Renowned Kannada filmmaker Girish Kasarvalli says it is the “tragedy of the Indian film journalism” that they think cinema in the country is limited to Hindi movies.
“Three years ago, Shaji N Karun’s film (Malayalam) was shown in Cannes but we forgot that,” Mr. Kasarvalli told reporters during an interaction at International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2012 in Panaji.
The national award winning director was critical of the way Indian film journalism has been covering cinema.
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“This is a tragedy with Indian film journalism. They think Indian cinema is limited to Hindi films,” Mr. Kasarvalli said.
“The film by Q (Kaushik Banerjee) was shown in Berlin. Did we speak about it? We didn’t,” he further said, adding that few Hindi movies going for the festivals make big news.
Since Hindi films are a product of the industry, they market it using all mediums including television channels.
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“That is something a filmmaker making films in regional languages can’t get,” he said.
However, all the hype does not affect the regional industry. “Has it affected Malayalam industry? Has it affected Telugu industry? Tamil and Telugu film industry have their own market and they are developing their own market in a different way,” the director said.
Mr. Kasarvalli’s ‘Kurmavatara’ is being screened at IFFI 2012.