Biswapati Sarkar: Panchayat was rejected by a focus group I Exclusive

Biswapati Sarkar was among the founders of TVF before he quit the team and founded Posham Pa Pictures In an interview years ago Sarkar mentioned that Bollywood is not relatable to the youth When this writer met Sarkar after a panel discussion on current trends in the Indian film industry organsied by the Screenwriters Association SWA we reminded him of his previous statement of Bollywood and relatability Sarkar has been associated with projects like TVF Pitchers Permanent Roommates Jaadugar Kaala Paani and Maamla Legal Hai among others Hindi cinema losing cultural coolnessThis is a good point to mention Sarkar states before explaining his point with his experience in changing viewing habits Around the year 201819 he observed that he was watching more of Malayalam and Tamil language films I realized that this trend is happening more and more I watch very few Hindi films unless somebody recommends them Laapataa Ladies came recommended so Ive seen it Otherwise even if I click on something probably after 20 minutes Ill stop itrdquoHe feels that it is the relatable characters of Tamil and Malayalam films that attracts him to those stories ldquoIm not talking about the big budget films but normal decent budget or mid budget or low budget films I feel the characters are around me like these are people I know While the Hindi films characters feel like the characters of other preexisting Hindi films This is why in 201819 you would have seen the midbudget small town template But even in that only 45 films were good Eventually then all those films started becoming templates for each otherrdquoSarkar goes on to give examples of range of characters played by star actors like Fahadh Faasil Raj Shetty and Mammotty down south and the acceptance of audience that encourages filmmakers to experiment with majors stars as the face However that has not been a successful formula for Hindi cinema I feel Hindi audience are yet to accept those kind of filmsrdquo he mullsBiswapati SarkarIn the past year midbudget films like Laapataa Ladies 12th Fail have been the talk of the town over bigbudget multistarrers Clearly there is some cultural coolness of Hindi films that we are losing So if Laapaata Ladies is being talked about more than the bigbudget films then clearly something is going wrong in terms of storytellingBut how can we talk about relatability factor and not mention the film Fighter After the release of the Hrithik Roshan starrer director Siddharth Anands statement on the films relatability had gone viral He had said that most people have not sat in a flight and hence could not relate to the film The comment became a template for memes It was a little of context says Sarkar who was the cowriter of the filmSarkar adds that a film need not be relatable to connect with the audience I feel like I would love to make a Jurassic Park Relatability is not necessary but I think in terms of relatability the emotion needs to be relatable Jurassic Park is about wonder The characters react exactly how I would react if I had a dinosaur with merdquo he said adding that the relatability fact has to be with the motion rather than plot and its locationFocus groups and predictabilityThe past year has surely surprised filmmaker and trade analysts with the kind of films that worked and those that did not During the panel discussion Sakar revealed that Panchayat was dismissed by a focus group who said that the series would not work with the audience However Panchayat turned out to be a hit with the audience and the third season of the show recently hit the streaming platform and registered yet another successful seasonldquoThis is one focus group which I had seen live The screening of the pilot episode had happened in front of me Even with Panchayat Amazon released it as an exclusive When it became popular Amazon released it as their original he said sharing that no one can exactly predict how a project will work outWhen asked if he is a better understanding of what will work and what will not Sarkar shares A lot of times its just instinct Veterans of the industry can see a film and nine times out of ten they can guess whether this will work or not work Sometimes theyre also surprised But theyre also surprised in terms of the volume A good film will do good business but maybe earlier it was raking in 70 cr and now it is doing 50 crPosham Pa pictures visionBiswapati Sarkar is now focusing on exploring different genres through their production house Posham Pa pictures Sharing his vision for the production house he says that it will be nothing like TVF The idea is to be small and support good progressive stories We want to explore all of genres I think with age you all change as storytellers We no longer have fun in the college level shows and content Weve also become different people So the plan is to explore a few mature themes talking about the world that we live in