Despite National Awards, accolades at festivals abroad and the multiplex
culture, makers of offbeat cinema in India often continue to struggle
when it comes to finding big screen release.
An encouraging remark last year by Charles Tesson, artistic director at Festival De Cannes, for the Anurag Kashyap- produced Peddlers said it all about the changing face of Indian cinema. "Good news is that Indian cinema is now fearless," said Tesson, before the screening of Peddlers , which was screened in the International Critics' Week section at Cannes 2012.
The element of fearlessness, Tesson added, was "something we have been waiting for from Indian cinema for a long time". Back home, it has been an altogether different story for Peddlers. Director Vasan Bala struggled to get funds initially to make the film and finally put up an appeal on Facebook to raise the money. The film was finally produced jointly by Anurag Kashyap Films Private Limited ( AKFPL) and Guneet Monga.
The film was made, it won accolades at Cannes and it's been almost a year. Yet, Peddlers is yet to find a big screen release in India.
Despite praise at international festivals and winning National Awards, and despite the advent of the multiplex culture, life continues to be tough for art filmmakers who intend to make films on subjects considered to be low on commercial value. Serious cinema lovers have been curious to watch Peddlers as well as Ashim Ahluwalia's Miss Lovely , which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes last year. However, no release date has been announced for Ahluwalia's film either.Guneet Monga, owner of Shikya Entertainment, is in talks with distributors and plans to release Peddlers within the next three months. She is in the midst of locking 200 screens at various multiplexes where the film could be screened.
Monga, however is optimistic, for she sees a change coming. "Doors are opening for offbeat films and several films that won applauds at film festivals abroad are being released in Indian theatres," says Guneet, underlining that the trend is encouraging. Keeping in view the audience mindset, Monga plans to release Peddlers only in big city multiplexes."
"India needs to consume cinema differently, just as the way it is in Europe, especially France. We will be able to do so in the coming few years perhaps and accept different kinds of films in theatres and the market will be encouraging," she says.
Ahluwalia's Miss Lovely is set in the backdrop of the cheap soft porn industry that ruled the market in eighties. The film was widely appreciated at Cannes and yet its producers are unable to find a theatrical release, mainly due to censorship issues.
Ahluwalia is likely to tweak the film according to Indian sensibilities to get it released.
"Miss Lovely is a very Indian film and yet it is neither typical Bollywood nor so- called parallel cinema," says Ahluwalia, who has to deal with the double trouble of censor hassles and finding a distributor for release.
The Rajkumar Yadav-starrer Shahid , a bio- pic on human rights lawyer Shahid Azmi, is another example. The Hansal Mehta directorial, produced by Anurag Kashyap, had a world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival ( TIFF) in 2011, besides special screening at New York International Film Festival and MAMI. Yet, it continues to struggle to find distributors in India.
Kashyap, who has been receiving positive response at Cannes during his trips over the past two years, feels the release of a film and viewership has a lot to do with audience sensibility, which is the driving force behind any film market. His film Gangs Of Wasseypur ( GOW) films managed to find decent release and made some money too, but GOW has noticeably been his most commercial film yet
An encouraging remark last year by Charles Tesson, artistic director at Festival De Cannes, for the Anurag Kashyap- produced Peddlers said it all about the changing face of Indian cinema. "Good news is that Indian cinema is now fearless," said Tesson, before the screening of Peddlers , which was screened in the International Critics' Week section at Cannes 2012.
The element of fearlessness, Tesson added, was "something we have been waiting for from Indian cinema for a long time". Back home, it has been an altogether different story for Peddlers. Director Vasan Bala struggled to get funds initially to make the film and finally put up an appeal on Facebook to raise the money. The film was finally produced jointly by Anurag Kashyap Films Private Limited ( AKFPL) and Guneet Monga.
The film was made, it won accolades at Cannes and it's been almost a year. Yet, Peddlers is yet to find a big screen release in India.
Despite praise at international festivals and winning National Awards, and despite the advent of the multiplex culture, life continues to be tough for art filmmakers who intend to make films on subjects considered to be low on commercial value. Serious cinema lovers have been curious to watch Peddlers as well as Ashim Ahluwalia's Miss Lovely , which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes last year. However, no release date has been announced for Ahluwalia's film either.Guneet Monga, owner of Shikya Entertainment, is in talks with distributors and plans to release Peddlers within the next three months. She is in the midst of locking 200 screens at various multiplexes where the film could be screened.
Monga, however is optimistic, for she sees a change coming. "Doors are opening for offbeat films and several films that won applauds at film festivals abroad are being released in Indian theatres," says Guneet, underlining that the trend is encouraging. Keeping in view the audience mindset, Monga plans to release Peddlers only in big city multiplexes."
"India needs to consume cinema differently, just as the way it is in Europe, especially France. We will be able to do so in the coming few years perhaps and accept different kinds of films in theatres and the market will be encouraging," she says.
Ahluwalia's Miss Lovely is set in the backdrop of the cheap soft porn industry that ruled the market in eighties. The film was widely appreciated at Cannes and yet its producers are unable to find a theatrical release, mainly due to censorship issues.
Miss Lovely is set in the backdrop of the cheap soft porn industry that ruled the market in eighties.
Ahluwalia is likely to tweak the film according to Indian sensibilities to get it released.
"Miss Lovely is a very Indian film and yet it is neither typical Bollywood nor so- called parallel cinema," says Ahluwalia, who has to deal with the double trouble of censor hassles and finding a distributor for release.
The Rajkumar Yadav-starrer Shahid , a bio- pic on human rights lawyer Shahid Azmi, is another example. The Hansal Mehta directorial, produced by Anurag Kashyap, had a world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival ( TIFF) in 2011, besides special screening at New York International Film Festival and MAMI. Yet, it continues to struggle to find distributors in India.
Kashyap, who has been receiving positive response at Cannes during his trips over the past two years, feels the release of a film and viewership has a lot to do with audience sensibility, which is the driving force behind any film market. His film Gangs Of Wasseypur ( GOW) films managed to find decent release and made some money too, but GOW has noticeably been his most commercial film yet
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