When I first heard about Ticket 2 Bollywood: Beyond the Song and Dance, a weekend conference taking place in NYC next month (at $300 per person), and which is advertised as including the participation of Zoya Akhtar, Imtiaz Ali and Madhur Bhandarkar in a series of panels and classes about the “new” Hindi film biz over the course of two days, my first thought was “Ya, sure.”

I pictured past advents I’d been to that had touted the participation of X or Y actor, and after hoards of fans were assembled, said celeb was wafted by the squealing crowds the way a saint’s relic gets zipped past the faithful before any of the unwashed can put a hand on it, and then it’s gone.

But no, upon further inquiry, I was assured that this will indeed be a serious endeavor, and yes, all three of the big-name directors and screenplay writer Anuraadha Tewari will hunker down for the duration and actively participate in the full programme of panels and individual sessions.  Knowing that, my interest is certainly piqued, especially to hear what Zoya Akhtar has to say.

So, here are the details:

Dates:  October 6 & 7 2012

Location:   Dream Downtown hotel on West 16th Street

Main participants:

Madhur Bhandarkar: National Award-winner for Best Director for Traffic Signal and director of National Award-winning movies Chandni Bar, Page 3, and Fashion. At the end of September, Bhandarkar is releasing the much-discussed movie, Heroine.

Imtiaz Ali: Nominated for Best Director for recent super hit Rockstar and 2007’s Jab We Met. Ali also directed Love Aaj Kal and Socha Na Tha. Most recently, Ali wrote the script for Cocktail.

Zoya Akhtar: FilmFare Award for Best Director for Zindagi Na Milege Dobara. Also directed Luck by Chance and writer of soon-to-be-released Taalash.

Anuraadha Tewari: script writer of Fashion, Jail, and soon-to-be-released Heroine.

To register, go here.