Living the indie dream

When filmmaker Onir decided to make his first film, getting someone to fund it became an impossible task. His story revolved around a family trying to deal with one of them having contracted the HIV virus — a plot considered ‘risky’ by conventional standards. Onir’s friends and family, therefore, pooled in resources and the result was My Brother Nikhil (2005), a film which earned immense critical acclaim. Yet, box office results were found wanting.

Around the same time, a journalist-turned-aspiring-filmmaker had a concept about a farmer who decides to commit suicide, so his family can live comfortably off the compensation given by the government in the wake of his death. Anusha Rizvi approached Aamir Khan — a superstar known to endorse off-the-beaten-track films — with the idea of The Falling. He agreed to make the film under his banner, but Rizvi had to wait a long time for it to see the light of day. The film — now called Peepli [Live] — buoyed by the Aamir factor and the well-thought out marketing strategy preceding its release, is now among the success stories of 2010 and is headed to the Oscars.

Who will produce an indie?
Not all small filmmakers with a big idea are as lucky. In a star-driven industry where box office numbers supersede the need to make innovative, cutting-edge cinema, getting a willing producer to finance and then market your film is an uphill task.

Onir, making his fourth film now, finds it as difficult to get someone to back his offbeat movies. “And I would rather make small films that have something novel to say than make a film for a producer who will want me to play to the gallery,” says the filmmaker.

His next, I Am, is a collection of four short films, each of them dealing with a pertinent issue — artificial insemination, child abuse, alienation and discrimination against homosexuals.

Having got stuck with finance while making the first of the four shorts, Onir put up the storyline of his film on his Facebook account and invited people to sponsor his film. In return, he promised them a share on a pro rata basis. Soon, funding started pouring in, and he was able to finish his film.

But the real test begins now. Having done rounds of international film festivals, I Am will be looking for a commercial release in India. For that, says Onir, an effective marketing strategy is imperative. “You may make a film independently, but getting it noticed [marketing] and giving it a proper release [distribution] is crucial. If a corporate helps you with that, it’s great. Or you have to think out-of-the-box yourself,” he says.

Love Sex Aur Dhoka, Tere Bin Laden and Udaan, all with novel storylines and newcomers in the cast, have been among the hits of 2010. These were either produced independently and then bought over by a corporate for a well-planned release, or backed by production houses willing to experiment.

Distribution woes
Filmmaker Rajat Kapoor wasn’t as fortunate. Unable to finish Raghu Romeo (2003), starring Vijay Raaz, he too made an appeal on the internet for people to fund his film. The partnership was on pro rata basis, but the losses were to be borne by him.

“The film got a pathetic release, in around 17 screens and obviously flopped. It took me three years to pay back all my online financiers, but I did,” says Kapoor, whose Mithya (2008) got a much better release.

Kapoor says even though corporates taking on indie films after they are made and giving them a release goes partly against the traditional definition — of it being released independent of any studio backing — it’s better this way. “We at least get to watch a Peepli [Live] as a result,” says Kapoor, adding that a true indie film is independent in thought, irrespective of its budget or production house. “I would say, The Dark Knight, one of the biggest grossers of all time, was in a way an indie film — it was fiercely independent in spirit, in the same manner Scorcese and Fellini made their films,” he says.

But even with the odd indie getting the backing of a corporate, there are a number of films that go unnoticed every year. Jaideep Varma, writer-director of the indie film Hulla (2008), made Leaving Home, a documentary based on the life of the band Indian Ocean.

The film, unlike most other documentaries, was shot at a comparatively higher budget and released commercially, to empty cinema halls. Varma blames it on the film’s marketing and the “arrogant” nature of the distribution network in the industry.

“The problem with our industry is that everyone is interested in PR. No one cares about the content. They may say they do, but they don’t,” says a disgruntled Varma who says he burnt his fingers by partly financing the film. “I don’t think I want to make a film now, unless I get a producer with the inclination to distribute the film well,” he says.

Changing times
The multiplexes seem to have come as some sort of a saviour for indies — they cater to a well-informed urban audience after all.

But Varma says the high ticket prices are, in fact, a deterrent. “The multiplex culture is feeding the mindset of the powerful getting even more powerful. Why would someone pay a huge sum to watch a film with newcomers? If anything, it makes the star system even more apparent,” he says.

Kapoor disagrees. “Ticket prices may be high, but at least there’s an audience for these films. Kam se kam picture release toh hoti hai [at least the film gets a release].” Kapoor’s issue, though, is with those films which “pretend to be independent.”

Not every day does your film get the kind of backing Peepli [Live] did. The trick, then, is to be innovative within your limitations. Kapoor and Onir have both used the internet as a means to raise finance for their films, but whether that becomes a common occurrence among indie filmmakers remains to be seen. The internet as a tool to market, though, cannot be ignored.

“Today, on the day of release, you have Twitter and Facebook abuzz with how good or bad your film is. Nothing works better than word-of-mouth and a social networking site is the ideal place for this,” says Kapoor. The internet makes the elimination of the middleman — whether in the form of a PR person or a distributor — possible, says Varma. “It’s already begun in the music industry, thankfully. If indie filmmakers can find a way to make money out of screening their films online on a regular basis, they can directly connect with their audience, without caring about who the distributor is,” he says.

Vikramaditya Motwane, the director of Udaan, says, “Independent films this year have proved that good content if smartly budgeted, and marketed innovatively, can be box office hits too.”

The indie dream, therefore, can live on.