Ki cholchey, Tollywood?

In the same week that Aditya Vikram Senguptarsquos third movie Once Upon A Time in Calcutta was selected in the Orizzonti Horizons section of the 78th Venice International Film Festival journalist Rituparna Sengupta tweeted ldquoAre good Bengali films not being made or are they not being acquired by OTT platforms Because I see the same things on Netflix and Prime for months and monthsrdquoDespite Srijit Mukherjirsquos 2020 film Gumnaami earning a National Award recently and Sengupta wooing the international fans with his cinema itrsquos fair to say that Bengali cinema hasnrsquot managed to attract the attention of the OTT audience in India to the degree that Malyalam Tamil and Telugu movies haveAditya Vikram Sengupta whose film is winning accolades internationally feels Bengali content has what it needs to make it big on OTTWe pick Aditya Vikram Senguptarsquos brain for what the reason could bemdashcreative bankruptcy or an inability to connect with the masses He ponders a bit before answering ldquoAre we making good enough cinema Whether itrsquos a Malayalam or Telugu film at the end of the day the film speaks for itself If my film is at Venice itrsquos because the film fared well Herersquos my analogymdashan IIT degree can give us a head start but after that it boils down to the person to succeed professionally There are no frills needed for a film to work other than that it has to be a good filmrdquo He is speaking from experience Senguptarsquos debut film Labour of Love won the FEDEORA award for the best debut at the Festivalrsquos Venice Days section in 2014 and was subsequently acquired by Amazon Prime Video ldquoFilm distribution was the easiest part of my job Inox gave us a big release and it ran full house for eight weeks Abhay Deol distributed the film and eventually it went to Prime The next film Jonaki got picked up by Netflix It got picked up two years after its release and they said they chose it because they really liked itrdquoThat said Sengupta has consciously followed a different monetary model for his films which doesnrsquot involve working with traditional production houses of the industry ldquoMy language of work is Bengali but I donrsquot work in the Bengali film industry Shooting in Calcutta comes with its challenges I have realised filmmaking is not just about the money but collaborating with someone who shares your creative vision Say SVF Shree Venkatesh Films wants to give the money but what they wish to do with a film is very different from the process I would like to followrdquoA still from Senguptarsquos Labour of Love which is available on Amazon Prime VideoA fair chunk of films in the Bengali industry are helmed by SVF one of the industryrsquos biggest producers and distributors who also control and maintain Hoichoi an exclusive app for Bengali content that has both originals and acquisitions This say some has created the classic market monopoly problem But Shiboprosad Mukherjee a wellknown filmmaker from Bengal says that this is not quite the hindrance ldquoSVF are solid producers distributors have their own theatrical chain and OTT platform so a large number of films made go straight to their platform In Bengali films satellite and digital rights are bought in combination That is the industry model We as producers will sell to whoever gives us the best deal I donrsquot feel our content lacks the sting to make it big The Malayalam industry is buying rights to my films too My film Kantho is being remade in Malayalam Viacom has bought my films Belasheshe and Posto which is only possible because the films have fared well commercially and have piqued audience interest Most of my films are on Hotstar and the rest are on Hoichoi What we probably suffer from is a slack attitude when it comes to wider publicity None of us are actively seeking the Hindi film audience or fame The more regional you are the more global you will berdquoThankfully Anindo Banerjee head of originals at Hoichoi has a less lofty approach to the challenge He says that what is viewed as market monopoly is a culturally symbiotic equation ldquoSVF has been in the business for 25 years and culturally cinema in Bengal is synonymous with SVF As far as our app is concerned it is created for the diaspora and enjoys great reach both locally and internationally But we are now trying to reach the nonBengali diaspora and have elaborate plans to achieve thisrdquoSrijit Mukherji whose Gumnaami has won him two National Awards looks at it slightly differently ldquoIf we give content to OTT players they will market it well But we as filmmakers need to deliver genrebending clutterbreaking movies which can capture audience attention across 170 countries Malayalam films are going through a renaissance where a lot of great filmmakers are making one brilliant film after the other Thatrsquos not happening in Bengali cinema for sure The Malayalam new wave has people addicted right now Actors like Fahadh Faasil Parvathy are creating a following which is hard to replicaterdquo he says Mukherji fresh after wrapping up Netflix anthology Ray is now helming Shabaash Mithu a biopic on star woman cricketer Mithali Raj starring Taapsee Pannu ldquoBengali films are doing well in festivals and on the awards circuit But itrsquos true that OTT platforms donrsquot acquire a lot of Bengali films Both Gumnaami and Vinci Da did brilliantly on Amazon Prime In fact after the Amazon release of Vinci Da I was able to sell the rights in Tamil Telugu Hindi and Malayalam But overall there are lesser Bengali movies on OTT platforms and perhaps it has to do with the price they offer which is prohibitive Hoichoi mops up all Bengali releases and its reach is great in the diaspora but not enough outside it Gumnaamirsquos success is also an aberration I think the OTT players are waiting for us to prove our universal appeal before investing in the Bengali film marketrdquoSrijit MukherjiWhile Netflix India and Amazon Prime Video declined to comment officially a member from the acquisition team of the latter told midday ldquoThe platform doesnrsquot have a strong presence in Bengali In terms of demography Bengal is not a strong point for the platform We are still making plans to scale uprdquoAnother official at Hotstar however says that over the last year they have seen a marked rise in viewing of Bengali films on the platform ldquoWe have good preexisting relations with wellknown makers from the region We will be investing more actively in Bengali content over the days to come Over and above that the television serials in Bengali have been widely viewed by people from the diaspora over the last few months since lockdown Internet viewing has gathered strengthrdquoShiboprosad MukherjeeBengali superstar Jisshu Sengupta who starred in Shakuntala Devi Thalaivi and Antim and acts across Bengali Hindi and Telugu films says itrsquos a misconception that people donrsquot watch Bengali cinema ldquoRight now the Bengali film market is still healing from the pandemic The last two years have hit us hard and market players like Amazon Netflix and Hotstar are not coming up with enough content for this language I think a lack of interest is creating a lack of output We as artistes need to push our boundaries which artistes like Paoli Dam Swastika Mukherjee Parambrata Chattopadhyay and I are trying to do But wanting to watch Bengali content is eventually the audiencersquos callrdquo