Out Of The Woods

With perky camera work, racy moves and hip characters, Bengali films have come a long way from cheap remakes of Bollywood potboilers. And they are making money too.

Aamra is a perfect example of Tollywood evolving. It has perky camera movements, racy novel-like narratives, and characters who, as a college student remarked, “speak and behave like us”. Coupled with that is a tight budget, in-film advertising and a star cast which does not burn a hole in the pocket. “I made the film for Rs 15 lakh, and it ran for five weeks,” says Nitesh Sharma, 36, producer of Aamra.

AGNIDEB CHATTERJEE, 42 CLAIM TO FAME: Prabhu Dao Hey Biday. Features four dysfunctional urban persons who, by normal social standards, would be called perverse. BUDGET: Rs 6 lakh VERDICT: Not yet released BACKGROUND: Has been directing numerous hit Bengali mega-serials for the past 20 years MAINAK BHAUMIK, 27 CLAIM TO FAME: Aamra, released in 2006. Less of action and more of conversation, the plot revolves around urban characters who meet each other and talk freely about sex. BUDGET: Rs 15 lakh VERDICT: Hit BACKGROUND: Born and brought up in New York, has edited The Bong Connection SHARON DUTTA, 37 CLAIM TO FAME: Raat Barota Paanch, released in 2005. A horror film that had five people spending a night with a ghost. A rare scary Bengali flick after a long time. BUDGET: Rs 27 lakh VERDICT: Costs recovered BACKGROUND: Also made Shikar, a run-and-chase story, that didn’t do too well NITESH SHARMA, 36 CLAIM TO FAME: Produces Bengali movies at impossible budgets. He shoots them in DVD format and avoids making prints to save costs. BUDGET: Rs 15-30 lakh VERDICT: Costs recovered BACKGROUND: Executive producer of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black

Bengali cinema, post its glorious times in 1960s and ’70s, had been reduced to two kinds. One, that made cheap rip-offs of Hindi and south Indian films, and two, that comprised the likes of Goutam Ghose, Aparna Sen, Buddhadev Dasgupta and Rituparno Ghosh—who are considered thinking directors of Bengal. Ghosh probably was one of the first directors in this league to have brought in what others couldn’t—the moolah. His Unishe April (19th April), made on a modest budget of less than Rs 30 lakh, had reigning stars Debashree Roy, Prasenjit and Aparna Sen, and a plot that focused on mindgames between a mother and a daughter. Since then, the director started focusing on expensive projects, getting in big names from Bollywood—Aishwarya Rai in Chokher Bali and Raincoat (which had Ajay Devgan as well), Abhishek Bachchan and Soha Ali Khan in Antarmahal, and now, Amitabh Bachchan and Priety Zinta in The Last Lear. Chokher Bali, which was completed on a budget of Rs 2.5 crore, made initial business of Rs 3 crore, some of it’s profit riding on Rai’s name alone. It is this mantra that the new-age directors of Bengal are cashing in on. “The films need to be marketed as plan-to-see movies,” says Arijit Dutta, vice-president, Eastern India Motion Pictures Association. Not all critically-acclaimed movies are successful in igniting fire at the box office. Suman Mukhopadhyay’s film Herbert (released in 2006), based on a mentally retarded character, was a wonderful depiction of north Kolkata life. Although considered a landmark in Bengali cinema by critics, it failed to draw audiences because of poor publicity. Mukhopadhyay’s second project, however, was better-off in terms of publicity. A film adapted from Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide, the mere announcement of it made national news. “It will be released sometime in 2010,” says Mukhopadhyay.

Good script and proper promotion—both are required for a film to do well and Anjan Dutt, another star in the Bengali film firmament, is doing a bit of both. While working on interesting subjects, he is also roping in big names. His latest venture BBD has stars such as Kay Kay Menon, Naseeruddin Shah and Jimmy Shergill. The plot centres around an old area of Kolkata, named after three freedom fighters, which is reinvented through the lives of the 21st century youngsters who believe in “here and now”. Distributors in Bengal, however, still prefer to take up movies such as Minister Fatakeshto—a sequel to last year’s biggest Bengali hit MLA Fatakeshto—that hope to ride on the popularity of their predecessors, banking on crass comedy, impossible action, and the gyrations of Bengal’s evergreen star Mithun to sail through. “The market for Bengali films is small,” says Srikanth Mohta of Shree Venkatesh Films, one of the biggest distributors in the Bengali film industry. That too is changing, however, as the new-age directors are now breaking the barriers of language and making films for a bigger audience. Dutt’s BBD is in Hindi, while The Bong Connection is in English. Aparna Sen’s The Japanese Wife is in English, Bangla and Japanese, while Ghosh’s next Sunglass is a Hindi film. “The Hungry Tide will be multilingual as well,” says Mukhopadhyay.

Low-budget, city-oriented films, too, are doing well. Nitesh Sharma has a perfect model for this. With 37-year-old director Sharon Dutta, Sharma made a horror film Raat Barota Paanch (five minutes past midnight) for Rs 27 lakh and got in-film advertising (Eveready, Dollar Undergarments), as in Bollywood, to recover costs. “That way, my producers don’t run the risk of losing all their money,” Dutta explains. Agrees Sharma, “You get most of your money back from the sales of the film rights itself. Anything that comes out of ticket sales is over and above that.”

For now, the youngsters are confident that this will work. “My target audience is between 18 and 30 and I do a film in a way that I make enough money for my next film. That’s all,” says Dutta. This clearly seems to be the winning formula in ailing Tollywood.

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