Back in action

For the first time in recent years,the 11th Mumbai Film Festival presented three new NFDC movies — Seema Kapoor’s Haat,Laxmikant Shetgaonkar’s The Man Beyond The Bridge and Aijaz Khan’s The White Elephant — at a single venue. The ongoing 40th International Film Festival of India,Goa,is ready to repeat this. “We are progressing step by step. We are still in the process of restructuring the body. Since these three films were ready,we entered the festival and got selected,” says Nina Lath Gupta,managing director of the NFDC.

A cash-strapped NFDC experienced a slump in production during 2004-08. With Via Darjeeling (2008),it was back to funding interesting projects. The same year it produced Bioscope. This year has seen more films being made under its banner. Apart from the three films showcased at IFFI,Maaya Baazar and As the River Flows (Bidyut Katoky) are nearing completion. But the projects that will keep NFDC busy in the coming months are Pairotale,Manjunath,End of The Road and Akkaria — all under production.

“Earlier,NFDC used to make an average of eight films a year. We will take some time to return to that stage,” says Gupta. The agency has now adopted the concept of cooperative filmmaking. But,its policy of encouraging good cinema,especially regional films,has not changed. “The government fund is utilised mostly to promote regional films while our working capital supports the films in Hindi or English,” she adds. For example,Haat is set in Rajasthan; The Man Beyond The Bridge,which was honoured at this year’s Toronto Film Festival,is in Konkani; and the actions in The White Elephant take place in Kerala.

In the case of these films,the NFDC has been more than just a producer. “Haat being my first film,I was wary and expecting a lot of interference from the NFDC but there was hardly any. The NFDC showed complete faith in me. The financial arrangements were also excellent and I never ever had to think about money during and after the shooting,” Kapoor said. The account of Katoky,Khan and Shetgaonkar regarding NFDC’s role as a producer is not much different from hers.

Shetgaonkar says,“Though one needs to cope with the government way of functioning at times,the NFDC never comes in the way of a filmmaker’s creative freedom.” After his film won accolades,the NFDC is now taking care of its distribution and release. Many days after Katoky submitted his script,Jahnu Barua,who is on NFDC’s board,called the debutant director to discuss it. Other than this,NFDC has restricted its role strictly to that of a producer.

The scripts of almost all the NFDC-produced films have gone through an evaluation process. This could be the central agency’s secret behind flaunting remarkable films like Mirch Masala,Ek Din Achanak,Mammo,Kairee,Rudaali and Miss Beatty’s Children under its banner. Their annual Film Bazaar remains an ideal platform for discussing and improving scripts by talented filmmakers. “We accept direct submission. But a script undergoes an evaluation process,before getting a go-ahead,” says Gupta.

In the rapidly changing film industry,she feels NFDC needs to make its marketing moves carefully. But the focus,as always,will be on good cinema.