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MUMBAI: With Lagaan getting nominated for last year's
Oscar, and Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding winning the
Golden Lion, the question has arisen: are we ready to invade
the international market? Are we finally making films that
have 'crossed over' or can 'cross over' to the West or the
international market?
Filmmaker Govind Nihalani let the field open with Dev Benegal
whose two films English August and Split Wide Open
had succeeded in making the international market sit up and
take notice. Benegal spoke about how important it was to keep
the three key ingredients in making a crossover film in mind
- story, location and context.
He felt that there was no point in being different just for
the sake of being different and some differences should be
left at just that - differences. He was of the opinion that
the greatest exports of India have neither been IT experts
nor any other software technology but our stories and story-telling
abilities. He quoted Farrokh Dhondy who feels that "stories
are us". He said that our stories have it in them to travel
across borders and frontiers.
He also echoed Shekhar Kapur in that the film market is soon
going to emerge as the strongest one with the maximum revenue
generating capacity. So the next time a Spiderman takes off
his mask, he could be an Asian actor! Last but not the least,
he said that our stories are the true frontiers and they also
are sans frontiers.
Next in line was Ram Madhvani whose debut film Let's Talk
created quite a stir recently in the film market with is unique
approach. He cited examples of how our cuisine has traversed
the globe with great success and that it could be replicated
with our films too. He raised a few questions like if our
food has traveled from ethnic cheap to designer chic then
why can't our cinema tread the same path? Can we ever be mainstream
or just remain art-house cinema?
Rahul Bose made a passionate speech keeping certain ground
realities in mind. He for one described a truly crossover
film as one which crosses over into the major markets of the
world and by that he meant when a film gets distribution in
the US, Canada and UK, would then be it described as 'truly
crossover'. He also said that showing at international film
festivals and coming back with a clutch of awards is not crossover.
He strongly stated that language is no longer a barrier for
a film to be accepted. You no longer need to make your film
in English to appeal to an international audience.
For the future, he said that today it's early days and we
as a film market have some way to go for one Lagaan doesn't
make a summer. He said that just because Lagaan was
taken into its fold, the western audience won't just accept
any and every film, especially our by-now-famous song-and-dance
routines.
Lastly, for a film to really cross over, a filmmaker needs
a good international sales agent who can pitch your film at
the right places at the right time and that's something every
Indian filmmaker who wishes to have a greater reach should
take note of. And most importantly, at the end of the day,
he urged all those who aspired to make films to make it just
the way you want.
Ashutosh Gowariker who Nihalani described in one word as
Lagaan felt that Madonna sporting bindis and henna
tattoos, Nicole Kidman gyrating to a 'Chamma chamma' and films
like Lagaan and Monsoon Wedding making the international
market to sit up and take notice definitely indicate that
India is poised for bigger things as far as cinema goes. He
also though expressed a doubt if our cinema has actually,
completely achieved its true potential. He believed that any
maker cannot plan a crossover film just like that just like
one can't plan a hit film. He said that with the future looking
brighter with video on demand, the paper-view mode of exhibition
and convergence, Indian cinema would only get better. All
said and done, he felt that we have to make films that have
a strong cultural identity and only then will they appeal
to the rest of the world.
As a distributor and dealer in Indian films, Robert Jones
also expressed a need for filmmakers to keep their home address
in mind before they ventured out to make crossover films.
The success of which will be known only after finding out
whether Indian cinema can actually sustain a minimum level
of business. Among other things he mentioned that audiences
in the west look at other countries for a different experience
in narrative style, culture and so on and therefore it was
extremely important for filmmakers here to make films with
a strong, national flavour. The key lies in not imitating
but innovating.
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