‘We will give you great movies…arty, mainstream, left or right of centre’

Kiran Rao and Anupama Chopra talk to Namrata Joshi about their third year helming MAMI and what’s in store for festival goers this edition

September 18, 2017 08:58 pm | Updated September 19, 2017 09:31 pm IST

Dynamic approach:  Kiran Rao (left) and Anupama Chopra say that MAMI adapts to the changing environment as a film festival, (right top  Call Me By Your Name;  and  The Square

Dynamic approach: Kiran Rao (left) and Anupama Chopra say that MAMI adapts to the changing environment as a film festival, (right top Call Me By Your Name; and The Square

The Jio MAMI 19th Mumbai Film Festival with Star unspools this year for a week from October 12-18. A part of the festival’s line-up was announced at a press conference last week when we caught up with the Festival Co-Chairperson Kiran Rao and Festival Director Anupama Chopra for a tête-à-tête.

The year 2015 was when you first took over the reins of MAMI, willy-nilly; last year was the “fully prepared” year. This year is third time. Are you feeling luckier? More confident?

Kiran Rao: We have no excuses. We are much more confident in the team. [Last year] as soon as we got on to our feet we decided to go wider, broader. We got excited. We had so many more things than we could chew. We did end up chewing them. But there were misses here and there. This year we are confident that what we have bitten we can chew. There are always surprises but this year we haven’t met as frenetically and crazily with as many little problems as we did the last year. Of course, there are always the bigger concerns — who is going to be on the jury, what is the opening film going to be. All little details [that] our team is handling pretty well.

So the machinery is more well oiled…

Anupama Chopra: Definitely. I think Smriti [Kiran, the Creative Director of the festival] and team have really done a deep dive and tried to figure out how we can do it better. Three of us [Kiran, Smriti and herself], at least, don’t have any film festival background. So, for us, the learning curve has been steep. I have attended enough but have no experience of what it takes to actually make a festival happen but this year they have really gone all out and I feel very proud of them. I feel it has been less panicky.

When you give credit to the team, does it mean you are not so hands-on?

KR: I am much less so than Anu [Anupama Chopra] but even for her it’s not full-time.

AC: My other life as journalist and my other job is also a running thing. It’s not as though I stop it to only do this. But this year I felt that I could take a step back because things seemed to be much more in place.

Over the [last] year you would have assessed the festival. Is that the reason why there have been some changes that you have initiated, like shifting the verticals like the mela and Word to Screen market out of the festival?

AC: We get all the data collection from the festival; all the barcodes on your cards. We have the data on all the films that were seen. Which films performed, which screens performed and you got to use that then to programme better this year. For me, the big thing is going to be of taking the mela out of the festival. We felt that we were asking too much of people — we’ve got such wonderful films but we’ve also got Jo JeetaWahi Sikander reunion; now you figure out what is it that you are going to skip. I just felt that we were short-changing both ends.

KR: As a festival what we want to be is relevant. There’s no value in doing things that has been done over the years. We have to change and adapt to the changing environment, new modes of watching cinema available to the people. We have to keep it more engaging, hopefully, than it was ten years ago. It’s not just to do with quantitative data but also qualitative data — did people have a good time? How great were the interactions? Today you can watch a film pretty much anywhere and any time and you don’t need a festival for it. So what is our value as a festival? What is it that we are giving to the cinemagoers that they don’t get at home on their TV sets or digital platforms. There is the cinema environment — the fact that you can soak yourself in cinema and conversations, listen to filmmakers, even as a filmgoer get a deeper insight into the films you are watching, be part of conversations about new media, filmmaking, technical changes. We want to be at the forefront of that conversation. Just programming films was what was done for 15 years before we came in so how do we make it a little more than that. With me, everything I do, I have to step back and assess—why am I doing it again this year? Every time we finish the festival, after everyone has gone for holidays and recuperation and is back, the first thing that we do is what did we achieve, do we want to do it again…

AC: For me, honestly, the Word to Screen market was a dream in our head—to have producers talk to content producers. It cost money to produce that, it’s not cheap. I went to a lot of people related to the publishing world. Nobody wanted to do it, nobody came forward. We said we believe in it enough and we took the money out of our already strained budget. This year when we saw 30 publishers pitching their books. [Actor] Sonam [Kapoor], who is the ambassador for the vertical, going out of the market carrying a bagful of books. I really felt that all the hard work and sweat had been worth it. We had created something of value, something that can actually shape the eco-system and take things further. I feel if we are not doing that, then what’s the point.

By taking the verticals away from the festival, you are also reducing the clutter…

AC: Definitely. There are over 200 films so you already have 200 choices. Then there are q and as with the directors. Then you have the masterclasses. It’s already a very busy festival. We didn’t want these [verticals], the Word to Screen market, to get lost. I am hoping that in the same way the mela will serve as a curtain raiser to the festival. It’s our celebration of cinema, of fans and the festival arrives four days after that [this year].

The films at MAMI create such a buzz. If I compare it to other festivals, the only thing that MAMI hasn’t had is a strong market—like NFDC’s Film Bazaar that has been the centrepoint for years at the International Film Festival of India, Goa…

KR: That has been a one-point agenda for us actually. We will have something to tell you about it at the festival. It’s something we have been working on for a year now.

AC: It’s a separate event.

KR: We will give you the details quite soon. That has been the one big missing piece for most filmmakers.

Another big thing that will go a long way is our tie-up with Tata Sky. Many people have told us that they missed the films at MAMI and then saw them on TV. These are 30 films from MAMI. They won’t obviously show what we have not yet shown. This year’s films will come as soon as they have been screened at MAMI, after the festival.

AC: It’s a pop-up channel. I know they will be out sometime in October. I don’t know exactly when.

KR: I don’t know whether you saw them last year. There were about 18-20 titles on a channel called MAMI Select. It’s our way to reach out and may be in some way influence our non-traditional audience, to encourage someone who would have never watched a Lanthimos or Wong Kar Wai. Actually we are showing only the Indian films on the channel.

AC: They showed Ottal . All these films that may not find a massive audience. Tata Sky is in so many millions of homes. It’s much bigger than a cinema release could ever reach.

Last year we had talked about film festivals having an identity. And you had said yours was strong programming and to be inclusive, to offer something for everyone. Do you think that is getting consolidated now?

AC: Look at the range there is. So you have the Palme d’Or winner The Square but you also have the new Anurag Kashyap film. You have small films in languages which I am ashamed to say I didn’t even know of. It’s amazing the lengths that the programmers have gone to seek out the really good films. There is something for the purists, there is something for the more mainstream. There is something for the genre lovers in ‘After Dark’ which is all scary, horror, movies that I’ll never watch, I have no stomach for it at all (laughs). The beauty of movies is that they don’t have to be one type. I do love the arthouse, European, cerebral cinema as much as I love mainstream Bollywood. Our identity can be that we will give you great movies, whether those are arty, mainstream, left of centre, right of centre... The only label should be quality.

Which are films you are looking forward to?

KR: The Square. That’s on top of everyone’s mind. I want to watch and I hope we get The Shape of Water , The Killing of the Sacred Deer . We are still in talks. Our programming [already has] some fantastic films e.g. Call Me By Your Name . I hope our future announcements will please you more. I am very excited about the Indian films this year. The line-up is great. Between all of us we have decided [to] programme as many good films as there are but make the selection really tight and strong. There are 11 great titles in the India Gold section. There are 12 great titles in the Indian competition section. The big problem for Anu and me is that we don’t get to watch enough. We really don’t get to enjoy the films that we work so hard to bring. It’s really frustrating but this year I begged everyone to let me watch at least one film a day. Anu at least gets to travel to watch films. I don’t feel sorry for her or Smriti. Everyone should just feel sorry for me. Sole sympathy should be for me.

Has the money improved?

AC: The money is stable which is more important. It’s very hard to build a property if you don’t know whether next year you will have the money or not. The fact that sponsors have come in and are signing multiple year agreements show that they have faith in us and it allows us to plan for next year. The year round thing has been so fantastic. We really want to bolster it. It allows us to do that. For me stable money is better than more money.

This year IFFI is going to NFDC. They may just up their game now. Would you encourage competition?

AC: That’s good, they should.

KR: A country our size deserves as many festivals as possible. Multiple venues across the countries for good films is great. Film festivals depend on an audience and audience can’t just watch for seven days a year. You are getting to watch in Trivandrum, Goa, Kolkata. Please watch. It’s better for the eco-system, it will be better for cinema.

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