Mumbai, Oct 22 (IANS): Mumbai Film Mart (MFM) has earned appreciation for providing a platform to aspiring filmmakers to present their under-production or completed films to international buyers and festival programmers, but it also poses challenges to independent filmmakers.

Bhaskar Hazarika, currently working on an under-production Assamese supernatural thriller, said MFF logically makes sense.

"I think it's a logical idea because somebody is looking to sell something and somebody has come all the way from China to buy it," Bhaskar said.

He, however, says there are few challenges as well.

"While dealing with international buyers, we have to deal with stereotypes. Somebody from Europe would only want a 'Slumdog Millionaire' type of films. Any other film they may not be very keen on even showing interest in. This is the reflection of stereotypes of Indian industry and it needs to be broken," he said.

"On the contrary, if you're lucky, then you may find a buyer," he added.

MFM, a subsidiary of the ongoing Mumbai Film Festival (MFF), launched two initiatives - The Filmy Room and India Project Room - this year.

Six completed Indian films "Hunterrrrr", "Haraamkhor", "The Unseen Sequence", "Placebo", "Ilai" and "Albert Pinto KO Gussa Kyun Aata Hain" were screened as part of the India Project Room section.

Besides completed films, several under-production films were also presented. While some filmmakers showed rushes of their films, others used the opportunity to network.

Director Harshavardhan Kulkarni feels the overall experience was good, but he is still awaiting feedback on "Hunterrrrr".

"It was a good platform for filmmakers to pitch their films. I couldn't make it to the mart, but my partner, who was present on my behalf, told me that it was good. We are awaiting the feedback on our film, which was screened at the mart. I'm hoping to get in touch with all those who have watched our film," Harshavardhan told IANS.

Anurag Mishra, director of "Ride", a supernatural travel thriller, has got response on his work.

"I basically came to MFF to understand film business and how to pitch because I have a slightly odd and unique film. It's been an interesting experience as I received good feedback in terms of things I need to look into my film," Anurag told IANS.

"It also gave me a sense of whether what I was trying to achieve is actually getting across. Since I'm focusing on an international audience, I was interested in meeting a lot of film festival folks. From that perspective, it's been good because there are people here from Cannes and Rotterdam," added Mishra.

Over 40 other films were presented to the Mart patrons through the Filmy Room initiative. Some of the other films included "Mohan Mutton", "Yahaan Sabki Lagi Hain" and "Barefoot to Goa".

"I think on the whole it has been a very good experience. I didn't really pitch my film because it's still not made and many are not keen to interact without seeing the final output," said Bhaskar.