There can be little doubt that all the recent news coverage of the Air India trial spurred, in some small way, Toronto 1 and its parent Craig Media to write a cheque for director Srinivas Krishna. Best known for 1996’s Lulu and his 1991 breakthrough Masala, Krishna had for some time been developing a project about the terrorist bombing that sent Air India’s Flight 182 into the Atlantic in June 1985 after departing Toronto, killing 329, most of them Canadians. Early this month he got the nod for a four-hour miniseries, backed by T1’s New Voices Fund.

‘I lost a lot of friends on that flight,’ he says, ‘and what’s always struck me is the appalling silence of this country, Canada, over the whole incident – the lack of acknowledgment that it affected Canadians.’ Masala also dealt with the bombing.

Shooting in Toronto and Vancouver is slated for this time next year, but the unnamed 2 x 120 show won’t see the air until June 2005. Krishna, who also exec produces through his Divani Films, is in talks with potential partners on the West Coast and hopes to close deals by the new year.

A budget has not been set, but he plans to make something on par with a decent MOW, which could put the final bill near the $6-million mark. Applications are also in at Telefilm Canada and the Cogeco Program Development Fund.

Peter Lauterman (North of 60) will pen the script, which will focus on the bombing itself and the immediate aftermath.

Divani is also at work on a National Film Board doc about the 20-year history of CSIS, Canada’s spy agency, and is hoping for a greenlight from CBC’s Passionate Eye in time to shoot The Enemy Among Us in summer 2004.

Meanwhile, Krishna will shoot the pilot for Spicy Fusion, the latest project from producers Nadine Schwartz (Liquid Love) and Paul De Silva (Lord Have Mercy), also for Toronto 1 and Showcase.

From creator Azmi Haq and cowriter Alex Ganetakos (Made in Canada) the show centers on a Pakistani-Canadian man caught between his roots in Little India and the glitz of Toronto the Hip, and whose frequent daydreams give rise to lavish Bollywood-style song-and-dance numbers.

Telefilm has backed development and production of the pilot, expected to run $300,000. Casting director Paul Jackson is filling roles in prep for a shoot in early December. T1 and Showcase may share first window rights if the pilot becomes a series, according to Da Silva.

Game boys

It looks as if Toronto prodco Planetworks has knocked one out of the park this fall with its new series Arresting Design. The home makeover series debuted to such strong numbers on W – drawing more than 100,000 women aged 25-54 to one ep, despite a competitive Thursday night slot – that the Corus-owned speciality hastily rewrote the season-one order from 13 half-hours to a full 26. The expanded run is shooting until early next year, on a modest five-figure per ep budget, backed by the W licence fee, tax credits and an advance from distrib Thomas Howe and Associates.

Planetworks’s Romano D’Andrea directs and exec produces with partner Jeff Preyra, who also writes. The cheeky Cops-meets-Martha Stewart series follows hosts Jeffrey Fisher and Tammy Schnurr as they ‘investigate’ and correct interior design misdeeds around Toronto. (Maybe they could swing by the Playback offices – everything here is either pink or battleship grey.)

Meanwhile, Preyra and D’Andrea continue to exec produce eps of Game Nation, their ongoing video game show that, in the past eight seasons, has hopscotched from CTV, to Sportsnet, to Global and other CanWest stations, to TechTV and now (finally?) to Craig Media and its Toronto 1.

The info series shoots its 26-ep seasons evenly throughout the calendar year, at under $60,000 each, to keep up with the hyperactive gaming industry and is currently partway through episode five. Kris Abel produces, Christiane Galley edits.

Film what you know

Ticklescratch Productions will soon wrap a fourth season of The Writing Life for Bravo! and, on Nov. 2, rolled out spin-off The Artist’s Life, a 13 x 30 look at the lives and careers of noted sculptors, painters, photographers and such from around Canada.

Producer/director Michael Glassbourg and a five-man crew have been bussing across the country since earlier this year, on a $140,000 budget, and will wrap in Saskatchewan by December. ‘It’s wild, wonderful stuff,’ he says, ‘like being in a rock band.’ The new show scored a sweet timeslot on the artsy specialty, getting a jump on Sunday night’s primetime at 7:30 p.m.

A fourth run of The Writing Life, also shot and produced by Glassbourg, will air in February and feature face time with authors Douglas Glover and poet Stephanie Bolster. The $75,000 season is backed by Bravo! and SCN. The show also runs on TVOntario and BookTelevision.

TickleScratch is also coproducing, with director Susan Stewart, the feature doc Policy Babies, about the foster parenting forced on native families in the 1950s and ’60s. The $100,000 pic is half done and will finish shooting in Manitoba by spring.

Crowe punches in

Russell Crowe and Ron Howard will be in town this spring shooting the true story Cinderella Man for Universal and Miramax. Howard will direct the copro starting in March, re-teaming with his Beautiful Mind star and producer Brian Grazer. It’s the story of boxer Jim Braddock, who got a 15-round shot at the heavyweight title in 1935. Local Steve Wakefield has signed on as production manager.

Salles to spook Connelly

Director Walter Salles (Central Station) will also be in town early in the new year to shoot Dark Water for producer and ex-Fox chairman Bill Mechanic. The pic is a remake of the similarly titled Japanese thriller by Hideo Nakata and will shoot here and in New York from January into March. Jennifer Connelly (The Hulk) stars as a single mother who is haunted by the ghost of a young girl.