Casting couches, love affairs, crooked producers, sell-out directors, gossip, crazy people, compromises, secrets and lies — that in a nutshell is the film industry circus, as exposed in my satire comedy film, Chalochitro Circus (releases on September 27). It’s based on my experiences as an insider, who has always felt like an outsider in a Movie World that is not all wine and roses. Trust me... there’s a lot rotten in Denmark! But who doesn’t love clowns, trapeze artists and performing monkeys. The question is, what really goes on under the big circus tent, behind all the make-up and costumes, when the audience is not watching? Like a real circus, the circus of cinema is one heck of a joy ride. There’s non-stop behind-the-scenes action-drama-comedy-romance with larger than life characters (and fragile egos), hilarious scandals, politics and gossip.

The love-hate letter

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Movie World — But Were Afraid to Ask would probably be my English title for Chalochitro Circus. In a way, this film is a tribute to one of my favourite Woody Allen comedies that had me laughing till my sides hurt while it stung with scathing insights on human nature. It’s my open love-hate letter about making movies. I hate it, I can’t stand it, I want to cry but I also love it because I get to make films. In the past, I’ve often used my films as thinly veiled movie blogs about my life. So how could I not make a film about my life of making films?

The circus comes to town

I started off as a wide-eyed 23-year-old documentary filmmaker with a dream to make an arty movie about the lives of Chhau dancers in Purulia. I was a die-hard Buddhadeb Dasgupta fan, who’d naively sit around drawing each frame. I can’t believe the time I wasted reading books about the magic of making cinema, because the bubble burst the instant I set foot in Movie World to look for money to pay for it... that’s when the Circus came to town.

Meeting the producers

Producer #1 said: “I’ll make your film, if you can get me a Madhuri Dixit”. Producer #2 said: “I’ll do your movie, but you have to cast this particular actress.” (I later figured it was because he was having a ball with her.)
Producer #3 said: “I will make your art film”.... I was like: “Really? Wow! It’s too good to be true!” It was. Turned out he thought “art” was code for “soft porn”. Needless to say, I never made that film, but I figured that this was Movie World’s way of saying: “Welcome aboard Mainak — safe journey”.

Facing the music

Most of the things that we read that pass off as tinsel town gossip is a version of what actually goes on behind the camera. Gossip sells. You know why? It’s a version of the truth! Like while shooting Bedroom, one actor was jealous of another one for picking up one of the actresses. And boy, did that create chaos on the set. Another time a journalist phoned my producer and demanded that I cast a particular person, threatening that if I didn’t, the paper would trash me. I didn’t buckle, and I was trashed.

Filming the circus

But I’ve had to buckle down on several other occasions, just like the film director in Chalochitro Circus does. He starts off wanting to make his dream art film about an autorickshaw driver, but then despite his initial stance of never compromising on his cinema ends up making one sorry compromise after another, just to ensure his film gets made. His cameraman and he think of themselves as a dynamic duo, like Satyajit Ray and Subrata Mitra in Pather Panchali. Except in Chalochitro Circus the filmmaker doesn’t get to make the art film he wanted and ends up having to suffer a producer who makes him do some other done-to-death awful story, further forcing him to include an item song to boot.

Tragedy + time = Comedy

So after making a bunch of movies, my collection of all the gossip, revelations, shocking truths, and insights has been strung into Chalochitro Circus to share with my audience. As the director in the movie says: “Bangla cinema aar Bangla mawd. Parthokyo ta kothai?”

A disclaimer

This expose was made during a period in my life when I was really pissed off with everything from actors-producers-media-box-office obsession — the works. As I watch the film back now in happier times, when I have moved on from that negative space, I shudder to see that I was at my diplomatic worst! So if I ruffle too many feathers, please take it up with the Mainak of 2015. I have nothing to do with it.