Filmmaker and screenwriter, R. Balki, known for films like Paa, Pad Man and Ghoomer among others, attended the 30th edition of the ongoing Kolkata International Film Festival on Saturday to deliver the Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture — a commemorative session in the festival calendar every year dedicated to the master filmmaker. Held at Sisir Mancha and moderated by S.V. Raman, Balki presented his lecture titled, ‘I Want to Die Before Cinema Dies’, where he held a mirror to the contemporary reality of cinema and spoke about its threats and challenges. He concluded by stressing the importance of finding avenues to preserve cinema as a cultural treasure. Excerpts:
THE DREAM IN DANGER
You worry about mortality at certain points of your life but I am worried about the mortality of something else than myself right now. It is cinema. Cinema is as mortal as it seems. I don’t think there’s a purpose for me to live without cinema. Many of us dreamt in life and said this is what we want to do in life. We want to make films. But when cinema itself is struggling, how to live? It is very funny when your dream is struggling! We all struggle in our lives during the process of making films — how to make films, how to get our scripts, how to get the money for our films but we have never faced a situation when our dreams are in danger. I think a lot about it. Sometimes it is depressing and at other times energising because there’s never been a problem like this. We have always talked about how to make better films, good films and how to educate our audience. We spoke about all this. But we have never imagined that we had to think of this. I think (Satyajit) Ray was very lucky that he never had to think of this. During those days one thought cinema was eternal. It would never go.
Things are changing. What is the biggest competition of cinema? The reels, the phone — what they call distraction are possibly the biggest threat to cinema. It is addictive so we want more stimulus and keep going back. It is not only this but also the mediums have changed — there is so much content. There is a surplus of content, it is difficult to find something great to watch out of millions of things. Another big challenge for filmmakers and writers — how do you tell people that you have made a film? It is difficult to make people even aware that you have done a film because there is so much information coming at them. Forget making a film. I always tell people today it is true for advertising and it is true for films — how do you even communicate? Yes, you have a huge market, people are waiting for something like Pushpa 2 but that is very, very rare. You have to tell people that there’s something here. It is not that people are rejecting it, sometimes people don’t know. You are film lovers and a bunch of people who are listening to a lecture of this sort... but a lot of people are there who are film lovers but don’t know that those films are coming. That is one of the things.
I think there is this subconscious feeling in most filmmakers that cinema is in danger. Let’s run, let’s make the money really fast. It is survival of the fittest. I think in the process what has happened is everything got corrupted… who is going to pay more money, who is going to be paid to write about the film… everything is paid for. A lot of people have their private media today and they are called influencers. Their channels are their personal accounts. They have legitimately become media channels. They are all behaving like the media used to behave… why should I not charge you for a post? So, today if I want somebody to talk about my film, even the industry people, they get a rate card saying this is what I charge for this kind of a post. So, while the footfall in theatres is decreasing, the money to even make a film be heard is a lot more.
MISINFORMATION IS THE MENACE
In the South, the recent mega blockbusters are really garbage other than two or three. If people make that a science and say, ‘No this is what the audience wants’.... if you give them slightly more interesting films, the audience is not going to try that out! The marketing hype is bringing those people to the theatre but they are not eager to watch another film. It is tiring.
Baahubali was a blockbuster and an entertainer. If people say their films are doing well, it is not doing well. There are four or five of them making money but they are not making a lot of sense in terms of bringing people to the cinema. Every company in the world has to be sustainable. Isn’t cinema responsible for the climate of cinema? Cinema is suffocating. Say, Pushpa is making so many crores... but can it bring back my interest in cinema? Cinema is magic in some ways. Ray’s films had a different magic.
Baahubali had magic in different ways. It makes me want to taste that magic. That is the addiction that actually drove cinema. Addiction to films is what makes people drive to the cinema. Most people don’t know which film will release when. People love to go to the theatres. People flock to the theatres. I feel people in cinema are itself killing cinema by falsifying hopes. When films are not doing good business, they are saying that those films are doing well.
THE AI INVASION
With AI coming in, we say that we have this tool... but when will filmmakers adapt this tool? Filmmakers don’t need to adapt any tool. The tool will adapt the filmmaker. Most of the things that they are doing in cinema can very easily be done by AI. Today it is the slowness of the release of technology that is what’s stopping us. Tomorrow they are going to figure out and the wow factor will go. Today people are going wow by watching a Baahubali. Tomorrow they won’t. As the use of AI increases, these films will become an everyday affair and the wow factor will go. It is just the next step of evolution. Today the handmade sari is on the decline. Tomorrow you may have to categorise cinema like that — man-made cinema and machine-made cinema. In the process, we are all desperate. As filmmakers, our primary responsibility is to see whether this story really deserves to be in the cinema and is it going to really fight the distraction.
THE MARKETING MYTH
Filmmaking is very very expensive. There is a responsibility of the filmmakers to be aware of what is going on. Truly figure out how to revive it. This marketing myth is another thing created by the industry which is not realising that its product is dying. It is just propagating that myth. The industry has to see how we can safeguard our livelihood, our dream, our magic. If that shatters tomorrow… the dream… you will need one therapist for every two people in this country! It will not be easy.
Tough times are coming. We are not aware how we are destroying ourselves. A lot of stars are so paranoid today about how the scripts that are going to reach the maximum number of people. How do we know which script will reach the maximum number of people? They say not to give them those meaningful films. Just hide the meaning! In the 1970s, Manmohan Desai wrote such entertaining films... today we are not even able to write that!
We create something and feel we have mastered that. We create a spaceship in our film, we think we have mastered science fiction! It is so stupid. If the form is what is scaring you, then don’t change the form. I am talking about simple things in cinema. It is like if I have a cough and go to the hospital and see a patient in their fourth stage, suddenly the cough goes! That’s how I feel about cinema today. I don’t want to look after my lungs. What will I do by taking care of the lungs? I don’t want to live without cinema.
The other day I saw a documentary by Shonali Bose — A Fly on the Wall. She is struggling today to get people to hear about the film. A lot of festival people are in the same racket. How they select those films we don’t know. I don’t think festival films are all good films. Shonali’s film is a riveting thriller where she films her friend’s last 14 days before he chooses to die. As a friend, she is holding back her emotions and trying to film her friend as a filmmaker. He took the last 14 days of his life to mug up a poem by Robert Frost. He always regretted not being a good performer. On the last day, he takes the first liquid. He performs the poem and then takes the second liquid that will help him in the process. He gave his life to perform. I want all of you to watch this film.
What it is that we need to do for our cinema today other than just watching it? It is equal to climate change. The problem is as much as that. The weather is changing and cinema is dying. We need to change it. We have to make a bigger contribution to sustain cinema.
