PAPAJI OR PROJECT-WHO IS THE BOSS?
Bollywood is changing man. There was a time not long ago when all sorts of babu types from Bhatinda to Barabanki, in safari suits and white shoes carried bags full of cash or bhais from Bhusaval to Borivali carried guns to escort nothing else but bags full of cash with a two point programme-one to get themselves drowned in the glamour and glitz of Hindi Film industry and second,if they could lay their hands off the wannabe starlets- to produce a film.
And in this process they were helped and assisted by lackeys from all departments and of all varieties from the filmworld. The process went something like this. You wanted to make a film. You had a brilliant script backed by your conviction. You wanted to break into the hallowed domes of film fraternity. You wanted to prove yourself. Above all you wanted to convey something meaningful in an entertaining manner. You apporached these bhais or sugardaddy’s who could be clubbed under a single umbrella of Papaji. How this word got into circulation in film lingo no one knows.I think it stuck with these babus and bhais for having the sheer power to pop your project at any point of time.
So these Papajis listened to you at numerous sittings over umpteen number of patiala pegs and in their stupor they invariably asked you a stupid question. Ok you are doing our film(our film!) but whom can you bring in? If you were naive enough not to get their import then the whole thing could go up in smoke. And if you were intelligent enough you could salvage the entire whisky not going the drainpipe route.
“Papaji tusi taa chha gaye! Papaji tusi great ho!” These were the war cries to conquer the harem of such haraamkhors and hawala handlers.If you could bring in a star then bingo- you were on the job. Choice of a heroine was left either to the star hero or Papji’s fascination. Yes if you could manage on the side a starlet to lend support to Papaji the entire project then could be given a green signal immediately.To hell with your script and original casting that went with the characters and for which you literally put in your sweat and blood.
With Bhais things were slightly different. If they took fancy to you, to bring a star for the movie could not be your headache. With a gun on any star’s head the main casting was taken care of. Maybe you only had to look after the details and nitty gritty of casting couch for Bhais.And project could then be written,rewritten or copied keeping the chosen stars in mind. Again down with your script detailed with your labour of love.
Not any more. There are winds of change blowing hot and cold in Bollywood. Instead of babu type and bhai type of Papajis, now you have corporate executives in their friday dressing,going overboard to sound smart and savvy with their film lingo and information.In Hollywood there is a saying -Out here no one knows anything. Though it applies to the tee in Bollywood also ,but these corporate types now dole out gyan on movies and cinema as if they were born in the studios..
With the advent of corporates if you think the process to put the project on rail has changed ,you are one more bakra for Shootout at Lokhandwaala.It’s the same route buddy. You want to make a film?You have a brilliant script backed by your conviction?You want to break into the—–well you get the spiel? The demands remain the same.Only the setting and starters have changed. From a living room of a rented flat it is a suite in J W Marriott for sittings and consequent sleep ins. From Royal Stag it is Blue Label. And yes,as far as star fee is concerned at least bhais had the penchant to get the stars at discount sale rates.With corporates stars are paid double or even triple their worth. So much for bean counters and financial management in corporate setting!
The crux is you still have to have a star as your buddy to make a movie. Or Corporate backing where they have signed a star and given you a go ahead to make a film like any Papa worth his son would do for the one who has eaten his salt from the day one. So in Bollywood it is not the project but Papaji(whether a producer, corporate czar,a czarina, a star himself- he could come in any garb-even singing and dancing Jhoom Barabar Jhoom in Johnny Deppesque ‘pirated’ dressing)- is the boss.
If you are still hung up on the concept that you don’t suck up to anyone but the job itself because for you job is the boss, let me enlighten you that in Bollywood to string togehter a project with all its attendant fielding,networking, hustling and hassles is the only job! And the boss-Rest of the elements to make a film are mere formalities,Script being the star has an aura of hope but the reality comes with multiple personalities and quite complex even in an era of mulitplexes. Still interested in the job of directing a film? Do the job like “just own business.”
Tags: Direction, Production
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
That was real funny take on the painful ground realities!
Krysh…so true. But in this dark tunnel some bright lights r still there…vvc for hirani, sunil doshi for rajat kapoor n sagar bellary, vishal bharadwaj for anurag kashyap, bhatts for many new guys!! n some ppl still managed to do so somehow…homi adjania,dibakar bannerjee, saket choudhary,sanjay khanduri n nagesh kuknoor. its not that bad. may be will take more time that u expect!
Main kya ji Paaji tussi tope ho te pope ho.. tussi chha gaye.. By god ki kasam!!
Krysh that was so true. And I am surprised that hardly any comments. A good post at PFC in the last month or so..
One is not talking of the odd flash in the pan..But this is the depiction of Bollywood as it stands today. The last thing you are expected to have is talent..the first thing ..show of talent both yours and for the guy in the suite.. yaani ki..expose the talent to the guy..’her’ talent.
Ask the ‘Feathered’ people!
“as far as star fee is concerned at least bhais had the penchant to get the stars at discount sale rates.With corporates stars are paid double or even triple their worth. So much for bean counters and financial management in corporate setting!”
So true Krysh!!
good article!
Call me an optimistic fool, but times seem to be changing. So many newcomers are bringing in a wave of change. It’s not going to happen overnight: Its been 4-5 years now since producers/directors brave enough started to venture outside of the star system. Thankfully over the past 2 years the scales have started to tilt favorably.
Here’s a very interesting, and hope-inspiring, article featured on Rediff today entitled “Cinema of the Underdogs”
http://ia.rediff.com/movies/2007/may/28bs.htm
Yeah Krysh, great point about the fees. You’d think the corporates would find it in their own best interest to break away from the star system, that would have brought down their fees over time and encouraged the stars and the producers/directors to create better “roles” for them, which could have led audiences to appreciate better scripts/films rather than be attracted simply due to “who’s in the film”…
But nah, lets go the opposite route and pay the stars even more. The old system seemed to be losing ground, so lets pour more $$$ in to solidify it…
PS – I didn’t get the “feathered people” reference…
Bhai mere, system nahi badalta, system ke kaam karne ka tarika jaroor waqt ke saath karvat leta hai. Pehle papaji ka bistar, phir bhai ki banduk aur ab Sir ki brief_case.
Corporate walo ne ramu ko pakad liya, ramu ne sholay bana daali…
ek bheja fry kai logo ke sapne saakaar karegi
Amitabh bachan’s feathers in the promos of Jhoom BJ
Oh THOSE feathers…
You guys should really check out that rediff article if you haven’t already… (link in my comment above)