West Zooms in on Young NRIDirectors

Chopra andhiscontemporariesrepresent the upcoming breed of new filmmakers who do not shy from experimenting with new themes and new techniques in their movies.

Indian-American filmmakers are cropping up all over the place in New York, Chicago, Texas and Los Angeles. From full-time pro-fessionals to hobbyists, they are all pursuing filmmaking and, in the process, bringing a new approach to movies. “We are hearing fresh voices through our films,” says Prashant Bhargava, writer-director of a short film, Sangam, which opened to critical ac-claim in 2004andwasscreened at30filmfes-tivals around the world. “These movies are talking about the world in a way that makes sense of the world around you,” he says.

While many have gone to filmmaking schools, there are others like Bhargava, 33, who graduated to full-length films after dab-bling in commercials and TV shorts. Bhar-gava, acomputer sciencegraduatefromCor-nell University, decided to jump careers after finding that working on computers and churning out visuals was not giving him the kind of creative satisfaction he would get from being behind a camera.

Sharat Raju, 29, currently working on a screenplayforhisfirstfull-lengthfeaturefilm, agrees. “Writing is personal and solitary. Di- rectingisaboutsomuchmoreteamworkand communications,” he says. Raju’sfirstmovie, a25-minuteshort filmcalledAmericanMade, won17awardsattheTribeca, AspenandSan Diegofilmfestivals.

Thenewfilmmakers, mostofthem intheir midorlate20s, arejustfreshfromfilmschool andhaveneitherthenamenortrackrecordto attract big investments. Unlike their UK or Canadian counterparts who get substantial government help in financing low-budget films, mostfilmsproducedbyIndian-Ameri-cansintheUSareprivately funded.Inalmost allthecases, thefilmmakersfallbackontheF-factor— familyandfriends.

Jaideep Punjabi, independent producer and strategic advisor of Khushi Films, feels that getting the money is the hardest part of filmmaking. “Thereisalot oftalentoutthere, but what is needed is some company to come and bankroll these films,” he adds. On the one hand are the established film-makers who get big bucks from big studios. On the other hand are players like Bhargava and Raju who have to make the necessary rounds to garner support for their efforts.

“There are a thousand ways to get to Rome,” says Keshni Kashyap, 30, about the scramble for getting funds once a script is in place. Af-ter making three films, Hole, Good Stuff and Waxing Poetic, she is currently working on a full-length comedy feature and trying to raisemoney. Forhisfirst film,Chopratriedto raise money by selling samosason the street.

While doing the rounds of production houses is de rigeur, networking while at film school has its own advantages. Sharat Raju worked as an assistant to Hollywood casting director Mali Sinn on movies such as Matrix, High Crimeand8Mile, beforeventuringoutto make his first film American Made. Kashyap workedwith acclaimeddirectorWayneWang for a year in Los Angeles.

However, film schools only get these di-rectors access to studios, not necessarily au-diences. As a result, most of them rely on film festivals which cater to South Asian movies. Thesebecome theirnetworkinggroundsand very often the places to find financiers and distributors. “Movies are such a big project that out of necessity it helps to know a lot of people,” says Raju.

With stringy budgets, the emphasis is on keeping costs low. Chopra used first-time ac-tors, most of them teenagers from Elmhurst School in New York, for his Punching at the Sun. Bhargava’s first film, Sangam, was made with a budget of $75,000 which he raised himself through design work on title se-quences for films made forTV channels.

The lack of funding and other teething problems have not deterred these directors and writers from experimenting with new themes. They are not churning out old stereotypes butareportrayingcontemporary people in contemporary settings, with mod-ern- day concerns. Chopra’s film is about the pain a teenager feels when an older brother is murdered. Bhargava’s Sangam deals with the struggle to maintain faith while trying to pursue the‘American Dr’eam’.

“Asnewfilmmakersmature, theywillhave to deal with themes of universal sensibility told through an Indian story,” says Bhargava. The fate of the much-awaited Mira Nair film, The Namesake, will mean a lot to these first-time filmdirectors. Ifitdoeswell, itwillgivea boost to their careers as well. But if the film is panned by critics, some of these directors could find themselves “punching at the sun”… in frustration.