First Cut

Small budgets, tight schedules, new ideas, distinct styles and no stars. The usual suspects: a clan of young directors you never heard of until they burst in with their first film. A cluster with serious determination to make it and individuality tattooed onto their skin.

Happiness was high on 37-year-old8217;s Sujoy Ghosh8217;s list as well when he made Jhankaar Beats. Sujoy laid one rule on his sets8212;anyone who got angry had to pay a fine. Tigmanshu Dhulia 36 scraped Rs 4-5 lakhs to shoot his first schedule of Haasil8212;its climax8212;at the Allahabad Kumbh Mela. He then waited for funds to complete the rest of it. And Parvati Balagopalan8217;s 32 shiny, happy unit drove through three states looking for a patch of serious snow to film Milind Soman and Meera Vasudevan8217;s liplock in Rules: Pyaar Ka Superhit Formula.

So where are the giant fans and generators whirring, with dolled-up stars perfecting one line for 25 takes? Has Bollywood tilted on a super-efficient keel?

Take Prawaal Raman 27, who directed Darna Mana Hai DMH. Holidays are boring, so his second film Gayab8217;s schedule was ready even before the star-laden DMH released. This one too is bizarre8212;Tusshar Kapoor plays an invisible man in love with Antara Mali. In a small apartment near Dadar8217;s Kirti College, Prawaal and his young crew endlessly discuss a mirror shot; more like a college group considering their science project. Prawaal only caters to his company, Varma Corporation, and himself. The way he sees it, there8217;s always an audience tired of the 8220;marriage video with the chacha and the chachi8221;.

Maybe, it8217;s the result of a bad 2002, where few films worked. When the formula and the big stars tanked, financiers peered at carefully worked out schedules from first-timers. Being young helped, as Shona puts it, 8220;you take more chances. At 16, you ride at 250 miles per hour8221;. It no longer mattered whether you came from a film family. You could be a marketing executive, editor, assistant director, failed actor, television director or an ad film-maker. Got a story to tell that8217;s a little hatke, within Rs 5 crore and in under two months? You8217;re on.

These relative unknowns are creating a parallel universe in the film industry. Former marketing executive Sujoy kicked it off. 8220;I had no initiation in cinema. But if you want something desperately enough, you can do it. All you have to do is run with it when you see an opportunity,8221; he says.

So like Rishi8217;s spluttering car that popped before rumbling on, Sujoy8217;s Jhankaar Beats picked up speed steadily. It didn8217;t matter that one couple conversed only in English, condoms were strewn or that the client was a nose digger8212;all in a Hindi film. Audiences came out with a big smile on their faces.

Apoorva Lakhia8217;s debut Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost came under a barrage of insults for its Lagaan hangover. But viewers initially enjoyed the idea of a television remote-controlling villagers into slow motion. 8220;It8217;s so much more difficult to make the first film when you8217;re an outsider,8221; says Apoorva 33, 8220;You are written off so easily.8221; Despite his tattoos and Superman T-shirts, Lakhia roped in his mother for costumes and his aunt to create MSAMD8217;s village.

For the Varma Corporation guys, the first film budget was earned through the projects they worked as assistant director or editor. Shona8217;s mother Jaishree Makhija and uncle Gul Anand producer of Khatta Meeta and Chashme Badoor produced her small love story. But for some first-timers, money was put up after struggle. Sujoy, Tigmanshu and Apoorva went through the producer drill, before they found PNC, Karma Networks and Rubberband Films, respectively.

The attraction of the small film is that film-makers hope to break even, and, in the case of Jhankaar Beats and Darna Mana Hai, make a small profit. 8220;These films are mostly disasters on the theatre circuit, but money is recovered in the satellite, DVD and NRI business. Satellite rights can get you anything between Rs 25-75 lakh,8221; says Amod Mehra of Entertainment Business Network Ltd.

Tigmanshu can8217;t speak for others, but he8217;s certain he can8217;t make an LoC with 22-odd stars. 8220;I8217;m not a new gen director, I love masala. But I can make three films in that money because of my television background,8221; says the man who caught raw campus politics in the critically-acclaimed Haasil.

In contrast, Parvati is part of e_motion pictures with Milind and Deepa Sahi, that produced Rules with Nirja Shah. Milind first played hero for her in Zee TV8217;s Margarita. 8220;We had another idea of a romantic comedy about marriage. But Rules presented a more controlled budget and exciting idea.8221; The film is a conventional love story, but her cast and crew were full of first-timers. Parvati also placed the five formulas 8216;ignore the man8217; is her favourite in an a quirky pop-up manner.

The fresh look shows and helps. You can see where it comes from when you chat with them8212;none of these directors are conventional. Some are uncomfortable being pinned down to interviews, slotted and shy of being photographed. Prawaal loathes being part of a 8220;celebration of mediocrity. My life isn8217;t a film. It8217;s just a job.8221; Even if it is full of glamour? 8220;I8217;m only changing the taste buds of the audience. I8217;ve been cooking up stories since childhood.8221;

Varma Corporation8217;s other director Chandan Arora 31 is more sanguine. Seated in an office furnished only with three chairs and a table, he readies for the release of Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon.

Chandan edited film after film Mast, Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya, Jungle, Company and Road for Ram Gopal Varma. But the editor still waited for a new idea. He got it in Chutki, the village girl obsessed with Madhuri who comes to the city of dreams with the sarpanch8217;s son. 8220;We8217;re not comparing Chutki Antara Mali to Madhuri,8221; says Chandan, who actually interviewed the star twice during his Star TV stint. 8220;MMDBCH is a real picture of people who come to Mumbai with dreams.8221;

While Shona and Parvati are recovering from all the labour now 8220;nine months of sleep deprivation,8221; says Parvati, the rest are moving onto second films. Sujoy8217;s new thriller Borivli is planned with two senior stars, while Apoorva is making an urban film about four middle class guys for AB Corp.

Since violence excites him, Tigmanshu has completed almost 60 per cent of his second film Charas, one he describes as a 8220;popcorn, buddy movie on drug trafficking8221;. Like Prawaal, he will probably have another release early next year.

But even if everyone is quick to call this the New Wave8212;modelled on the French period when film critics turned directors8212;it8217;s rather too soon to do that. After all, as Chandan says, 8220;Bollywood has been evolving through time. You can8217;t call those old Amol Palekar films and Chupke Chupke parallel cinema. But the nice thing is we8217;re having a good time working in film. Even for a light man, no two days of shooting are the same.8221;

Ah yes, another thing that first-timers share. Passion.