The Professional Edge

Gaffers
Mulchand Dedhia is no less than a legend in Bollywood. After all he is the only professional gaffer Bollywood has had for years. He laughs as he reminisces,“Gaffers,internationally,go on to become director of photography. But here they were treated as camera assistants.” Dedhia has worked for Merchant Ivory Productions and several other international projects before he started working with Excel Entertainment. Today,his daughter 24-year-old Hetal,has joined the profession alongside the likes of Gopal N (Sarkar,Sarkar Raj,Rann),Narender Khanna (Omkara,Kaminey) and Rishi Umrania (Hide & Seek).

Casting director
The job of a casting director was first recognised in India when filmmaker Danny Boyle gave Loveleen Tandon her due credit. Filmmakers like Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra have been using casting agents for years. However,it is now when scripts are driven by characters rather than stars that filmmakers are realising the importance of having a casting agent on board. “A producer or director may not have the knowledge required for this job. A casting director can search the country for the right cast,” feels Mehra. Honey Trehan,the casting director for Kaminey,says the first Indian film to give a casting credit was Bandit Queen. The casting director for the Shekhar Kapoor film was Tigmanshu Dhulia. “The films in the mid-1990s era of David Dhawan and Suneel Darshan were made with only ‘stars’ in them. But with Bollywood turning more professional,film-makers today appreciate new actors with small but significant roles,” adds Trehan. As Dhulia readies for his directorial debut with Paan Singh Tomar,a new generation of casting directors is taking over—P S Bharthi (Rang De Basanti and Delhi-6),Atul Mongia (LSD),Gautam Kishanchandani (Black Friday,No One Killed Jessica),Nandini Srikent (Wake Up Sid,Rock On!!) to name a few.

Line producer
The advertising world has line-producers for years now as have international productions being shot in India. However,this profile in Bollywood used to be mixed up with that of an executive producer till recently. “Internationally,executive producers are active on the creative and business front of filmmaking. The line producers instead,are supposed to be in charge of managing the physical shoot and the entire set,” explains Priya Sreedharan,the producer of Dibakar Banerjee’s Freshwater Films. “Since Dibakar comes from the advertising background,he understands the difference. But it is only the new set of filmmakers who are exploiting this profile and the profession is yet to grow,” she adds. Like the new wave of content,filmmakers like Farhan Akhtar,Anurag Kashyap,Rajat Kapoor and recently Anurag Basu for Kites,lead the way here too.

Bond agents
This brand new profile was introduced to India nearly two years ago. Internationally,bond agents are a third party police between the financier and the producer of a film. “If the party financing a film is not from film business,they need to ensure that their money is being spent wisely. We do that for them through monitoring and periodic reports. If we anticipate a problem,we talk and suggest corrective measures to the creative team,” says Bobby Bedi,the MD of Film Completion Services Ltd,the only bond agency currently active in India other than the specialised division at IDBI Financial Services. Although,bond agents took a hit during the recession,of late,things have been looking up for them. “We have more international projects right now. But till two years ago,we were working with Reliance Big Pictures,Adlabs and Ram Gopal Varma regularly. Over the next four years,we will be doing business to the tune of Rs 300 crore and Bollywood will contribute considerably to the number.”