‘Where do we show our films?’

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Their films challenge the laws of storytelling and force the audiences to imagine, analyse and introspect. Of course these films are entertaining — quite cerebrally — brilliantly woven, and made on a shoestring budget, but more importantly they hit a nerve with people disgruntled with the state of affairs. They are the new age indie filmmakers.

As we celebrate 100 glorious years of Indian cinema, these filmmakers stand united in their mission to get independent cinema the required boost. In the prelude to the National Film Awards ceremony today, award-winning filmmakers, including an Oscar winner, two Oscar nominees and National Award winners including Ashvin Kumar, Anusha Rizvi, Onir and Shonali Bose got together at the India Habitat Centre to press their demand for indie films to be recognised as a form of art and nudge the government to support indie cinema in a meaningful way.
These filmmakers are spearheading a campaign called ‘Save Indie Cinema’ jointly filed by 62 filmmakers on change.org and around 20,000 people have already shown their cooperation.
Screening of these films remains the biggest issue. “Where do we show our work?” asked Onir for whom it’s been a long struggle to put across his point. “How do we create an audience for our cinema? We are celebrating 100 years of cinema and we are not even considered an art form. In fact we are not watching our own films. Why can’t the government enable us to create quality cinema? Among other things what we urgently need is to create a space to introduce the audience to this kind of cinema, involve fellow filmmakers, watch each other’s films and a place where the tickets are reasonably priced and the ambience is best suited for the content of the film,” he added.
Funding is another challenge that these filmmakers face. Peepli Live helmer Anusha Rizvi laments that governments all over the globe help their artists, filmmakers in their artistic pursuits. However, in our country the government is apathetic towards creativity. “The government just wants to tax us and after that nothing. A huge tax along with lack of infrastructure and disinterest shown by the govt is affecting the indie filmmakers badly,” she exclaimed.
Taking this forward filmmaker Shonali Bose, whose film Amu delved deep into the suppressed history of the genocidal attacks on Sikhs in Delhi in 1984, stressed on the need for a body that can financially help them not only to make films but to market them as well. “There is a notion that indie and award-winning cinema is art-house cinema, which needs to be broken and the viewers need to be told the difference between good and bad cinema. Therefore, marketing is crucial and audiences need to made aware of your product. Amu had a six print release. Multiplexes don’t give us good spots and we have to make do with morning shows. They are given tax benefits and are answerable to the government but there is nobody monitoring that. We need to put a system in place that empowers filmmakers and supports them financially,” explained Bose.
Their woes don’t end there as the demon of censorship pushes them further down. While Shonali claims that it’s not the presence or absence of sex and violence in our films that bothers the Censor Board, there are also political reasons for the films getting an A certificate, if not banned. Case in point Amu, Vishwaroopam and more recently Sadda Haq.
Jhatka, matka and item songs is what kids see from the age of four, what kind of a censorship is that? inquires actor-director Aamir Bashir. “Instead let’s have quality cinema included in school curriculum. That will ensure a discerning crop of audience that understands and appreciates cinema,” suggested Aamir.
Towards the fag end of the dialogue, actor-turned-producer Sanjay Suri said that there is an audience for indie films and in this Internet age everything is just a click away. “We don’t make films for YouTube. Youngsters will anyway download and watch them. So why not have an appropriate release.”