- by Prabuddha
So would the ceasefire be declared between the Slumdog Millionaire(SM) lovers and those who say it sucks...now when the Oscars are all smiling on this rags to riches story of a slumdog. 8 awards out of 10 nominations is no joke. And don't forget that, of those 8 beautiful, coveted trophies 3 are coming home. Or am I too joyous and foolish to imagine of a truce as the awards might actually begin the war of words afresh....there is no dearth of wordmongers who you will be finding spread on all your 2 newspapers and 20 channels. Frothing with anger that the West only recognizes films which portray India in bad light or Hollywood is smitten with poverty porn.
My point is....just ignore the crap. And think how we can get the maximum mileage out of this British film with 3 Oscars won by Indian artists. How is it gonna get us that 'something' which will help us have a bigger share of the Global Film Industry which stands at an abysmally low of less than 4% worldwide, as of now. Amitabh Bachchan school of thought would be infuriated with me when I say that yes, we need a certificate from West in the form of Golden Globe, BAFTA and Oscars if we want to make better films for a global audience. By the way the term 'global audience' for Indian films has largely been restricted to Indian Diaspora and some African and Middle-East nations. India sells one billion more tickets worldwide than Hollywood, produces double the films and to bring home the point, consider these facts- Bollywood made $1.75 billion in 2006 which happens to be half of revenues generated by Studio Walt Disney; the year Titanic released, Bollywood's earnings stood at $1.2 bn and Titanic's at a whopping $ 1.9 bn....weren't we comparing Hollywood?! SM has given Indian filmmakers an opportunity which should fill them with vigor and enthusiasm to churn out products that can appeal to international audiences and thus taking the industry to its rightful position. And there is already some activity happening in projects taking mammoth shapes, big directors reinventing themselves, new barriers being broken by the young filmmakers (Jihad, Wake up Sid, Kaminay, Kites, Dhobi Ghaat, Falling, Ishqian, Delhi Belly, Three Idiots, Gulaal, My Name is Khan, Rang Rasiya, New York, 8*10 Tasveer, Aladin, Siddharth- the Prisoner... the list goes on) 2009 has the caliber of being 'the year' for the industry. Hope that SM gives sleepless nights to the industrywallahs as to why didn’t they think of such a film…it was all out there…Hope that they take their babies to such platforms and show the world that Danny is no genius. After the success of SM, the world audience has some questions for the industry and it should emerge victorious in the SM fashion proving that: IT IS WRITTEN.
(Prabuddha is a tv journalist by profession and a cinema lover by default)
