Film Industry: Indie filmmakers join hands! File a joint petition in support of new wave Indie cinema, insisting that their films are often sidelined

Indie filmmakers join hands! File a joint petition in support of new wave Indie cinema, insisting that their films are often sidelined

Indie filmmakers join hands!

File a joint petition in support of new wave Indie cinema, insisting that their films are often sidelined

Several National Award winning and other well-known filmmakers including Aparna Sen, Onir, Ashutosh Gowariker, Buddhadev Das Gupta, Goutam Ghosh, Jahnu Barua and Nila Madav Panda as well as Oscar-winning sound engineer Resul Pookutty have united to jointly file a petition to the I&B ministry in support of the Indie cinema in India. The Indie Cinema Petition (ICP) adresses issues like high ticket pricing, feeling sidelined by multiplexes for big ticketfilms, censorship, and even air time on the small screen. But besides addressing their grieveances, the ICP also has suggestions made by them to rectify the scenario. Some of these suggestions include: 9 pm slots for U/A rated films on DD and satellite, while asking for a 11 pm slot for A rated films. They also demanded that all National Award films, irrespective of language, be given at least one prime time screening.
“Big budget films with really regressive and sexist elements get away in the name of entertainment. While any serious discussion is treated as negative. We seriously need to look at what really is regressive and what actually is throttling art in the name of morality,” reads a point made in the the IPC. “Among the various challenges that we face as Indie film makers, the biggest is that of exhibition. The multiplexes which were given tax benefits to promote small-budget content film have in fact been instrumental in destroying small cinema by only playing the box office game. High ticket pricing that is inappropriate for small- budget films, less number of shows and odd show timings further destroy the possibility of Indie cinema (regional and Hindi) to have any proper chance at being viewed. It makes no sense that a ` 150 crore film and a ` 1.5 crore film are priced by the multiplexes in the same manner,” it further states.