MUMBAI: Director Onir, Paan Singh Tomar screenwriter Sanjay Chouhan, actress Tannishtha Chatterjee and noted German director Arend Agthe have decided to align to develop quality Indian children‘s cinema.

The group will mentor 18 screenplays for children‘s cinema at the Green Screen Lab 2012 being organised by Eleeanora Images Pvt Ltd (India) and Performing Arts Lab (UK) in association with Children‘s Film Society, India (CFSI), in Bhubhaneshwar in Odisha.

The 18 screenplays include five from North-East India as part of the Lab organisers‘ idea to bring out the many exciting stories from the neglected region to the mainstream India and beyond.

At least five projects are likely to be chosen for development and production funding with the target to take the films to the floor in 2013.

Acclaimed author Ruskin Bond, whose works have been adapted to the screen by directors like Shyam Benegal and Vishal Bhardwaj, will attend the Lab as a special guest, and share his thoughts on the relationship between literature and cinema with the participants.

"The call for entry to the Lab elicited a huge response and the selection jury had a tough time picking up the chosen 18 as the quality of the submissions was generally quite high. In fact, this gives us great hope about the future of children‘s cinema, which has been a neglected genre in India largely," said Nila Madhab Panda, maker of I am Kalam.