KFI Crisis and the Producers’ Rulebook

The times are not good for Kannada film industry. The turnout of people to the theatres is dropping alarmingly every passing week; everyone feels that there is a sharp drop in the quality of the films, but no one knows how to find a solution to this problem.

The producers’ Association, which obviously bears the brunt of these mounting losses, is trying hard to find a way out. Recently, the association proposed to implement certain rules and regulations for the production of upcoming films. While the concerns behind these moves are appreciable, some of the points mentioned in the draft are worrisome to say the least. Here is a brief analysis of the rules proposed by the producers’ association.

Complete the films within 45 days: This effectively takes away the creative right to shoot the films in foreign locations or places which are hard to access. Because if the film has to be completed in 45 days, the hero will only fight in Majestic bus stand and will romance the heroine only in cubbon park. Also, this puts a limit on the kind of stories that a producer can work with. What if a producer wants to film a story that is based in Kenya? Obviously, it requires months of shooting in that country and the current draft makes it simply impossible.

Of course, this will be a boon for remake warriors who will have everything from script, DVD, shot composition, camera angles, costumes and other aspects ready even before they shoot a single frame on their own. The industry has already got the restrictions on remakes eliminated. Now, with this rule, the producers are only encouraging the people to go for shortcut routes.

Now, that definitely doesn’t look like a step to revive the fortunes of KFI!

Limit the budget of the film: Rather, it should have been a mere suggestion to restrict the wasteful expenditure, and should have been left to the prerogative of the producer. Obviously, your film will not become a hit if you pay lakhs of rupees to a Bollywood item girl or if you shoot in seven wonders of the world. But then, these are the creative freedom a director should have, provided the producer is willing to back it up.

Only 50,000 feet of negative should be used: Honestly, looks like a good rule with a little chink in the armor. What if a director, after finishing the film within 50,000 feet, finds out that some portion of the film has horribly gone wrong? (many of them do not find that out even after the release of the film! But that’s a whole other story!) Can he reshoot it? Directors like Maniratnam are known to consume gigantic proportions of negatives before coming out with the final product. What if an equally talented director with similar practices emerges in Kannada? Will we lose that talent to other languages like we have lost so many of them?

Directors should have assisted at least in 5 films: Thank god this rule was not there before! If this was the case everywhere in India, the Indian film industry would have never witnessed the likes of geniuses such as Ram Gopal Varma, Maniratnam, Satyajit Ray etc! These guys did not assist anyone, but are still making (or made) rollicking movies that have taken the name of Indian film industry to new heights. And by the way, how many films by the so called ‘experienced’ directors became hits in the last couple of years?

Famous Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino once said, “I did not go to film school, I went to films instead!”

A reduction in the price of the artists: But why should they do it? The logic is, if a producer believes that an artist is worth the money he/she is being paid, they will pay them the amount anyway. Nobody forces the artists down anybody’s throat and the producers are free to choose the artists who work for the money they are willing to pay. Also, most of the artists like Ganesh and Puneeth today have their own production houses; so where’s the question of taking a cut in the remuneration?

Only those directors who have the membership of the association can direct movies: A good move, but with a flip side. Henceforth, all someone needs to do to curtail a director’s career is to take out his membership!

When you look at the above proposed rules, you will notice that all the above mentioned rules are restrictive, and none of them are constructive. These are the people who complain that people are not watching Kannada films, and then keep making similar stories week after week in the pretext of ‘giving what people want.’ Take a look at the above rules, and you will notice that there is no talk about making movies with different scripts or treatments. There is no talk about bringing fresh blood to the industry and there is simply no talk about marketing the films in a better way.

We at Bellitere are offering some constructive suggestions rather than imposing the above mentioned autocratic rules, which we believe would push the industry further into the oblivion. Of course, these are not magic formulae which can change the industry overnight. But we believe they can make lots of difference:

Take a look at fresh subjects: If you make another stereotype story, you will still be in loss even if you make it in a week with a budget of 10 lakhs. The producers think that people may not watch ‘different’ films. But we surely know that they just don’t watch stereotypes!

Give importance to scripts: Unfortunately, the proposed rules by the producers’ association don’t touch this subject even with a tadpole. Bringing out good scripts doesn’t cost you the earth and unless you have good scripts in your hand, the films will not be a hit.

Market your films well: The times have changed; people do not sit in their house eagerly awaiting the next release from KFI. They have various other options for entertainment. In such a scenario, the only way to push your films is to market them aggressively through every available medium. How many producers know that they can reach worldwide audience 24 hours a day, 7 days week, through internet at a fraction of publicity costs they spend outside?

Give directions to new producers: We often hear stories of new producers being robbed of their hard earned money with fictitious production costs. So, the established producers who know the games of the industry can as well come forward and help them.

Yes, KFI needs a fresh breath of air. But that’s not coming if one imposes rules that stifle out the creativity in you. Of course, it’s still possible to make good films with a limited budget and in a stipulated time. But the issue here is not about the feasibility of big budget films in Kannada. It’s about the freedom of expression available to the directors and the existence of a free market economy in film industry.

We feel that any kind of efforts to suppress those will kill KFI far quickly than its current crisis.