Osianama, Club for connoisseurs
For someone who has been ardently encouraging artists and art forms of India, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Neville Tuli, the connoisseur of art, takes his efforts a notch higher by launching an exclusively niche club, Osianama – India’s Arts, Auto Cine & Culture Centre at the Liberty Cinema in Mumbai this January 21st, 2015.
Neville Tuli is the founder and Chairman of Osian Group, which has under its umbrella, a plethora of artistic endeavors all focused at bringing to the front the artistic, cinematic & cultural heritage of our country.
Having dedicated two decades to the industry, this Oxford graduate, is a go getter who has been successfully able to amalgamate concepts, art forms, events and artistic expressions. Neville Tuli has written substantially on Indian art forms and practices apart from establishing some of the best art learning centers. He holds to his credit, a lineage of various art events, exhibitions and auctions all done tastefully.
Osianama’s nine membership-driven cultural clubs will be launched over a period of one year, starting this January, and will include:
Vintage & Classic Automobiles;
Cinefan;
Antiquities & Fine Arts Appreciation;
Book & Poetry;
Photography;
Architectural Heritage & Preservation;
All Creatures Great & Small & Animal Welfare;
Design, Craft & Popular Cultures &
Sporting Heritage.
The first two clubs have been launched today and shall be soon followed by the Fine Arts Club in April 2015.The club activities will commence from Friday 23rd January 2015, 7:00pm onwards.
Neville Tuli – Chairam, Osianam with Gautam Sen – President of Osianama’s Vintage and Classic Automotive Club.
The Inaugural Events over the upcoming three days, 23rd – 25th January 2015 will have the Red Carpet Premiere of Neeraj Pandey’s new Film BABY, on the first day for which the Dress code is formal, Black Tie or National, while Day Two will see the Launch of Osianama’s Vintage & Classic Automobile Club with a host of events bringing together some of the finest minds & classic cars in the world on Automotive History and Design. Day Three will witness the Launch of Osianama’s Cinefan Club with Conversation, Discussions & a Master Class by Neeraj Pandey and Anupam Kher.
Osianama promises to be the nerve-centre for the exhibition, edutainment, screening & knowledge for the arts, auto, cinema, culture and the preservation of its heritage. It complements the vast emerging online knowledgebase – osianama.com – and is systematically moving towards the long cherished objective of rebuilding the educational global platform for India’s cultural civilization.
Neville Tuli, Chairman of Osianama today stated that the Osianama embraces nine membership-driven cultural clubs under its umbrella which will be inaugurated step by step between January 2015 & March 2016.
Vintage Car – 1932 Lancia 02
The Fine Arts Club and Books & Poetry Club shall be opened by April, when Osianama’s activities begin on a daily basis.
The Osianama Cinefan Club will host premieres of over 50 top quality films from India and the best of World Cinema in its first year. It will also organize twelve major exhibitions (e.g. On Orson Welles; Clark Gable & Marlon Brando; Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton & the Marx Brothers; Polish Poster Design 1950-70s; Japanese Aesthetics & the Samurai; Sci-Fi & Horror Designs of the 1950-60s) and related discussions, master classes & debates with a focus on Hollywood, Indian and World cinema.
Vintage Car – 1939 Delahaye
While announcing the launch of Osianama, Neville Tuli stated that, “…this has been a pivotal institutional step of one’s vision for the past twenty years. Few, if any, cultural institutions, have been built in this world with such independence from patronage, sponsorship and donations. We have always envisaged art, culture and its heritage as India’s greatest assets which will balance and nurture both economic and religious forces once having built its own material infrastructure with daily financial independence. Osianama will provide a new global learning platform for the connoisseurs & students of art, culture, cinema, architecture and its heritage, with the citizens of India gaining a new confidence because of its intellectual energy, innovative presence and a sense of public entitlement based on the creative merit being respected.”
Osianama’s Vintage & Classic Automotive Club (AUTO) will be formally launched on Saturday, 24 January 2015 as a unique initiative to bring the automotive world’s ‘cultural treasures’ to the connoisseurs & students of India in the form of events, exhibitions, discussions, master classes and seminars. The launch of the Club augurs a series of events in Mumbai, which will be followed by those in New Delhi and Bangalore, wherein leading automotive authorities will be invited for lectures and discussions on specific subjects related to history, design & collections of vintage & classic automobiles planned in conjunction with exhibitions of rare photographs, paintings, prints and other artifacts.
The opening event will include exciting discussions on diverse topics, amongst which is French automotive coach building from the Pre-War period, its preeminence then, and why it lost its importance in the post-war situation as well as the shift of design leadership from France to Italy and the Italian design dominance after WW II. Broadly, the topic of focus would be: From Citroen to Fiat, from Delahaye to Ferrari: how and why the leadership in automotive design passed from France to Italy.
Speaking on these issues would be Tom Tjaarda, the legendary designer who has designed more than 70 great cars (the Fiat 124 Spider, the Ferrari 330 GTC and the Ferrari 365 GTC America, the de Tomaso Pantera, amongst others) and who will speak about the design process of some of these cars. Some other speakers include Richard Adatto, an eminent authority on pre-war French cars and Jean-Paul Tissot, the President of Club Delahaye.
The Panel Discussions with eminent speakers will open out new thought-processes regarding the movement of building a significant base of India-based classic automobile collectors along with understanding the impact and influence of design training on the practice of automotive styling and production.
Some of the most important and unique French and Italian cars in India will be on display at the forecourt of the cinema, such as the 1932 Lancia Special racing car & the 1939 Delahaye designed & built by eminent coach builders Figoni et Falaschi. Complementing this display will be an exposition of photographs and prints of important and significant French and Italian cars in the Foyer along with a small but top quality selection of Scale Model Cars.
