Until a few months ago, it would have been unimaginable that a film starring a Khan other than Shah Rukh, Salman or Saif, or a smaller film starring a lesser-known Hashmi would not only find theatrical space in India but also do exceptionally well.
It might not be surprising that Irrfan Khan’s The Lunchbox made over Rs. 100 crore around the world — with nearly a quarter of it coming from India — but if Nitin Kakkar’s indie Filmistaan starring debutant Sharib Hashmi can run for six weeks, it means the market is warming up to alternative cinema and offbeat content. “The Delhi NCR region, along with Mumbai-Pune, contributes to 50 per cent of the revenue for such films,” says Prakhar Joshi, Director, Theatrical – India, UTV. “Yes, these films run only in the metros and the cities, and the smaller towns are still a problem, but just consider this. Paan Singh Tomar netted over Rs. 15 crore, The Lunchbox made over Rs. 25 crore, Filmistaan over Rs. 7 crore and is still playing in some cinemas — maybe just one show. The release windows for such films are very important.”
Even a hardcore, full-on intellectual indie trip like Ship of Theseus netted around Rs. 1.5 crore (the producers get half the net). “It does help when Aamir or Kiran Rao (Ship of Theseus), Karan Johar (The Lunchbox) or Amitabh Bachchan endorse films like Filmistaan,” says Prakhar, explaining the importance of marketing these films in a climate when people seem to be ready.
“The key is to keep the costs low,” says Nitin Kakkar. “When Satellite Pictures came on board to produce Filmistaan, they were very clear about their budget. Since I couldn’t have paid tribute to celluloid shooting on the digital platform, I asked the production team how many days should be reduced to be able to afford raw film. We had a 30-day schedule originally, I cut down 10 days so that we could save money to shoot on 35mm,” he explains.
The film premiered at Busan in October 2012 and had its India premiere at the Mumbai Film Festival the same month. It was around February 2013 that Shyam Shroff from Shringar saw the film. “He bought it within the next three days. We were expecting a 2013 release when the national award happened and Shyamji wanted to give it a bigger platform. That’s how we got UTV on board.”
Even documentaries have been able to find a market in India, thanks to the big distribution chains and studios taking an active interest in expanding the market. PVR came up with its banner called Director’s Rare two-and-a-half-years ago and has released 40 such films that would have otherwise never found an outlet. Nisha Pahuja’s riveting The World Before Her and Sri Lankan filmmaker Prasanna Vithanage’s poignant romance With You, Without You managed to find a nationwide release, thanks to the PVR initiative. “The World Before Her netted about Rs. 13 lakh in its very first week, despite being a limited release. That’s a very good opening for a documentary in India,” says Shiladitya Bora, who programmes for PVR Director’s Rare. “It did not happen overnight. It has taken us two and a half years and 59 releases to create and expand the market for niche films, which cannot compete with the marketing spends of big films. It is an uphill task but good content is the key to open up the market. We need more films like The World Before Her, Fire in the Blood and Lucia,” says Bora.
Director Nisha Pahuja, apart from running an active campaign on social media, also showed up at various screenings for Q&A sessions that led to full houses. “We did it ourselves because we didn’t have any budget to spend on publicity and compete with the big films.” She got filmmaker Anurag Kashyap to present the film. Kashyap immediately agreed, given how much he loved the film, but he is also quick to sound a word of caution for indie filmmakers looking towards him for backing. “Indie is not a movement, it is a choice. Sholay was an indie, Deewar was an indie… it is a choice where you decide to self fund. In the U.S., indies today go straight to Video on Demand because people are going to event movies and the indie scene is dead. And even in the indies, only romance and comedies work. Blue is the Warmest Colour didn’t work. Distributors and exhibitors are businessmen. It’s like a general store. Jo saboon bikta nahin, woh lete nahin. (They don’t put out the soap that doesn’t sell)” says Kashyap.
“Indie filmmakers have big egos. Every filmmaker in his heart, deep down thinks he is a Godard waiting to be discovered. They dislike the first indie that breaks out and the filmmaker associated with it. Today’s kids want immediate solutions. I did it all pro bono for 15 years. The reasons the films got made were because they were not burdened by the risk of recovery. When we took The Girl in Yellow Boots to Europe, we gave it to them to release for free. When we took The Lunchbox to UTV, we told them: ‘Don’t give us money, spend all your money on print and advertising.’”
The Lunchbox has 18 producers splitting the net of Rs. 100 crore and counting, from over 90 countries. “Nobody is a patron saint of art. And I’m now exhausted backing indie films because I need to make my own films.”
