The late 1970s and the early ‘80s was a good time for cinema as in India there was a flow of a New Wave with stalwarts like Shyam Benegal, Saeed Mirza and Govind Nihalani giving us relief from the masala mainstream. Around the same time, Hollywood directors like David Lynch ( Blue Velvet), Jim Jarmusch ( Stranger Than Paradise) and Alex Cox were offering an alternative cinema with subversive and gritty visions of reality which they term it as indie cinema.
But is indie a genre anymore, or has it become just a synonym for something edgy or offbeat which is of no use to big production houses?
“Truly, independent filmmakers do not care about commercial success of the film, after making it. They do not care about the audience choice, they only make films which inspire them, where they are getting some kind of vibe of society. That is what keeps them going and Court, Thithi and Kothanodi and of course my film Sexy Durga are that indie cinema which touched society and got the recognition across the world,” says Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, a jury member of the PickUrFlick Film festival which concluded recently at Instituto Cervantes in the Capital.
Though indie filmmakers are getting recognition at one level, they still find it hard to reach out to the audience which does not have access to festivals and the economic returns are still very minimal making it difficult for them to continue doing their good work.
“For independent filmmakers, there are not enough opportunities to have their work shown or screened in India. It’s important to be connecting those films to a new audience and that is how we started our website which led to having a film festival like this one.”
He says the webisite is on its way to monestise content like Netfli. “And we will share the returns with filmmakers so that they continue to make good cinema,” says Abhishek Sinha, founder of PickUrFlick, who quit his corporate life after 11 years to pursue his passion for movies.
Embracing digital
Will the rise of digital help indie films emerge as an alternative to big budget movies? “Definitely, with the cheaper cost of digital equipment and easy editing facility, new directors are free to make films of their choice, not those which the producers ask them to make. Indie films are generally focused on content and art which works primarily in digital distribution. Big budget movies are more focused on the end product which is to make their money. So there is more of a tendency to make movies based on known formulas that have been successful in the past but indie gives freedom to experiment,” says Siddharth Murjani, who emerged as a young talent in the festival with three films as writer and actor to his credit.
A scene from “Haanduk”
With the screening of 70 films over four categories in more than 10 languages including the National Award winning Jaicheng Jai Dohutia's Haanduk , Harjant Gill's Sent Away Boys and Rashid Bhat's The Bitter Truth , the festival provided viewers a window to a vast pool of creative talent from around the world which is ready to interact with India.
