Two Films In Search Of An Audience
It is a pleasure to reach out to genuine lovers of cinema through PFC. If our cinema had the same vitality and the independence of thought that PFC displays every day, perhaps it would speak for our times much more meaningfully than it does now.
My reason for writing for PFC is to interact and listen to genuine cinema viewers and enrich myself, besides sharing my experiences that can hopefully be of value to others attempting projects which shouldn’t logically have any takers.
A strange set of circumstances have put me in a situation where I have two full length feature films ready at the same time. One is a fiction feature film (called Hulla), produced by Sunil Doshi (the producer of Bheja Fry) to be released in a few weeks hopefully. The other is a non fiction feature (called Leaving Home) on the music band Indian Ocean, produced by my company Cartwheel Features – the film is ready, but I need a producer to take it to the big screen which is what it has been designed for.
And four years ago, I had no idea that I would one day be making films. I had finished writing a novel (Local, published later in 2005) after taking 4 years off, was broke and insecure. In 2001, I had also written a filmscript for an NRI friend of mine Ashish, based on one of my articles in a magazine called Gentleman. To cut a long story short, the script just didn’t get made, and in 2004, during a meeting with a new friend Rajat Kapoor (he had just made Raghu Romeo), my subconscious was piqued when Rajat suggested I direct this film myself as I was likely to have the most passion for it.
The path to finding a producer who meant what he said was a treacherous, thorny one, but it finally happened with Sunil Doshi in November 2006, when he committed to make the film. Before that, in June 2006, I had started this film on Indian Ocean – originally meant to be small 10 lakh video documentary; it has since become a massive 45 lakh HDV feature film, with a story and narrative that has no resemblance to what is evoked by “documentary”. And they are both twins, in a manner of speaking. Both will be 2008 releases. Whatever happens from now on, good or bad, I will share with PFC readers and hope to gain from the experience both intellectually and emotionally. Hopefully, it will be a two-way street in that respect.
I guess I am very lucky, to have been able to make two of my pet projects completely my way. Hulla is in good hands with Sunil Doshi as producer and Adlabs presenting the film; it is the Indian Ocean film that exercising my anxiety muscles.
It is a 138-minute film, with about 75 minutes of music. Besides showcasing the music of what I believe to be the most significant musical entity of our times (and in a strange way its best kept secret too), it also tells an inspiring story of four uncompromising individuals who did not bow to the commercial culture of our times. Their energetic, witty personalities make give the film the same lightness of touch their music is endowed with.
For me, it comes from a place where as a music fan of many years (and a music writer too, of stuff like this) I wanted to see a film like Buena Vista Social Club, or The Last Waltz, Stop Making Sense or Crossing the Bridge or even the titles in the Classic Albums series, from India, by an indigenous artist. No one was worthier than Indian Ocean, but even I was surprised by the relevance and power of their story when I began to do my research.
There are more details and some excerpts here, and you can take a look if you want to know more about it. For now, I just want to know from you – would you go and see this film on the big screen? Would you pay say, Rs 100 or so for a film like this, as a viewer?
I shall share the experiences I have had in trying to answer this question for myself, and from others, in my next post.
Thanks for your time.
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20 Responses to “Two Films In Search Of An Audience”
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Jaideep - Welcome to PFC!! You write on music and you make movies, wonder what took you so long to be here? As I went through your blog on music, I realized I had read them before (the Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pieces). The penny dropped when I read you wrote for Gentleman for sometime. Joni Mitchell deserves her place in the Sun.
Good luck for both the movies. Yes, I will pay Rs 100 to watch Leaving Home.
And I hope you do start writing on music on this forum.
it also tells an inspiring story of four uncompromising individuals who did not bow to the commercial culture of our times.
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This is what PFC is all about. Keep it up. We NRI’s pay much more than Rs 100
KCP
would definitely spend my 100 rs. to see leaving home. just because films on music have not been released in cinemas in india does not mean there is no audience for that. indian ocean is a very good band and theur music has a great visual quality. so the music of the movie is bound to be good. please do release the movie in theatres mr. jaideep. at rs. 45 lakh, it should make enough to recover the money….
hey,
seriously speaking i would love to pay 100 or more for the film..but its just that economics of indian film industry will never allow it to come on screens..the best way to get it on screens … is if you can bag in some festival awards then it can get release ..
ciao
Yeah, i would pay for myself and couple of other music freaks to watch this movie..
Few days back i watched docu on Pantera and Metallica and now Berline began with a docu on Rolling Stones, i kept wondering why India doesn’t make good docu film often…
Good Luck!!
Jaideep,
Here’s wishing you all the best with Hulla and Leaving Home! I would most definitely pay Rs 100 x 4 for my family to watch your film. We’re a music-loving family and love watching music documentaries and it’s about time someone with a passion for music (and cinema) made a good docu on music. Besides, Indian Ocean is a terrific group. I see they’ve also done the score for your first feature Hulla, and am sure it must be excellent too. Am looking forward to both.
All the best,
Ashok
Jaideep
Will surely pay 100 to watch Indian Ocean…absolutely adore their music and if it’s even half as good as LAST WALTZ or BUENA VISTA i would pay another 100.
welcome onboard Jaideep. there are many who will pay rs 100 to watch indian ocean on big screen. i can watch anything that has indian ocean and their music. but i guess the impossible thing is to convince producers n distributors that people like us do exist. how many of us ? now thats a difficult n bigger question. unless n until a film like this releases no one knows the answer to that question. rajat managed to make raghu romeo in whatver way that time and now mithya has good visibility n buzz. may be the trick is to start somewhere in whatever possible way. if for nothing then atleast for a brighter future.
n all the best for hulla!!
Hey!
Nice man! Also your blog is masssssssta!
When are your movies releasing?
I assure you that my whole gang of Friends, we will go and watch it in Cinema Theatre! Ye wada raha!
Glad to have you here, Jaideep. Both your films sound very interesting. Leaving Home certainly tops the two in terms of the genre besides Indian Ocean having a huge cult following. Would like to know more about Hulla. Waiting for more of your posts.
Just checked your sites. I want to have a hard copy of your music posts. Why don’t you get them published? I would jump at such chronicler non-fiction writing. Love the picture on the Leaving Home site. All the best for all your projects and rest assured you can expect all possible support here for your projects.
Wow … a very intresting joyride ….
Welcome to PFC Jaideep .. and all the best …
Glad to see more and more ‘indie’ people here …
Tell us a little more about hulla …
Jaideep: as someone who’s read “Local” (and largely enjoyed it), I would surely like to go watch your films, especially the Indian Ocean one.
most defenatly will watch ur film, provided it has ‘aarree ruk jaa re banndee’ of black friday.
Jaideep, I have read ‘local’.
Found your post inspirational too.
Look forward to seeing both your films.
Jaideep, have you considered looking at boutique distributors in the U.S who specialize in this kind of product? There is a growing demand for niche fare here….I’m based here and in fact that is what I do…so do get in touch.
hi jaideep,
happened to read your post. we had met a couple of times while i was shooting my short film BEWARE DOGS (45 mins) on the same Indian Ocean. your shoot was almost complete then.
i guess i was lucky ’cause BEWARE DOGS got officially selected by Rotterdam (IFFR 2008). i was there for the screenings there, and what i realized that these films do have an audience who were paying 9 euros for a ticket of my film.
i guess what we really need is some support here in India to reach out to the audience. IFFR made it possible for my film in Europe, but i’m looking forward to my film’s screenings here in India. i sincerely hope we both get a chance to reach out to the Indian audience.
i look forward to your film on big screen. my film’s promo is on youtube, lemme know what you think of it.
Thanks a lot everybody, for your comments. Really appreciate them and the encouragement for Leaving Home. Though detractors of such projects will always say - see, you got 418 views and only 16 comments. If that is the proportion of people who will see this film, it’s hardly viable. But I do think it is time film producers actually took some risks to earn the right to be called businessmen. Market economics apart, there is a huge latent market for this, in my view, and it will open up further opportunities for a lot of things.
I will keep updating progress on the film through future posts. And other stuff too (like Hulla).
Thanks Spandan, I have emailed you.
“qwerty” - I did email you, but it keeps bouncing back. You could get in touch with me on leavinghomethefilm@gmail.com
Thanks a lot again…
Will be getting in touch shortly Jaideep.
I’d pay a thousand bucks to watch the film…I think a film made on such an inspiring band…deserves all the effort in the power of man to get it on screen…I’ve seen the excerpts from the film on the website and it makes me restless….I can’t wait for it to release…The members of the band are people who I think the urban Indian audience can relate to…As with their music…But obviously you have all those things in your mind…Looking forward to the movie…
Shashank
(shashank_coolsaggi@yahoo.co.in)
I agree with shashank on this one. I am a very big fan of Indian Ocean, Infact I was with them yesterday! I was really not aware of their movie until now. But i would most definitely pay high price for this movie, and judging from the response at the concert last friday, about 900 people from houston would too. So please come out with it FAST! cuz we houstonians can’t wait!!!