The ongoing International Film Festival of India currently underway in Goa witnessed an engaging discourse between filmmaker Guneet Monga and sound engineer Resul Pookutty, both Academy award-winning artists who were speaking on India’s success rate at winning the top honours at the annual Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences also known as the Oscars.
What emerged from the discussion was how little effort the government puts towards the development and promotion of good quality cinema in the country then supporting the filmmakers with marketing the films in order that they will be in a position to claim top honours.
As Pookutty pointed out, the government charges a 40% entertainment tax -- among the highest globally on cinema tickets -- and in return, runs a few institutes and organises annually an IFFI celebration where films from across the country have to compete for the little space and for viewership among audiences that juries that make up the festival.
Despite the unbounded power of cinema, filmmaking is an expensive business and filmmakers especially independent filmmakers from nooks and corners of the country not only have to find the funding to be able to make a film and submit it to festivals but also to find the money for marketing and distribution, without which the film has no chance of even being noticed, much less being eligible for recognition and awards.
Pookutty suggested that even if the Union government spends a fraction of the tax it collects as entertainment tax to set up a fund to help the film that is chosen as India’s official entry for the Oscars to market and distribute itself, it will have a much higher chance of making it past the first few rounds at globally acclaimed awards.
There is no doubt that India’s film industry is among the biggest in the world -- producing in excess of a thousand films each year -- most of which are mainstream commercial cinema that is screened in theatres. At the same time, the country is home to several up-and-coming filmmakers, nearly all of whom struggle for funds to bring their films to fruition much less find the money to promote and distribute them.
Goa too is not far behind as was evidenced in the fact that a Goan film ‘Odh’ (Pull) won the top prize at the 75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow's 48-hour filmmaking contest that was held in the state.
To that extent, the decision of the Union Government to this year, for the first time announced a corpus of Rs 20 crore to promote films is a step in the right direction. However, what is clear from industry insider’s comments is that the state needs to do more to promote films that tell real and true stories from around the country -- in a way that tells the story of the nation that no other medium can.
The government needs to also think of starting to give back to the industry that forms a huge part of our economy -- a film is for many people the only type of leisure and entertainment that they will experience -- given that holidays are such a rarity among the common populace. Central film institutes are doing their bit, but clearly, they are too few and are falling well short of the potential this country has in store. The government needs to step up.
