Cut the Crap!
Long winding film scripts are soon going to be a thing of the past, say directors and producers
PAARTH JOSHI
Three fight sequences, two kinky bedroom scenes, five songs, one item number and a clip of comedy. Three hours and 18 reels of insult to your sensibilities clearly sells at the Box Office.
And while you still have a hangover of the last movie, the of next Friday rambles 18 more reels that last long, really long. Against the long winding ideas, compact and powerful scripts are seldom seen on the screen. Filmmakers attribute the fact to the ‘variety’ that Indian audience demands in movies. Sudhir Mishra, director of ‘shorter’ films like Chameli and Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi says, “Indian cinema being an entertainment programme and addressing a wide spectrum of audience tends to be long. All the hype about two-hour movies is because of the multiplexes which want to run more shows per day.”
Satchit Puranik, a Vadodarabased director, cites the reason in the consumerist culture of people. “Watching a movie is a relaxing activity where you go to the multiplex and eat and window-shop. Again, the audience wants everything in a film while in trying to cater to this need, directors deviate from the theme,” says Puranik. Trade analyst Komal Nahta thinks on similar lines. “Viewers in smaller centres don’t feel they get ‘value for money’ in two-hour films,” he says. When asked about the quality of long films, filmmakers believe that it’s solely the script that keeps the audiences gripped to the seats. “With films like Mughal-E-Azam and Lagaan, you can’t chop them short. But personally, I feel films should be as short as possible,” adds Mishra.
Producers on the other hand say there may be a new trend of shorter films that will hit the screen. This trend, they mention, has nothing to do with effectiveness of a film but the business strategy. Producer Viveck Vaswani mentions that one loses revenue in long films since these days, movies are sold to multiplexes. “Who cares about the audience, the multiplexes are the real audience. As long as they can run six shows a day and sell their Rs 5 popcorn for 30 bucks, we don’t mind,” says Vaswani.
Producer Pritish Nandy however, puts his money where his mouth is. “Earlier distributors were acting up but now even they have realised that shorter films tell better tales. Multiplexes need hour films to run more shows a day and that’s the way it’s going to be. Directors can say whatever they want, but shorter films are definitely here to stay.”
Long winding film scripts are soon going to be a thing of the past, say directors and producers
PAARTH JOSHI
Three fight sequences, two kinky bedroom scenes, five songs, one item number and a clip of comedy. Three hours and 18 reels of insult to your sensibilities clearly sells at the Box Office.
And while you still have a hangover of the last movie, the of next Friday rambles 18 more reels that last long, really long. Against the long winding ideas, compact and powerful scripts are seldom seen on the screen. Filmmakers attribute the fact to the ‘variety’ that Indian audience demands in movies. Sudhir Mishra, director of ‘shorter’ films like Chameli and Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi says, “Indian cinema being an entertainment programme and addressing a wide spectrum of audience tends to be long. All the hype about two-hour movies is because of the multiplexes which want to run more shows per day.”
Satchit Puranik, a Vadodarabased director, cites the reason in the consumerist culture of people. “Watching a movie is a relaxing activity where you go to the multiplex and eat and window-shop. Again, the audience wants everything in a film while in trying to cater to this need, directors deviate from the theme,” says Puranik. Trade analyst Komal Nahta thinks on similar lines. “Viewers in smaller centres don’t feel they get ‘value for money’ in two-hour films,” he says. When asked about the quality of long films, filmmakers believe that it’s solely the script that keeps the audiences gripped to the seats. “With films like Mughal-E-Azam and Lagaan, you can’t chop them short. But personally, I feel films should be as short as possible,” adds Mishra.
Producers on the other hand say there may be a new trend of shorter films that will hit the screen. This trend, they mention, has nothing to do with effectiveness of a film but the business strategy. Producer Viveck Vaswani mentions that one loses revenue in long films since these days, movies are sold to multiplexes. “Who cares about the audience, the multiplexes are the real audience. As long as they can run six shows a day and sell their Rs 5 popcorn for 30 bucks, we don’t mind,” says Vaswani.
Producer Pritish Nandy however, puts his money where his mouth is. “Earlier distributors were acting up but now even they have realised that shorter films tell better tales. Multiplexes need hour films to run more shows a day and that’s the way it’s going to be. Directors can say whatever they want, but shorter films are definitely here to stay.”
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