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CINEMA: TOLLYWOOD

Greenback Revival

The tinsel town of Kolkata is getting a new polish with expatriates providing the finance for productions

By Labonita Ghosh

	NEW REEL: (from left) Sutapa, Biswas and Ghosh in London; (top) a scene from Utsav

It had to be the strangest screening ever. Rituparno Ghosh premiered his family drama Utsav in Los Angeles in two halls simultaneously at the same multiplex, only one was running a reel behind. Ghosh had no alternative: people-mostly expatriate Bengalis-were beating down the door to come in. There was just one print and the organisers literally had to run from one hall to the other with the latest reel. "It was the most strenuous show I had ever been to," rues Tapan Biswas of Cinemawalla, the NRI outfit that produced Utsav last year. "We'd planned for 600 viewers. About 800 more showed up."

Back home too, the expatriates are clamouring to be let in. Into Tollywood, that is. And Bengal's cash-strapped film industry is only too happy to welcome the moneybags. Seven films produced by non-resident Bengalis are in the pipeline. After Utsav, the Houston-based Cinemawalla has signed Ghosh on for two more projects: Titli, starring Mithun Chakraborty, Aparna Sen and her daughter Konkona (scheduled for a November release), and a period film called Chokher Bali for which talks are on with Akshaye Khanna, Nandita Das and Manoj Bajpai. In 1999, Amrit K. Das, head of the $300-million Netguru it Services, funded an experimental film called Will To Live. This year, he plans to complete a masala movie Chor Bhagwan, directed by Biplab Chatterjee. Silicon Valley venture capitalist Arya Bhattacherjee has signed filmmakers Aparna Sen, Buddhadeb Dasgupta and rookie director Subrata Sen for a total of six films. Director Prabhat Roy, who had two films financed by a US-based doctor and a Hong Kong businessman, is now looking to complete the triad.

"Something is happening to Tollywood," says Subrata. "I'm not sure what it is, but it's for the better." And Tollywood is in dire need of some good news. Not only is production down to about 40 films a year-Mumbai averages 150-only about 25 of them are screened as many of Bengal's 809 theatres prefer to screen Hindi films instead. So while a Hindi film rakes in as much as Rs 1 crore in Bengal, "good" Bengali films make only about Rs 5 lakh. Most would be lucky just to break even. To add to the filmmakers' woes, protectionist rules, like the one that insists on every theatre in Bengal screening a Bengali film for at least 12 weeks a year, have been completely sidelined. Not surprising then that film budgets hover around Rs 30 lakh. Peanuts, by Bollywood standards.

The expatriates are busy changing all that. There's big money in town. Budgets have increased to Rs 50-60 lakh. The outsiders are very clear about what they want. "I want to make films that will have an international look," says Bhattacherjee of Arjoe Entertainment. Local filmmakers can now think big. "NRI producers don't skimp on technology," says Subrata. He had decided to shoot Swapner Feriwala in the 16 mm format and blow it up. But producer Bhattacherjee urged him to go cinemascope instead. Later, the duo incorporated Dolby stereophonic sound as well-all of which added around Rs 5 lakh to the budget. It's not just the moolah. "You can look forward to some technological innovations as well," says actor Biplab Chatterjee. His financier Netguru's Das has set up a Rs 7-crore digital studio, state-of-the-art mixing facilities and an animation studio in the basement of his Kolkata office.

Marketing has also got a new impetus with the foreign funds. "We never concentrated much on selling a film," says Arijit Dutta, owner of Priya Cinema in Kolkata. "Now we're learning new tricks." Das is throwing his weight-and his greenbacks-behind the "product positioning" of Will to Live, a film about cancer. He has set up a website of the same name where cancer patients write in about their experiences and get details of new research and medicines. Das also plans to bombard 1,00,000 people with e-mails to spread the word about cancer, and his film will probably open the World Medical Conference in Delhi next month.

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