Time to get original

The Kannada film industry has had its ups and downs in the last few years. The industry has given only a couple of hits but most people, who work in this industry, believe that the films flop because they don’t have theme-based stories. The number of flops have outnumbered the hits.

There are diverse opinions on why the Kannada film industry is not doing as well as it should be. Many say that the directors and actors must get their priorities right, others point out that producers are reluctant to invest in a debut director’s film, for fear of incurring losses.

There is yet another opinion that the script and direction don’t match people’s expectation because of which the audience fail to relate to the movie.

 Metrolife interacted with Kannada directors, producers and viewers to find out where the Kannada film industry has gone wrong.

Producer K Manju feels that the script must be strong and new talent must be promoted.

He says, “Encouragement should be given to new script writers. Directors must not only promote established actors and actresses but give an opportunity to newcomers as well.
The directors must hand-pick professional actors who have had an experience in theatre and also those who have love for cinema. The producers invest a lot of money to make a film. They set apart close to Rs 50 lakh or more only for promotional activities.” 
 
However, there are people who feel that the making and marketing of Kannada films need to be tightened. Director Abhay Simha points out that Tamil and Telugu movies are promoted across the country and overseas as well, but this is not the case with the Kannada films.

He says, “Movies belonging to other film industries are promoted overseas. But the producers of Kannada films lack the budget to make a film, so where is the question of pooling in money to promote a film. Hence, it is not possible for the films to be promoted overseas.”

Of the 135 Kannada films released in 2010, only six went on to become hits. And this year, about 93 movies have released so far, of which only ten movies have done well. K Manju adds, “Remakes in Kannada don’t flop all the time. The director must know the art of modifying and adapting the film and give it a local flavour. But producers always try to encourage original scripts.” Contradicting Manju’s opinion, Abhay Simha adds, “Most of Kannada movies today are remakes. The audience, which  has already watched the original movie, would not like to watch remakes.”

People feel that it’s time for the Kannada film industry to churn out some original scripts. They feel that a film needn’t always have a super hero to do well, a good story could make all the difference.Vandana M, an employee with a software company says, “A film can be a superhit even without a well-known hero, like for instance Mungaru Male. In fact, even non-Kannadigas are aware of this movie and the actors in it. It takes a good story to click among the people.”