Vasan Bala’s debut film Peddlers was selected to show at the International Critics’ Week at the 65th Cannes Film Festival this year Pix: Gajanan Dudhalkar

You could call it the Facebook to Cannes saga — and it could even be the subject of a gripping movie about the roller-coaster life of a young filmmaker. Director Vasan Bala faced roadblocks at every turn when making his debut film Peddlers. First, his script was rejected and when it was accepted he had heated rows with his producer Anurag Kashyap about the movie. Then, he had to hold his breath for funds after the moviemakers opted to raise half the Rs 1.5 crore needed for the movie, via Facebook.

So, he was understandably elated when Peddlers made it to the International Critics’ Week segment at the Cannes Film Festival. Says Bala: “Cannes was surreal. Now I feel I have a huge responsibility as a filmmaker.” Bala has also shown his film at the 37th Toronto International Film Festival.

Or consider this: Since January, PVR Cinemas has

released as many as 11 independent films around the country from Love Wrinkle Free, which had an amazing two-week run in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore — during the IPL no less — to Kshay, Harud and Shuttlecock Boys. Also, there’s Anurag Kashyap, the change-agent of independent cinema, who’s inspiring, pushing and even backing a new wave of independent filmmakers in the country.

Yes, the independent cinema juggernaut is rolling on as a fresh wave of young Hindi filmmakers breaks away from the conventions of candy-floss romance and over-the-top potboilers to tread the path less travelled. These young filmmakers are pushing the boundaries of cinema as they explore fresh storylines, experiment with narrative structures and even shoot guerilla-style — needless to say on meagre budgets and resources.

Actor-turned-director Aamir Bashir’s Harud is set in Kashmir and tells the story of a father whose photographer-son goes missing Pix: Gajanan Dudhalkar

Take a look at first-time director Manjeet Singh, 35, whose wildest dreams came true when he was invited to show his debut film Mumbai Cha Raja at the Toronto International Film Festival. The movie’s a sensitive portrayal of Mumbai’s slum dwellers set against the backdrop of the Ganesh festival. Says Singh: “I never imagined this kind of a response. It’s celebration time for India’s alternative cinema.”

But what has led to a sudden enthusiasm for independent cinema? Most important is the fact that these films are being invited to take part in film festivals around the world. Says Anurag Kashyap: “Many more new voices are coming with out-of-the-box ideas. The more the merrier.”

Cameron Bailey, the Toronto festival’s artistic director, reasons that many Indian filmmakers are attempting to portray the transformation taking place around them. This year around 10 films were shortlisted to be part of the special ‘City to City’ segment at the Toronto International Film Festival. Says Bailey: “Filmmakers from India are probing previously taboo subjects and have adopted styles that were earlier unpalatable to Indian audiences.”

In India, the genre has picked up pace due to the efforts of dedicated filmmakers like Kashyap. “Anurag is now the Big Daddy of independent cinema movement in the country,” says Bala, adding that Anurag had rejected the script of Peddlers but when he first saw the rough cut he agreed that the film had a promise.

It took four years of struggle for filmmakers Hemant Gaba (in picture) and Pankaj Johar to complete Shuttlecock Boys Pix: Gajanan Dudhalkar

Kashyap has been the inspiration for scores of assistant directors who’ve worked with him and who are waiting to make their first films. Take for instance, Shlok Sharma, whose debut film Har-aamkhor is being made under Kashyap’s banner. Sharma started out assisting Kashyap and Vishal Bharadwaj. He says: “I started making short films for festivals. But in spite of these little achievements, it was difficult to convince the right people to support my feature.”

Sharma started work on Haraamkhor but his mentor Kashyap was still unconvinced about it. “I felt responsible for the money people so selflessly invested. We had a small team and we utilised existing resources to the fullest,” says Sharma.

Meanwhile in Delhi, filmmakers Hemant Gaba and Pankaj Johar defied the odds and made Shuttlecock Boys on a shoestring budget of Rs 35 lakh. The film which has already wowed critics at international festivals was finally released on the commercial circuit by PVR. Says Gaba: “It’s a story of four middle-class boys in Delhi and what binds them together is the game of badminton which they play every night on the street.”

Similarly, actor-turned-director Aamir Bashir has had a long wait for his film to be released in India.

Bashir has shown a different Kashmir in his debut film Harud (meaning Autumn in Kashmiri) far removed from the beauteous landscape portrayed in Hindi films. “I have tried to depict the ordinariness of life in Srinagar. The overall palette is dull grey with the occasional falling of gold autumn leaves,” says Bashir, who spent his childhood in Kashmir. Harud tells the story of a father whose photographer-son disappears one day.

Manav Kaul’s first film Hansa won the Audience Choice Award at the recent Osian’s Cinefan Festival Pix: Gajanan Dudhalkar

At an entirely different level there’s theatre-director Manav Kaul whose first film Hansa won the Audience Choice Award at the recently concluded Osian’s Cinefan Festival. “The story is set in a sleepy-town of Uttaranchal and is about the struggle of two kids without their father,” he says. Kaul shot his film in just 17 days in Uttaranchal with actors mostly picked up from the region. The film is releasing end of this year at the PVR Cinemas.

Says Shiladitya Bora, head, PVR Director’s Rare: “Our big city audiences have become experimental and want to see new out-of-the-box cinema. And we’ve got to have space for every voice.” Each film is released in eight to 12 screens nationally. Bora adds that movies like Harud and Shuttlecock Boys did good business.

These first-time independent filmmakers come from varied backgrounds. While Gaba quit his software job in the US and went to the School of Visual Arts in New York to learn about direction and cinematography, Johar was a certified accountant before throwing it all up to be a film-maker. Singh too is a techie-turned-filmmaker and picked up the craft of filmmaking by blogging and hanging out on the film sets.

Or look at Bala, who started out as an assistant director to Anurag Kashyap in Gulaal and Dev D and finally associate director of British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom in Trishna. He says: “Michael’s approach influenced me a lot and shaped my style of filmmaking with limited people and using limited resources.” Kaul comes from a theatre background and has a theatre group called Aranya.

Manjeet Singh started out in films as one of Anurag Kashyap’s assistant directors; (above) a still from Singh’s Mumbai Cha Raja

Several factors are working for the growth of Indie cinema. There’s the increased exposure to world cinema which in turn is inspiring filmmakers to try new styles. Take for instance, Mumbai-based Srinivas Sunderrajan, 34, who was inspired by the Western independent and guerrilla filmmaking movement and figured that it would be interesting to attempt such a film here in India.

That led to Sunderrajan shooting Untitled Kartik Krishnan Project in 2010 (made on a budget of Rs 40,000) a story about Kartik, a software engineer who wants to make a movie but finds strange things suddenly happening around him. Says Sunderrajan: “The premise of the script started out as the real personal story about my meeting and helping my friend Kartik Krishnan to make his short film.” Soon after Sunderrajan made The Greater Elephant, a black satire about a mahout who loses his elephant in the city. The film that has won the Jury Award for Best Film at the South Asian International Film Festival 2011 in New York is awaiting its India release.

The biggest roadblock that independent cinema faces is the paucity of funds. Nevertheless, some filmmakers are now able to put together small sums through unorthodox methods. Says Kaul: “Everything fell in place as I was helped by my close group of friends in Uttaranchal and in Mumbai.”

Indie film-makers are also increasingly turning to crowd-funding to distribute their films. Sunderrajan, for instance, is doing it for the distribution of The Greater Elephant in India. “Typically, the filmmaker puts up the script of his film on social media and crowd-funding sites and asks for assistance. Donors are rewarded for their largesse: credit on the website or in the film,” he says. Singh too used crowd-funding for post-production and promotion of his film.

Srinivas Sunderrajan’s The Greater Elephant is a satire about a mahout who loses his elephant in the city

There have been challenging moments galore for these first time directors. Singh, for instance, recalls that it was tough to shoot the film in real locations in Mumbai during Ganesh festival. And Bashir remembers how “the challenges made the whole process of shooting fun”.

Nevertheless, all these moviemakers have ambitious plans for the future and are confident about carrying them out. So, Bashir is working on the script of his next film which he will start shooting in December, and Gaba is working on a psychological film Defiance for which shooting is slated to start next March. On the other hand, Singh has a few scripts ready which he will start in due course.

Of course the picture is not entirely positive. And as Sunderrajan puts it: “Indie as a word has acquired myriad meanings and people have been using the word to get away with mediocre quality of work.” But for now the Indie directors are making sure that the script is strong so that, in near future, audiences can expect plenty of good alternative cinema to be showing at a movie theatre near them.