Posts from — April 2007

In trying to argue for popular vs avant garde cinema, we often miss the point that the latter cannot emerge out of a tautology about its worth and necessity

‘Cannes: wake up call for India‘ moans that there are no entries from India at Cannes this year. It is interesting how the report first valorises the awards as a sort of benchmark to aspire for and then highlights [Read more →]

This Times report informs us that Percept Holdings will launch a $100m Bollywood theme park. Shailendra Singh, of Percept Holdings is quoted as saying:

“Bollywood accounts for over 40 per cent of the total revenues of the overall Indian film industry but there is no organised format or means to consume this experience.” [Read more →]

An interesting article (Future tense for Bollywood wannabes) about star kids and the almost impossibility of newcomers (without the star lineage) to break through. As pointed out, despite the hype-ridden talent hunt shows, which provide television companies with the spectacle of a pseudo event, the lucky few do “not even have a fighting chance given the poor script and nearly no publicity”. [Read more →]

Ignite Films’ Devanshu Arya and A. L. Abanindran demonstrate how easy it is to make an interesting documentary. Their work demonstrates how a genre specialisation can be developed. It is the sign of the times that lie ahead.

Here is the full text of the judgement on the litigation against the government by Gaurav Ashwin Jani, Anand Patwardhan and Simantini Dhuru over the selection of films for National Film Awards. [Read more →]

The changes in the structures of distribution and exhibition (both economic and technological) of the Hindi film industry promises a gradual fracture of its cinema, with what I predict as two main consequences:

1. introduction of new aesthetics to cater to variegated reception
2. changes in ownership

While it may appear to be rather odd to propose these two as connected phenomenon, this thesis comes out of the analysis of developments in the last couple of years and some statements by those currently at the helm of affairs. [Read more →]