown movie.
"I find Shivani to be a very hard worker. She's very good at what she does," Mr Mostafa says. "She's very helpful - and we're in an industry where it's very difficult to get in touch [with people]."
Despite such praise, there is the occasional critic. Because DIFF has taken on a wider mandate than just putting on a good show, some in the industry - in frustration, perhaps - suggest it is not achieving quickly enough its self-proclaimed objective of developing the local film industry.
It is, perhaps, unfair that DIFF should be criticised for what, almost anywhere else in the world, would not be considered its responsibility. "It's their job to promote the industry. The Cannes Film Festival does not make films," Mr Batal says. "[The property exhibition] Cityscape is not in the construction business, but it brings all the construction people together." Nor, says Mr Batal, should DIFF or its managers be criticised if Dubai's film industry - despite triumphs such as the recent shooting of parts of the latest Mission: Impossiblefilm here - is not as prolific in terms of homegrown productions as many hoped it would be.
Yet the question remains: Why are there no standout feature-length Emirati fiction films on DIFF's upcoming roster? Where is this year's City of Life?
Ms Pandya takes such questions in her stride: "Every year it's cyclical. And the thing is, the industry is so young and so nascent here."
DIFF has "stretched" itself by promoting other activities such as distribution, post-production assistance and - perhaps one day - a more structured film fund. "Is it DIFF's role? No it isn't," she says. "Can we help get it done? Yes, we can."
The fact that DIFF has not yet launched a substantial, structured film fund belies its "organic" growth, Ms Pandya says.
"It's all been fairly organic. It's not been that we've come in and we've said this is the money and we're bumping it right through. Because I feel the day you stop doing it, everything falls apart. We've grown steadily, and slowly," she says.
"The film festival in itself has grown, and that happens gradually. We started with 74 or 76 films, today we have 157 … The audiences have increased; we've gone from one world premiere in 2004 to 41 in 2010."
There is certainly room for further development in the industry, Ms Pandya says. But it is difficult to deny that within the film world Dubai is now known as part of the UAE, rather than as an exotic satellite town somewhere outside Riyadh.
"The industry is so young, so there's still so much to be done," Ms Pandya says. "When all is said and done, I think we put this region on the map, and I'm quite proud of that."