The following post is a comment on film director Vivek Agnihotri's blog post on Bollywood Hungama.
Vivek,
Hi Again.
It was again good to read your post. I would like to differ with a few points put forward by you here, Vivek.
I do not think TV has corrupted the minds of the youth. As you rightly mentioned, the prime audience of India is youth. But i actually do not know any youth who is hooked up to teh Television. Yes, the majority of Indian TV programmes are substandard, I agree. But then, the audience they are targeting at, are pretty happy with them. So, "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thee" might be a dumb TV show. But I am not an audience of it. My mother, grandmother watch "Kyunki. . .", but then, none of them is what you would expect as an audience for a film like "Chocolate". So, there is a disconnection. Well, I Do watch television. Most of the time shows on Discovery Channel, History Channel or National Geographic channel. And, the shows on these channels contain commercial breaks, too. However, how THAT constitutes to the "dumbing down" process, I fail to understand. So no, I disagree, that the television has "systematically uneducated the cinema public".
Second point. The multiplex cinema. Now, I don't understand what you are talking about. Multiplex have made the making of a lot more low-budget movies viable. What you call "multiplex cinema". Look around. "Mithya", "Dharm", "The Blue Umbrella", "Khosla Ka Ghosla" "Bheja Fry" are all movies belonging to this genre. They don't have big stars, flashy sets and dazzling publicity (budgets). But they do have is an interesting storyline which, the filmmaker knows will find favours with the select few audience. You are right. Multiplex are in the "amusement" business. "We also show movies". And its because of this casualness, that a consumer, who comes to shop for Nike shoes, when sees a poster of "Mithya" in the same complex, decides to go for it. In the absence of a multiplex, I doubt that person will ever go to a single-screen theater to see some movie by some unknown maker and having non-existent stars. A multiplex has screens of varying capacity, through which, they can experiment with exhibition. So, a low-budget film can be kept in a low-capacity screen whereas a blockbuster can be sown in a high-capacity screen, thus making the optimum use of the resources and maximizing the benefits for the exhibitor.
The third point. I think, corporatization of Bollywood is the best thing that could have happened
to this industry. Yes, there are corporate houses, and their focus is on numbers (money). So, what else do you expect? These are not social-workers, making movies for the repressed, over-worked and over-stressed middle-class Indians. Just to make him feel better, selflessly. Moviemaking is serious business. And so the need for people who can deal with numbers. Agreed, these people might don't know about movies, but they Do know about business. And that's why they handle the business part, while you are given the movie-making part. If, however, as pointed by you, they interfere in the movie-making process, its too bad. Each one should be allowed to do his job. And film industry is changing. Corporatisation, films like "Khosla Ka Ghosla", digital cinema are all signs of a changed Bollywood. Marketing budgets have sure gone up, but well, that is needed.
Well, I must say I am loving this conversation with you, Vivek. Would love to see your comments on this.
Hi Again.
It was again good to read your post. I would like to differ with a few points put forward by you here, Vivek.
I do not think TV has corrupted the minds of the youth. As you rightly mentioned, the prime audience of India is youth. But i actually do not know any youth who is hooked up to teh Television. Yes, the majority of Indian TV programmes are substandard, I agree. But then, the audience they are targeting at, are pretty happy with them. So, "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thee" might be a dumb TV show. But I am not an audience of it. My mother, grandmother watch "Kyunki. . .", but then, none of them is what you would expect as an audience for a film like "Chocolate". So, there is a disconnection. Well, I Do watch television. Most of the time shows on Discovery Channel, History Channel or National Geographic channel. And, the shows on these channels contain commercial breaks, too. However, how THAT constitutes to the "dumbing down" process, I fail to understand. So no, I disagree, that the television has "systematically uneducated the cinema public".
Second point. The multiplex cinema. Now, I don't understand what you are talking about. Multiplex have made the making of a lot more low-budget movies viable. What you call "multiplex cinema". Look around. "Mithya", "Dharm", "The Blue Umbrella", "Khosla Ka Ghosla" "Bheja Fry" are all movies belonging to this genre. They don't have big stars, flashy sets and dazzling publicity (budgets). But they do have is an interesting storyline which, the filmmaker knows will find favours with the select few audience. You are right. Multiplex are in the "amusement" business. "We also show movies". And its because of this casualness, that a consumer, who comes to shop for Nike shoes, when sees a poster of "Mithya" in the same complex, decides to go for it. In the absence of a multiplex, I doubt that person will ever go to a single-screen theater to see some movie by some unknown maker and having non-existent stars. A multiplex has screens of varying capacity, through which, they can experiment with exhibition. So, a low-budget film can be kept in a low-capacity screen whereas a blockbuster can be sown in a high-capacity screen, thus making the optimum use of the resources and maximizing the benefits for the exhibitor.
The third point. I think, corporatization of Bollywood is the best thing that could have happened
to this industry. Yes, there are corporate houses, and their focus is on numbers (money). So, what else do you expect? These are not social-workers, making movies for the repressed, over-worked and over-stressed middle-class Indians. Just to make him feel better, selflessly. Moviemaking is serious business. And so the need for people who can deal with numbers. Agreed, these people might don't know about movies, but they Do know about business. And that's why they handle the business part, while you are given the movie-making part. If, however, as pointed by you, they interfere in the movie-making process, its too bad. Each one should be allowed to do his job. And film industry is changing. Corporatisation, films like "Khosla Ka Ghosla", digital cinema are all signs of a changed Bollywood. Marketing budgets have sure gone up, but well, that is needed.Well, I must say I am loving this conversation with you, Vivek. Would love to see your comments on this.
