I know my films will be relevant even 50 years later: Buddhadeb Dasgupta

Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Shaji N Karun were engrossed in conversation about the current political scenario in Bengal when Goutam Ghose walked in. “You are looking really smart, Buddhada,” said the director as he entered the room at a city club on Thursday evening. “Of course! Do you think only you can look smart?” retorted Buddhadeb, eliciting a burst of laughter from the three stalwarts, who came together to celebrate cinema an evening ahead of the beginning of Cinemagic — an event celebrating globally acclaimed Indian films. The trio took us on a cinematic journey that spanned the emergence of digital films, Bollywood and other aspects of the field. Read on…

It’s All about celluloid

Goutam Ghose: I miss the smell of celluloid. The last film I shot on celluloid was Moner Manush in 2010. After that, the labs shut down. I feel market forces compel us to use what it wants. However, in the US, some directors are opting for celluloid again. Christopher Nolan once said at a seminar in Mumbai, ‘If painters have the option of choosing medium, be it oil paint or acrylic or watercolour, why shouldn’t a filmmaker have it?’. I agree. Some directors have started using celluloid and some companies are focusing on the related research. That’s a good sign.

Shaji N Karun:In the digital era, people say 4K is very good (laughs). It downgrades the quality so much when we compare it to celluloid!

GG: Another problem is archiving. Even the finest hard drives don’t last more than five years. This is the new marketing policy. It is the consumerist market. You have to keep buying. There’s a lab in Mumbai that transfers digital content onto celluloid. It costs a little more than a lakh. I’m planning to earmark a budget for that in my films so that there’s the option to archive my films on celluloid.



State of regional cinema

GG: Regional cinema is a misnomer. We call Hindi serials and films national and all other films regional. Each and every film, be it in Malayalam, Bengali or Assamese, is regional and national at the same time, and sometimes, even international.

Buddhadeb Dasgupta: Sometimes these films are more international than others. They are internationally accepted and released in a big way.

SNK

: My films are usually released internationally and global audiences look at my movies as Indian.

BDG: After its release, how it fares in the market is a different thing.

GG: Another thing is the market force. The big companies, be it in Hindi or in Tamil or wherever, get the support of big corporates. You see the kind of releases they have — 200-300 films. Unbelievable!I would think directors like me or Buddhada and Shaji will have to work for a niche audience.

BDG: We never think of releasing our films. We don’t make our films keeping that in mind.

SNK: Even Hindi is a regional language. How can it be national when the whole of south India, east, Northeast and several other states don’t even speak the language?



The hegemony of Bollywood

BDG: However, we have to accept that regional films are no way near the marketing strategies of big-banner Bollywood films. Also, we need to accept that be it in Kerala or in Bengal, our films are not doing very well. You can’t release your film in 100 theatres. We make our films keeping that in mind.

GG: But you have a similar situation in Europe too. I remember

Jean-Luc Godard

’s films used to release in the small theatres near the Sorbonne. That’s it.

BDG: I was in

Paris

and wanted to watch some film. I asked people where I could watch it and they asked me to go to university theatres. It is about the quality. Regional or national doesn’t matter.

GG: We don’t release our films in the Bollywood way. We get 30/40 screens.

BDG: We have a different situation. In Bengal, there’s monopoly in the market and that affects distribution.

GG: Cinema is not just art today. It has also become commerce.



Big producers, mainstream films and the future

SNK: In south India though, we do not have such hegemony. Also, commerce is dependent on the actors. When an actor is looked upon as an icon, he becomes the selling point of a film. Earlier, it was the directors who decided what an actor should do. Now, things are different.

GG: For a moment, forget about the art and quality of cinema, Bollywood has done the marketing extremely well.

SNK: Earlier, European film festivals would screen at least one Bollywood film. Perhaps just to see what kind of stuff they were making. Now, they say, ‘We have seen similar film a few years ago. Why again?’ (laughs). There is no change.

BDG: The films I make, I don’t feel any threat. I know my films will be relevant even 50 years later. When young filmmakers talk about cinema now, they don’t talk about Bollywood films that perhaps did very well at the box office. Nobody talks about those films. There are a handful of people who would love to watch those films. Mainstream and arthouse films in Bengali

BDG: There is nothing called arthouse cinema. The term doesn’t exist. We are all making films. Some are doing well; some are not. And none of the Bengali films is doing really well in recent days. Forget about the market for a moment. If you are making good films, it will not only survive for decades, it will also do well. There will always be a market — may be a small one — for good films.

On young filmmakers

GG: Some of the young filmmakers are experimenting. They don’t care about the Censor Board. They make the film for the digital space. My son is making a film that he is calling a ‘no-budget film’. He’s making a film with one camera and three-four friends. I am not hopeless at all. I think a new language of film is emerging.

SNK: When we started making films, our vision was to make it big. Big sound, big screen. That has changed.

BDG: Recently, I was at a festival and I saw two entries shot on high-end mobile phones.

GG: With the change in technology, the perception of filmmakers and the audience has changed. Experiment is part of film evolution. Otherwise, your language will never grow. The language of cinema has changed, the aesthetics have changed. However, the cinematictime and space have not changed. You can show 100 years in 10 minutes or 10 minutes in 10 hours. This is the basic and this hasn’t changed.

SNK: You can also reverse the time in cinema. It is probably the only space where you can do so. That is the beauty of this art.