Parellel cinema losing audience, says Shaji

NEW DELHI: Parallel cinema is losing audience and it is becoming increasingly difficult to find fund for making them, noted film director Shaji N Karun said here on Tuesday.
Parellel cinema is losing audience even in place like Kerala where there used to be considerable viewership in the 1970s, Shaiji told reporters at the 33rd International Film Festival of India.
He said he could not find a distributor for his latest film ''Nishad'' which is in the Indian Panorama section of the Festival.
"Making parellel cinema has become a very difficult task now, like a gambling, yet we remain committed to it bcause we believe in the truth," he said.
Shaji said the IFFI is a good platform for exchanging "pains and happiness through the media, and the media has a responsibility".
Shaji lashed out at what he called "a deterioration of statandards in film criticism", and alleged that some critics are paid by producers to review their film favourly.
"I am sorry to say that I used to put reviews of my film in my brochures, but not any more.
Comparing parallel cinema to ''gurus'' as against paid teachers, he said the movement was aimed at telling people to think in a different ways, "we have to travel ahead of time." More PTI VJ AS BD 10081635 D Asked if he targeted the Western audience, Shaji said he resented that he found a larger audience in the West than in India.
Anpther film featured at the festival ''Nishad'', was completed in three months. The idea for the film germinated when the director and producer Sukhwant Dhadda were travelling in Kashmir''s Drass sector where they saw a woman crying by a soldier''s body.
The film has touched on issues like war, refugee crisis and personal conflicts, and is partly based on a real-life story, said Dhadda.