Suman Ghosh’s film The Scavenger of Dreams visually captures the day-to-day lives of a community of garbage collectors. Focusing on the story of Birju and Shona, played captivatingly by Shardul Bhardwaj and Sudipta Chakraborty, Ghosh draws in the audience as a witness to their struggle, challenges and dreams.

After doing the rounds of international and national film festivals, the much-acclaimed film arrives in Calcutta for a theatrical screening. In a t2 chat, Ghosh talks about the challenges of making independent arthouse films, the choice of the screening format and more, ahead of their next screening on November 19 at Cinepolis in Acropolis Mall.

The Scavenger of Dreams finally comes to Calcutta for a theatrical release but is being screened weekly instead of a regular theatrical release…

I made The Scavenger of Dreams with a lot of passion. I co-produced it along with CFP Films. The film went to top film festivals all over the world— Busan, Sao Paulo, MAMI, Indo-German Film Week, NYIFF and a host of others. It was then that Reborn India Film came onto the scene. They had heard about the film from international film festivals and wanted to do special screenings all over the country. The idea was then to release it in a small way after the screenings. So, these screenings are a part of that process. I liked their business model of holding screenings once a week since in any case, general releases do not work for such films. I have been to the screenings of genuinely good films like Three of Us and others where the halls were empty. For the theatres, Tuesday is a downer for even big releases and hence they can accommodate one show easily.

The last Calcutta screening of the film, earlier this month, was a houseful one. What kind of response did you get from the other screenings? Is this format of screening working in favour of a film like this?

Our screenings in Mumbai and Calcutta were pretty full. So, it is a win-win scenario for all parties. That way we can concentrate on audiences in one day (publicising on social media) so that we are not left with empty theatres the rest of the week. The screenings so far gave us encouragement and next, we will have another screening in Calcutta followed by Delhi and Bangalore.

Despite getting worldwide praise, what is the major challenge that such independent arthouse films are facing?

Arthouse films all over the world get government support. In India, NFDC was instrumental in producing many of the films, including films by Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Goutam Ghose, Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Girish Kasaravalli among others, which now form an integral part of the history of Indian cinema. Whether the question of making such films on government money or subsidy is justified is a larger issue, but the fact remains that Indian arthouse cinema is largely market-driven now. That in turn implies that one has to raise money for such films from the market and recover that money from the market, where the demand for such movies is limited.

So, business-wise, is the situation quite bleak for such films?

To be honest, I have also pondered on whether from a business point of view, it makes sense to make arthouse cinema any more. This applies not only to Bengal but all over India. There is hardly any source of recovery from films which have even been to many important international film festivals. So, given no government support and no distribution for such films, it is basically a no-return venture.

What is the way forward for filmmakers to keep telling such stories?

Many such serious filmmakers leave making films and many struggle to make a film in five-six years. I have thought about this problem a lot since over the years I have made films which would be termed arthouse films — Shyamal Uncle Turns Off the Lights, Peace Haven, Searching for Happiness… and now The Scavenger of Dreams. This, of course, I have tried to balance with my more commercial fare which includes a huge cast and a much bigger budget such as Nobel Chor, Kadambari, Basu Paribar, Kabuliwala and Puratawn.

What is the role of OTT in such a situation?

I had thought of going directly for an OTT release but I really wanted some form of theatrical release because I believe it is a large-screen experience. OTT platforms used to acquire such films occasionally— Shyamal Uncle... was picked by Amazon Prime, Searching for Happiness by Hoichoi and Peace Haven by Netflix, but increasingly, the OTT platforms are not interested in such films. Moreover, they want a theatrical release for acquisition.