Swastika. Picture by Pabitra Das

Swastika

I was taking a break on the sets of Partner when I tuned into one of the FM channels. Two anchors were discussing Penelope Cruz being cast opposite Hrithik Roshan in a Bollywood film. The chat veered from Bollywood to Tollywood and the anchors started taking potshots at us. They cracked insulting jokes and mocked at the films being made in Tollywood. I was furious.

I believe Tollywood has changed for the better and films like Baba Keno Chakor don’t find favour anymore. Neither does GenY think of Swami Keno Ashami or Shimul Tolay Parul when they think Tollywood. Such films were made 10 years ago, with a budget of around Rs 10 lakh. Today, the budget for a Bengali film shoots up to Rs 2.5 crore. Now we shoot abroad. We have directors like Rituparno Ghosh. And even Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachchan are working here.

It’s unfair to compare Tollywood with Bollywood. We are a regional industry, unlike Bollywood which has an overseas market.

 

Riingo

The progression in Tollywood has been rapid in the past three years. The outlook of producers has changed. The audience is also ready to experiment and watch different films. The promos of Love (directed by Riingo) are on YouTube and there are bloggers who write to me inquiring about where the film was shot and with which camera. Of course there are people who still make run-of-the-mill films and make money. But we are also being encouraged to experiment with different ideas. We have a lot of young directors coming up too, like Chandreyee (Ghosh) and Parambrata (Chatterjee).

 

Anjan Dutt

I don’t think Tollywood has arrived yet but we are in the process of that change. We’ve a great history of Bengali films. The films of Fifties, Sixties and Seventies were very intellectually stimulating. They were targeted at the urban intelligent Bengali and it reflected the time. Somehow we have lost track of “time”. Our cinema stopped reflecting the present time. We had jatra-like films and the directors catering only to the suburban audience. That’s where we went wrong. We still lack vision and things are still blurry, but slowly people are thinking differently. Our cinema should focus on today’s generation — Bengalis who go to the shopping malls, speak English, drive luxury cars and spend money. They are all over the country. When I make a film, my target audience are these people.

Also, Tollywood needs a few good script-writers who will write keeping the young, urban cine-goers in mind.

 

Raima Sen

(Above) Anjan Dutt’s The Bong Connection, which swept the plexes last year; (below) Jisshu and Koel in Rangan Chakravarty’s Bor Ashbe Ekhuni, a hatke Tolly film set to release this year

Our films were very good in the beginning, but there was a downfall and it’s picking up again. I think Tollywood has come to understand the concept of marketing. We have a lot of young directors in Tollywood who are ready to experiment and do different films targeting the young generation. But Tollywood needs international recognition; until that happens not many would know about our stars. I think we are in the process. A lot of our films are being screened at international festivals and appreciated.

 

Mahendra Soni,
producer, Shree Venkatesh Films

I think the multiplex boom has changed Tollywood to a great extent. On the one hand, we have films made by Swapan Saha and Haranath Chakraborty. On the other, there are films like The Bong Connection and Anuranan, which today’s youth can relate to. We’ve realised that it’s the content of a film that drives the audience to the theatres.

I think by the end of 2008, we will witness a huge change in Tollywood. There will be more upmarket and trendy subjects. We are interested in new directors but at the same time we are doing films with Swapan Saha and Ravi Kinagi. We gave Riingo a break and now we are working with Raj Chakraborty, all newcomers. We are balancing both. What we now need is proper marketing, which will happen once we start making bigger-budget films.

 

Prosenjit

Tollywood has changed to a certain extent. There have been new directors and fresh films but how many have actually worked at the box-office? The Bong Connection, of course, has done good business among a very different crowd. Tollywood is still divided into two groups — one has Swapan Saha, the other has Rituparno Ghosh, Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Rinadi (Aparna Sen). There is no middle path. There’s an audience in between who want to watch good films. And there is a change in the way corporate biggies are showing interest in Bengali films.

 

Joy Ganguly,
producer, Moxie Entertainments

While making The Bong Connection, we thought if the audience are accepting different types of films like Monsoon Wedding and Bend It Like Beckham, then why not make them in Tollywood? It’s not necessary that Bengali films have to cater to the masses with song-and-dance around trees wearing cheap costumes. For example, Anuranan dealt with a serious subject yet people went to see it. So there is certainly a change.