Pavan Kumar is a Kannada film maker.
Off late I have been getting too many requests from people who want
to work with me. I want to tell them and the others the hard truth. No
one will ever tell you this, and that’s the reason why things around us
are the way they are.
Stop fantasizing about feature films.
Stop glorifying the idea of getting to make a film and releasing it in a
movie theatre. The game out here is not what it appears to be from the
other side. As dreamers, we dream of making feature films and releasing
them in the theatres. We think, that’s what is called as success. I
have written for three feature films, acted in six and directed one, and
when I talk about realities, you must take it seriously for your own
good.
Please understand that film making in
India is less of art and more of business. The sooner you get that, the
happier you are. So you must decide whether you want to do business or
films. This decision will take you in two different directions. So
please do decide what you want to do.
Feature
films that release in theatres is all about branding and business. Its
the new circus. Don’t get here with dreams to tell a novel story. Your
job would be to provide entertainment, entertainment that a 6 year old
can understand. To excel in this area, you need skills in marketing and
PR, more than the skill of film making. The majority of the audience
don’t care whether you have anything new to tell, they want to be fooled
into thinking that you are saying something new. Its a circus, you must
know how to get the most popular clown and then spice it up with some
hot chics and then add little action here and there. Ask yourself if you
know how to do all this? The sad part is that no one teaches you these
things, nobody can. The skills required to do all of these things is
inborn and those talented people eventually make it big and are known as
successful filmmakers. And there is nothing wrong in being able to do
that. In fact it is very difficult, more difficult than making something
from the heart. I am one of the less talented guys in this area of film
making and I am wondering how to get better at this. So if you are
someone who is dreaming to do all of that, then stop watching foreign
films, stop being smart and intelligent, instead try being innocent.
Start brushing up skills on marketing and building contacts. Most of the
producers and studio all over the country will not look what script you
are carrying, they will see which star has given you the dates. It
might sound bad, but that’s the truth, get in terms with that. A major
production house told me that I must write scripts which a 6 year old
should be able to understand and that’s when they will produce it, they
said this after watching lifeu Ishtene and knowing how successful it was
commercially.
Am
I against commercial films? Am I complaining? Nope, not a bit. When
there is a demand, there is a supply, there is nothing wrong in that. I
am just asking the new breed to know what they want to get into. Some of
you may want to come and change things, that could be your plan. Its a
plan everyone comes with, including me. Some of the film makers you hate
now also started with the same intention. Recently a senior producer
whom I met said – ‘Its easy to wake up someone who is sleeping, but
impossible to wake up someone who is pretending to sleep’. This was his
way of advising me not to be too creative with what I write for
commercial cinema. I believe that the majority of the theatre going
audience don’t want to wake up. Time and again the statistics has proved
that right. They want the circus. At this point some of you will list
out a handful of films which were out of the box and still were
successful commercially. But you don’t know what the film maker goes
through after such films. We appreciate Anurag Kashyup, we are in awe of
the films he makes but his every new film is a struggle for him. Its
like starting all over again. But he enjoys this process, so he keeps
going through that. But are all dreamers cut out for such hardships?
Only they can tell. Getting my first film was a lot easier than getting
the second one. No one knew what I could do last year. Now they know how
Lifeu Ishtene was and it scares them that I might end up doing
something like that again, I am constantly advised to make something
commercial. For a commercial producer, Lifeu Ishtene is not a film they
would want to make, though it made profits, they always want to play
safe. So all those of you out there inspired by my story of making lifeu
ishtene, please know these facts and then contact me. Paper article
tend to glorify our careers, don’t fall for it.
You all know that one in a million
eventually gets to run the circus. What about the rest? Honestly, I feel
the rest are in a better place. If you are someone who is new with all
the zeal, by trying to be my assistant or anybody’s assistant, you are
wasting your time. The world is changing really fast. And everyone is
changing differently within their own geographical regions. The theatre
going audience in India is way different from the ones outside India. It
is very natural for a young dreamer to be inspired by foreign films,
most of the times that is your seed to become a film maker. But 10 years
from the day the seed was sown, you will be a very frustrated person,
if you try to follow the old methods.
I
want you all to be part of the new wave. Stop thinking about being on
Filmy Funda or Zoom TV. Start thinking about being on millions of
laptops and Ipads. Start making the films you want to make. Don’t fall
into the commercial cinema crap trap. The technology today is filmmaker
friendly. Think new. commercial cinema will give you budgets, but it
will tweak your dream into a product that the market is demanding. Trust
me, this process is not fun at all.
So my advice to all the new dreamers is
that, be a story teller. Use the technology and tell a story, there are
audience all over the world who want to watch good stories, it is the
same audience who don’t go to the cinema halls anymore, and they are in
majority. Why make commercial feature films by selling your soul when
only a small percentage of audience will watch it, instead make what you
want and release it worldwide online, you might not make as much money
as you make in commercial cinema but you will be able to sleep better.
My new initiative Home Talkies
is to support this idea and trust me that’s the future. Watch Iranian
cinema. See what they did in pressure and constraints. Develop your own
style of telling a story, it will make you unique. That’s what the whole
world will appreciate. Don’t dream of 3 weeks of theatrical fame and
lose your soul, its not worth at all. I am not just advising this to the
young, I am going to start doing the same very soon. I was never cut
out to run a circus anyway, I wish I was because I could have made loads
of money 
Please see Christopher Nolan’s First
feature film – Following. A film that made me a filmmaker. You must see
the film and then watch it again with nolan’s commentary. He made this
film with no producer, shot only on weekends and worked jobs on
weekdays. All the actors are his friends and family members. He
showcased this film at film festivals, and asked people to donate money
to make memento. Today he is the man who can make Inception!
Whenever I am a little low, I watch Following, it reminds me that – I am my own limitation!
