How to catch ’em young

Superior production values can lure GenNext back to movie halls, says critic-turned-filmmaker Pratim D. Gupta.

August 29, 2016 07:57 am | Updated 07:57 am IST

In 2012, when he decided to become a filmmaker after spending over a decade as a film critic, Pratim D. Gupta noticed that the Bengali film industry was clearly divided into two extremes: art house and mainstream cinema. It’s a split that continues to exist.

The 34-year-old Gupta says, “There are art house films which are struggling with box-office pressure, and then there are the loud mainstream movies, which are often remakes of Tamil and Telugu films.” He believes that the Bengali film industry, which has had a chequered past, boasting of legendary directors like Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Goutam Ghose, Aparna Sen and Rituparno Ghosh, is currently in a very confused state.

“The only way Bengali films can bounce back is by bringing in the young audiences, that is people from 18 to 30 years.” How? He thinks “superior production values and sleek treatment” could do the trick. “The youth of Kolkata is into watching TV series and their eyes are attuned to watching [good production and] sleek stuff,” he says. “You can’t fool them by saying we didn’t have the budget so we made something artsy and not visually appealing, with low production value.”

His latest film, Shaheb Bibi Golaam —which released in West Bengal last Friday, and will release in other cities across India on September 2 — was made keeping the young audience in mind.

The thriller tells the story of three people, living starkly different lives, whose destinies intertwine because of one mistake.

Gupta says the pressure to do well is being felt by Bengali filmmakers across the board. “The attempt to win [at] the box office has also affected veteran filmmakers like Aparna Sen, which is very disheartening,” he says.

“She can’t make what she wants to make. Of the new-age filmmakers, some are trying hard. Filmmakers like Shiboprosad Mukherjee made Bela Seshe last year and Praktan this year, which have both been huge successes. At least he is getting the people in; which is very good.”

All this comes at a time when the Indian audience is slowly getting more cine literate and receptive to films in all languages and from all nationalities. Gupta says regional movies with subtitles are gaining popularity as long they are made well. “We obviously can’t match the production values of a Hindi film, but if there is a good word of mouth from the Kolkata release, I’m sure a week later a lot of friends in other cities will watch it,” he says.

There has been this confusion that a film titled Shaheb Bibi Golaam would be a Bengali remake of the 1962 Guru Dutt and Meena Kumari one. “Anybody who wants to see the movie must have definitely seen the trailer or the poster at least,” says Gupta. “That makes it very clear that is has nothing to do with the Hindi classic.”

Gupta considered naming the film, Jimmy Jaya Javed and Trikaal before zeroing in on Shaheb Bibi Golaam .

The film — starring Anjan Dutt, Swastika Mukherjee and Ritwick Chakraborty in the lead roles — is Gupta’s second feature film. He made X: Past Is Present in 2015, which was a collaborative feature film directed by a team of 10 other filmmakers.

However, Gupta says it is completely different from his directorial debut, Paanch Adhyay , which also saw actress Dia Mirza make her first foray into Bengali cinema. “My first film was more like learning on the job. When you shoot you realise that you can’t do a lot that’s possible on paper,” says Gupta.

For him, one of the biggest takeaways from his first film was getting the casting right. “ Paanch Adhyay was about good-looking actors. But this one is about good actors. Even if some of them are unknown names, they are great performers,” says Gupta.

As for finding himself back at the helm of a feature film after four years, he says, “This one is a reboot for me as a filmmaker.”

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