Prashant Bhargava, ‘Patang’ Director, Dies at 42

Chicago-born director Prashant Bhargava died of a heart attack on May 15 in New York. He was 42 and had a history of heart trouble, according to his sister Anurima.

Bhargava’s film “Patang” played at Berlin and Tribeca fests in 2011.

Variety‘s Jay Weissberg called “Patang” a Tennessee Williams-style story. Bhargava spent many months in Ahmedabad, India, observing people for the film set during that Gujarat city’s annual kite festival.

“I was very conscious of coming in from the outside,” he told Variety in 2012. “I would sit in a kite shop for hours, and I got to know the community very well,” which informed the story the way we shot the film.

Roger Ebert picked the film for his festival of underappreciated movies.

Bhargava previously worked in promotions at HBO and had a background in musicvideos and commercials. He recently worked on “Radhe Radhe: Rites of Holi” with musician Vijay Iyer.

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