Is India evolving and building the best film directors of tomorrow?

The absolute hurry with which transformation and evolution have hit our dear country, it is lovely to see how fast we as an audience are looking at cinema and films. Entertainment is the pillar but how we entertain, and the narrative with which a message is conveyed is something that has changed to a large extent in our country. All thanks to the really bright minds from our country’s budding film industry who are trying to make a mark on the world map.

The current generation is getting accustomed much faster to global films, from Shawshank Redemption, Shutter Island, to Blood Diamond, to Django Unchained, and the latest Wolf of Wall Street. And so are our changing preferences with the kinds of TV shows we watch, we've moved from Friends to shows like Entourage, Suits, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad and House of Cards, each belonging to different sets of drama. With so many changes, in terms of the technology and availability, that helped us watch global cinema in the last decade, it was imperative that our audiences move from a set format of receiving a story (that a film conveys) to a much better and interesting way of watching characters evolve. We have loved the idea of liking a supporting character equal to the main character. Think, Johnny Drama or Ari Gold in Entourage, Douglas Stamper in House of Cards, to Jessy Pinkman in Breaking Bad. And think again, Deepak Dobriyal who played Pappi in Tanu Weds Manu, Swara Bhaskar who played Kangana Ranauts friend named Payal, Anupam Kher as PK Sharma in Special 26, Aditya Roy Kapoor in Yeh Jawani hai Diwani, Abhay Deol as Kabir in Zindagi na Milegi Dobara, and Vir Das as Arup in Delhi Belly. Spectacular perfomances and really well blended characters have worked out the best in this era. Not that it didn’t work earlier in Bollywood, it certainly did, how could we forget Anupam Kher as Prof Siddharth Choudhary in Hum Aapke Hai Kaun or Akshaye Khanna as Dharamvir in Border and our very own Arshad Warsi who played circuit in Munnabhai MBBS. It worked earlier as well, but our breadth of subjects that we watch in our movies is only becoming wider.

Let’s picture this, Lunchbox, a very simple film that shows a handful number of events are a great reflection of how great messages can be delivered with zero complexity. Each time Ila (Nimrat Kaur) read the note in the lunchbox written by Saajan Fernandes( Irrfan Khan) it spoke of what he has experienced in his life, and how he took it. Remembering the TV shows his wife watched when she was diagnosed with a disease, and even though she watched the same episode again and again she still laughed at it. Example of bananas being eaten by majority of Indians and that being the cheapest snack available throughout, which depicts that a lot of people do not even get to enjoy a full meal in a day. "Life has become too busy these days, there are too many people and everyone wants what the other has" He also mentions how Bombay/Mumbai has become over populated and that even when he wanted to buy a place to bury himself the grave yard authorities offered him a vertical burial plot. Every chit that was written would strike a ripple effect in your brain of the thoughts that would hardly pass you by when you are living your busy life.
The path of a set formula to make a film actually started breaking when audiences started appreciating Black, Dev D, and Omari to name a few. Directors who had a perspective to watch, and learn (NOT ADAPT) from global cinema make remarkable progress in the industry. Why I say not adapt is because, these directors did not copy paste movies, they learned story telling techniques, usage of camera for specific scenes and implemented their learning to match with the gradually changing tastes of Indian audiences.
The way we have moved in the last 5 years is exceptional, today, you either make a blockbuster movie with a big star using the same old formula or a brilliant film that appeal to the urban/accepting audience. The same old formula films will do good in the region that they belong to, or rather to the preference of the audiences who still haven’t really changed due to unavailability of films from other countries. For ex. a Dabbing did a superb job when it came to making money because it was set for audiences who love entertainment in the way with which they have always been watching movies. Some well-crafted action scenes, a story that sticks to family, a funny way with which the name called "Pandey jig" is pronounced and the style with which the lead character carries himself. Honestly speaking the director and his team has done a massive ground research or have an upper hand because they belong to the Uttar Pradesh state and have stayed in that region. If the same movie was even placed in Bangalore, the crowd that is going to enjoy it the most is going to be from the same region. And the region for this movie was Uttar Pradesh which is our largest state with the highest population. Speaking in terms of business, we have got the right product placed at the right place and definitely placed at the right time, because in the past we never had a Dabaggayi story and all our police officers who we saw in our films were always very serious in their looks.
When I compare the same to a Lunchbox or a Queen I would say, and from what I have read, that these films have done great in Urban areas, same goes for Love Aaj Kal and Cocktail. But these films wouldn’t really do as great in the rural or tier 3 cities because the audiences are yet to get accustomed to other methods of narration. For that matter even Dhobi Ghat made by Kiran Rao was difficult for the urban audiences as it ended abruptly, and we are not accustomed to that. :)
Leaving all that behind, having seen at the pace with which our country is progressing, let’s see what are we going to be presenting to the world. Anurag Kashyap is well received by media abroad, reason : his narration, learning global techniques, implementing the story in such a way that the audiences understand it well enough. Paying attention to details, sound, lighting, diction used by the characters, casting the right kind of people, and the sense of being aware of how the society is changing. Gangs of Wasseypur was selected for a special event at the Oscars called Directors Fortnight. English Vinglish directed by Gauri Shinde was screened and well received at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Portland FF, Berlin FF, San Diego FF to name a few. 

Lets not forget our regional cinema, Valu, Deool, Pune 52, from our Marathi Film Industry. To Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi(Blue Skies, Green Ocean, Red Earth)which is an extremely well-shot film from our Malayalam Film Industry

, that uses a road trip as a medium to help you understand what the characters went through in their lives. And we have a long list of Tamil, Punjabi, and Telegu films that have done extremely well too.

Are we moving towards creating our own brand? YES WE ARE !We arent copying anything directly from movies released abroad, (atleast the ones named in this article arent).We are sticking to our roots of being Indians and speaking about India the way IT IS. The status quo of the story is maintained without exaggerating.

We speak about our regions really well, we spoke about Punjab in DevD, Mumbai in Lunchbox, Goa in Dum Maro Dum,  Uttar Pradesh in Dabangg,Jharkhand/Bihar in Gangs of Wasseypur, Rajasthan in Gulaal, and Gujrat in Kai Po Che and there are a lot more which have projected each of our regions really well. 

We are open to feedback, open to improvisation, and luckily our producers are changing the way in which they invest. Yash Raj Films produced Chak De India! (Which wasn’t a love story) UTV is investing massively on some brilliant scripts which may or may not make it BIG at the box office but would definitely (like I said earlier) create a ripple effect of thoughts. Kashyap bounced back after No Smoking flopped, and has never looked back after that. Nikhil Advani made Chandni Chowk to China which tanked at the Box office, but not a lot of people noticed that he is also the man behind the intelligent D Day which speaks about the dedicated patriotism of four characters to get the biggest criminal of our country back from his hideout in Pakistan and challenges our thinking as citizens of a crippled democracy.

So if tomorrow the world has to speak about directors from India we definitely are going to have a lot of them making that list.

By the way, a DJ named Deadmau5 ( pronounced as Dead mouse) was "tripping" and hooked to "Tunak Tunak Tun" by our very own Daler Mehendi. And you never know if some bar somewhere outside of India is playing Hindi songs for the Indian students who are making our firangi friends dance to Baby Doll or Sunny Sunny!  

We are a strong tree and we are slowly and very steadily bringing the world under our inspiring and hard earned shade!