'Kantara' star Rishabh Shetty says he believes in concept of "All-Indian" movies

Swati Bhat from IFFI Campus

On Thursday, Rishabh attended an interactive session at the 53rd International Film Festival of India.

From talking about 'Kantara' success to how he entered into film industry and concept of pan-Indian films, the actor-director talked about several topics during the session. According to Rishabh, films today are crossing the language barrier. He added that Indian cinema is presented in different languages and if the content connects with audience, the movie will be accepted as an All-Indian movie. He said that he believed in the mantra if a movie is more local and rooted, then it has a greater universal appeal.

He stated that the regional cinemas in the late 90s had influence of western movies. However, today they are incorporating local culture and diversity has given them the much-needed vibrancy and vividity which has been accepted by audience. To support his views, he added that people across India have accepted Kantara despite the language barrier, this is because the audience could connect well with the content.

Helmed by Rishab, 'Kantara' was released on September 30 and got a massive response from the audience for its storyline and amazing visuals. Set in the fictional village of Dakshina Kannada, Kantara follows the character of Rishabh, who is playing a Kambala champion, who has a faceoff with an upright Forest Range officer.

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'The Bihar pavilion' at the 53rd IFFI NFDC Film Bazaar

The Bihar pavilion at the 53rd IFFI has called out the budding filmmakers to explore the historical, archaeological, cultural and natural heritage of the land of Buddha and Mahavira.

Swati Bhat

This year at IFFI, as an initiative, several state governments have installed their pavilion at the Film Bazaar to promote film-making industry in the states. States such as Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Puducherry have installed their respective pavilions.

Shri. Anurag Singh Thakur, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting had visited the Bihar pavilion at the inauguration.

Earlier, renowned actor Mr. Pankaj Tripathi who inaugurated the Pavilion of Bihar, was delighted to see his home state being represented at IFFI. He said that the state has immense film-making potential which needs to be harnessed.

Smt. Bandana Preyashi, a Bihar government official said, the state government has taken several initiatives to attract film-makers for shootings in Bihar. She talked about the improved security scenario and availability of rapid connectivity and robust infrastructure.

A state government official present at the ‘Explore Bihar’ pavilion said that there is the need to break the stereotype of Bihar as a poverty-stricken state. Actually, the infrastructure of Bihar has grown by manifold in terms of rail, road or air connectivity and other forms of infrastructure. ‘Explore Bihar’ pavilion highlights the fact that several renowned actors, directors, technicians of mainstream film industry have their origin in Bihar.

It is expected that the accomplished film-makers, actors who have migrated from Bihar and established themselves in mainstream Bollywood industry or other regional film industry shall be inspired to return to their homeland and contribute in establishment of robust film-making industry.

The pavilion highlights cultural, natural and archaeological wonders such as Sonepur cattle fair which is the largest cattle fair of Asia and the Harmandir Takht Shri Patna Sahib which is one of the holiest pilgrimages for the Sikh community.

The pavilion also highlights the heritage of film-making in Bihar. Some of the most iconic scenes in Richard Attenborough’s Oscar-winning ‘Gandhi’ were filmed at the centuries-old Patna Collectorate.

The iconic song ‘O Mere Raja’ from the movie ‘Johny Mera Naam (1970)’ was shot at various spots of Rajgir.

‘Manjhi -the Mountain Man (2015)’, the critically acclaimed Hindi language biographical film is based on Dasarath Manjhi who was a poor labourer from Gaya, Bihar.

Several scenes of ‘India’s Most Wanted’ have been shot in Patna, it is a 2019 Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Raj Kumar Gupta, and starring Arjun Kapoor.

Recently, a film titled ‘Grinding Humanity’ has been entirely shot in Bihar. ‘Grinding Humanity’ is a 2022 Hindi-language film directed by Ruchin Veena Chainpuri.

The department of Art, Culture and Youth of the Government of Bihar would soon publish the Bihar State Filmmaking policy. The policy, among other things, would include a ‘Single Window Clearance mechanism’ which would help the film-makers to get different permits in little time.

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IFFI 53 witnesses Masterclass on Gender Participation in Hindi Cinema

Low Presence of women in creative decision making of films: Prof Lakshmi Lingam. Presence of women on movie sets automatically changes the behaviour of men: Pushan Kripalani. Bringing about gender rights has to do with carrying out conversations & putting out guidelines to follow: Rashmi Lamba. Representation is very important for power structures to change: Prof Shilpa Phadke

Swati Bhat from IFFI Campus

A Masterclass on Gender Participation in Hindi Cinema was held at the ongoing 53rd International Film Festival of India along with Tata Institute of Social Sciences today in Panaji, Goa wherein a presentation on “Breaking the Screen Ceiling: Gender and Work in Hindi Cinema” was held. Key insights from a quantitative research study on gender and work both on and off screen in Hindi cinema were presented during the masterclass. A total of 1930 characters from 35 films were analysed for their gender representation on screen, types of roles played by characters in various genders, their occupations and other parameters. The study also explored the most popular departments of film making for women crew members, the levels at which they work and the share of women winning film awards.

The panel comprised of Prof Lakshmi Lingam, Prof Shilpa Phadke and Ms. Rashmi Lamba from the TISS research team, National award winning film critic Ms. Meenakshi Shedde, and noted filmmaker Mr. Pushan Kripalani. The panellists shared their reflections on the topic ‘Gender Participation in Hindi Cinema’ and the findings of the study were shared and discussed. They panellists also deliberated on the steps that can be taken to productively respond to the lack of gender diversity within the Hindi cinema ecosystem and increase overall participation of women. Two short AVs/public service announcements, made by the students of TISS, were also screened and widely appreciated by the keen audience. One dealt with lack of bathroom facilities for women on the film sets and the other critiqued the beauty stereotypes perpetuated by cinema.

Prof Lakshmi Lingam, Dean of School for media and cultural studies while making her presentation stated that “Women are mostly present in the post production phase while their presence is comparatively low in creative decision making process. She highlighted the fact that the nation has had only 4 women Union Ministers of Information and Broadcasting in the last 75 years, only 4 female chairpersons of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in last 72 years and only 29% female board members in the last 13 years”. She further added that according to the study, professions of men and women are also stereotyped. She said “Purpose of the study is to initiate a conversation with the industry. A lot needs to be done to bring equality. Many films show that intimacy gets initiated only by men and it has no idea of consent, it shows illegal ways being used by actors to get consent which send the wrong message to society”. She further added that post ‘Nirbhaya’ lot of legislations have changed and a big shift has happened and films need to acknowledge these big shifts.

Mr. Pushan Kripalani, noted Director of film GoldFish, talked about the increasing percentage of women on his sets being a happy accident and how the presence of women on the sets has changed the behaviour of men in a positive way. He said “when we are communicating with the film crew we use a lot of words as punctuation and it has become the lexicon of communication. Swearing on the sets become part of the game and it shows camaraderie in a way but with women of the sets, this changes”. He also said they arranged creche for Kalki’s child. Talking about the misogyny in the industry, Mr. Kripalani remarked that “Every room I walked in as a cinematographer was drenched with misogyny and I didn’t want to be a part of it and that’s why I chose Independent cinema”.

Prof Shilpa Phadke, co-author of book ‘Why Loiter’ and co-director of the documentary film ‘Under the Open Sky’, highlighted the declining participation of women in workforce in spite of having high literacy rate. She said “Representation is very important for power structures to change. Just having them there will make a huge difference. Even in public space, women make other people more comfortable.”

Ms Rashmi Lamba, talked about the importance of providing woman role models in movies. She said “Why I volunteer with Geena Davis Institute is because I believe in her mantra that if you can see it, you can be it”. She said that she is truly inspired by that. The institute is studying gender equality and stereotyping of masculinity which also leads to stereotyping of women roles. Ms. Lamba further added that “In US, by using data, they have found that they have achieved gender neutrality with family films because people can identify with all the characters and our study will also help in making such changes in India”. She exhorted that “bringing about gender rights has to do with carrying out conversations and putting out guidelines to follow. Young professions should look at these concerns including cinematic language of the camera which is sexist”.

Ms. Meenakshi Shedde, who is winner of the national film award for Best Film Critic, talked about the actress assault case in Kerala. She mentioned that the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) was spontaneously formed to support the survivor and fight for womens’ rights to a safe working environment in the film industry. But many in Kerala film bodies and mainstream Kerala film industry punished the WCC members by not giving them roles, isolating, shaming and trolling them.

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