Passion remains for cinema alive

In Srinivas Sunderrajan’s film, The Untitled Kartik Krishnan Project (2010), the lead character is sitting behind his desk coding HTML websites when he comes across a cinema blog, which inspires him to make his own film. The events that follow his decision to become a filmmaker form the rest of Sunderrajan’s film. Screened at festivals held in Berlin and New York, it was based on a true story, and the lead was played by the guy whose life it was based on — Kartik Krishnan himself.

Kartik was an engineer who liked to watch “arty films like Ardh Satya” in the 1990s. After  attending a screenwriting conference at the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, he wrote about the experience on desitrain.com, a popular blog in those days.

Later, Kartik, Pankaj Sikka (the owner of desitrain) and other regulars on Sikka’s blog decided to start another blog dedicated to cinema. In August 2006, Passion For Cinema went live with a post by Sikka, who wrote under the pen name Oz.

The blog that changed the protagonist’s life in Sunderrajan’s film, Kartik says, was based on Passion For Cinema (or PFC) where Kartik found his voice as a movie buff. “And it wasn’t just me; PFC became a hunting ground for anyone who was passionate about films.”

End of an era
On Monday, Oz put up what was to be his final post on PFC — he announced that the blog would shut down on April 30. A deluge of comments followed, some pleading that PFC continue, others commenting about the decline in the quality of posts, some offering tribute.

For a blog that gave cinema lovers much to cherish, things started to go haywire about a year and half ago. “Too many people started writing, a lot of which was mediocre. The quantity went up, the quality suffered. Also, it became a bit too Bollywood-y,” says Vasan Bala, one of the earlier writers on the blog.

Oz and filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who was one of the blog’s driving forces, had a falling out of sorts, and the latter stopped blogging. Neeraj Ghaywan, part of the current editorial board of the website, says the popularity wasn’t the issue; people continued to visit the blog, but there was something missing. “Oz got busy with his own work, the old writers moved on. Also, we never really found out what happened between Oz and Kashyap.”

Things were very different in the beginning, says Vasan, adding that the initial writers on PFC were a “bunch of aimless drifters” obsessed with cinema. PFC gave them the opportunity to live their obsession. “We were a bit naïve, but that was the beauty of PFC. Oz, who’s based in California, bought the server, and we all started chipping in with articles. We were faceless people who were connected through cinema, writing from different corners of the country and the world. It was Kartik who took the initiative and insisted we all meet up.”

Soon, PFC’s popularity grew. The subject of the posts varied from the latest Hindi film to an old classic, to world cinema, and the indie film scene. “We all had the same clichéd, dark ideas,” laughs Vasan, adding that he was in his twenties at the time, and didn’t know he could be a filmmaker. That was until he started interacting with Anurag Kashyap.

PFC caught steam when Kashyap started blogging. Dev.D had not released yet, Kashyap was still an upcoming filmmaker, about to start work on No Smoking. He blogged about his experiences while making the film. His no-holds-barred language, interesting perspective on cinema, and the fact that he was baring himself to his audience won popularity and that in turn helped the blog.
“Oz had earlier posted a not-so-flattering review of Anurag’s Paanch, which he had seen at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA). The film never got a commercial release, so Anurag was glad that someone out there wanted to talk about it,” says Vasan, adding that Anurag and Oz struck a friendship that was to determine the future of the website. Oz was the backbone, while Anurag was the guiding force for the writers.

Finding the filmmaker inside
The blog propelled many to take up filmmaking. “I would probably still have been a computer engineer if not for PFC,” admits Kartik. Kartik quit his job and joined a production house as an in-house scriptwriter, but none of the scripts materialised. Later, he wrote the dialogues for a film, Emotional Atyachar, starring Ranvir Shorey and Vinay Pathak that went largely unnoticed. The going is tough but Kartik would rather struggle as a filmmaker than have a regular 9-to-5 job. Vasan echoes Kartik’s sentiment. “Many others woke up to their true calling, thanks to PFC.”

The ‘PFCOne Film Festival’, for instance, offered a solution for those wanting to take up filmmaking but didn’t know how to. People were invited to make a minute long film — “you could even shoot it with a cell phone camera” — which was then played on the blog. A civil engineer from Vashi named George Antoney, says Kartik, made a film called Itch, which was well received on PFC. “It gave him the confidence to quit his job and pursue filmmaking.”
Neeraj was a 27-year-old marketing executive from Delhi, earning the highest salary among all his B-school batch mates, when he came across PFC. He volunteered to work as one of the editors after his day job, and soon found himself leading a dual life — the corporate person he was forced to be and the cinema buff he loved to be. Around a year ago, he joined UTV’s new media wing in Mumbai so he could be close to the film industry. But a few months later, he found his resolve weakening.

“I told my parents I needed to switch to filmmaking. I was over 30, unmarried, a spendthrift without savings and was going to start from scratch in a new profession. Of course they were worried.”
Neeraj is now working with Kashyap on his next film, Gangs Of Wasseypur, but it has come at a price. To begin with, Neeraj has had to drastically cut down on his lifestyle because his salary’s taken a beating. “I moved out of a comfortable house where I was paying Rs25,000 as rent, to a smaller house at Rs14,000, which I share with someone. I don’t know what the future has in store, but I want to give filmmaking my best shot,” says Neeraj.

The road ahead
The deluge of comments insisting that the site not shut down and a fresh interaction between Oz and Kashyap led to Oz posting on Wednesday that the site wouldn’t shut down after all. Passion For Cinema, it turns out, will continue functioning. For now at least.
Neeraj says Kashyap and Oz seem to have sorted out whatever  was the problem between them. With Oz busy with other commitments, the management would probably shift into the hands of another person. “Anurag plans to get us all together in the first week of May and talk about how we can take the blog further. He has promised to be a consultant on the editorial board. Things might just work out after all.”