Last week, 46 independent filmmakers signed a statement calling for action on the problems plaguing the small and middle-budget films in the country. This has been a long time coming. Sandhya Suri’s Santosh, which premiered at Cannes and was UK’s entry for the Oscars, couldn’t find a display at both the big screen and the small one in a country the film is based in. It came as a surprise when Aranya Sahay’s critically-acclaimed Humans in the Loop found a space on Netflix, a platform which was once being considered a beacon of hope for independent filmmaking. Post the pandemic, content-first cinema has found itself to be homeless, stuck in a vicious cycle. Theatre chains won’t feature these films in accessible outlets or give them proper show timings and OTT giants state their dismal theatrical performance while refusing to showcase them on their platforms.
The statement came after director Kanu Behl rued on social media that his film Agra, which received a standing ovation at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, is being sidelined by multiplex chains. He stated that Agra is getting dumped into cinema halls that are on the city’s periphery, thus making its access difficult for most cinema goers. Also, it is not getting appropriate show timings. In a free-wheeling conversation, we spoke to Kanu about how difficult it is to get an independent film out, the future of AI filmmaking and the need to have cinema that contributes to culture and not just coffers.
Excerpts:
In the letter shared on social media, you and other independent filmmakers stated your demands. Before we got into this conversation, you were at a meeting with these filmmakers. What was discussed? What is your next course of action?
It’s still early days. Unfortunately, I can’t speak much about it because we are still organizing ourselves. What is clear is that we want to do this long term and in a sustainable way. We don’t want to jump the gun and start talking too much about it before we all have consensus on finding a way to solve this problem once and for all. We don’t want it to be just one of those things that ultimately fades out.
How would you describe the problems being faced by independent filmmakers at the moment?
For independent filmmakers there are problems at every stage. Earlier, at least, filmmakers could get development. You could go to a producer, pitch an idea and they might give you some money to develop the film. To survive while you are still writing it. That too is done for now. So, now, you have to put in your resources while writing a film. Everybody says come to us when the script is ready. I want to ask these people, ‘When I am putting in the money to write the script, then what makes you the producer? If you can only take things forward when the script is ready, are you nothing more than an agent between me and the platform?’ Then there is a problem with financing and if god-forbid the film is made there is another battle to take it to festivals. And even if you get into the A-list festivals, there is still no guarantee that your film will get a theatrical or an OTT display.
I keep hearing from a lot of struggling screenwriters that now platforms aren’t satisfied with just a complete script, they also want an actor or a director attached to it…
It wasn’t like this earlier. The thing is that the opportunities now within the system have shrunk. If you are making a film for theatres then you have to go through conversations like “the big screen is only for tentpole films” and also then they want a ready package of a big director or an actor attached. The situation with OTT platforms is also no better. They are now only being driven by algorithms. There is no human touch.
Talking about lack of human touch. This year the MAMI Film Festival didn’t happen. MAMI is not just a film gala but also a platform to showcase independent cinema. Instead, we got an AI Film Festival. What do you think about the future of AI filmmaking?
(laughs) I don’t know. If an artificially generated film, with an artificially generated actor can make me feel real emotions, then I guess people should go ahead and make those films.
But do you think an AI film can produce the same emotions as a real one?
I can only say this. Whether something can move you or not depends on how much you want to feel. Maybe you and I can look closely at an image and we might feel there is something missing from it but there are hundreds of other people who are not bothered. There needs to be a larger discussion on where we are headed as a society. What people don’t understand is that it is important to have a pure cultural landscape which goes beyond economics. It is saddening to see that we are increasingly becoming a society which is only concerned with money and survival.
But isn’t the onus to save culture also on the society and its members itself? People watch the interviews of filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap but they also don’t go to theatres to watch his films. I am not blaming the audience but don’t you think that the majority cinemagoers in North India aren’t that cinema literate and the cinephiles are actually limited to urban centres?
Not at all. I think this is a myth. Some of the most interesting insights into my films have come from the common man on the street like the autorickshaw drivers, the bus travellers etc. They might be less in number but they have seen my films and have told me that it is a reflection of their lives. This idea that “audiences don’t want to see such films” is a narrative pushed by the gatekeepers to ensure that whatever is “working” at the moment keeps working for a long-long time.