Senna movie producers set sights on BAFTA

With Senna having already earned plaudits around the world since its release - the key men behind the film won a BIFA (British Independent Film Award) for Best Documentary on Sunday, before adding an AUTOSPORT Pioneering and Innovation Award.

Now, with the film world building itself up for the BAFTA's which take place early next year, writer Manish Pandey says he hopes this latest success bodes well for the future.

"You dream when you have a chance of making a film like this that you are going to be able to give it a good shot and make a half decent movie," Pandey told AUTOSPORT.

"When you make a movie you are really proud of, you pray people go out and see it. When people do go out and see it, you think will the critics think it is any good, or do they think it is popcorn? So to have people watch it, and the critics enjoy it, is the most amazing feeling.

"The last awards in our line-up now are the BAFTAs. We got a BIFA and an AUTOSPORT Award in the same night, and what is the probability of that? So to go into the award season with these is amazing."

Although the Senna movie is still attracting interest, Pandey is already well advanced on his next project - which is a film based on the lives of Mike Hawthown and Peter Collins.

"The script will hopefully be finished next week, and that has been two-and-a-half years of quiet research and writing," he said. "It will be very different as it is a drama.

"At the moment the working title is 'La Scuderia', and I had a lot of fun at the Abu Dhabi GP as I spent a lot of time with Piero Ferrari, convincing him of the merits of the story, but we will see.

"There are only two motor racing stories that have absolutely grabbed me - Senna, because I grew up knowing it, and the other one is Hawthorn/Collins - because I didn't know it. All the drivers were gone before I was born.

"So I am much more nervous about this - because it is going to be fiction. It is not financed yet but that looks like it is falling into place. So these latest awards will help, and I hope we can do it justice. Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins - their story is unbelievable."