<p>Did you kn</p>.<p>ow that a top heroine in the Ladakhi film industry gets paid Rs 15,000 for a film? This is what Stanzin, the lead actress got for her latest romantic flick Las-Del. For the past seven years, the Ladakhi film industry has done just 27 films. <br /><br />All this information is contained in a documentary named Out of thin air directed by two young girls Shabani Hassanwalia and Samreen Farooqui. It is the story of the local film movement in Ladakh, which took strong roots over the last seven years and has indeed become the voice of the people. <br /><br />Today, taxi drivers, grocery store owners, cops and monks have turned producers, directors, camera persons and actors in one of the youngest, and most dynamic, local film industries in the world. <br /><br />The documentary revolved around various aspects of the Ladakhi film industry. The kind of people involved, the technical aspects and the thrill that the local people get out of watching a movie in their own language. Today, the Ladakhi film industry has apparently surpassed even Bollywood in popularity in Ladakh. <br /><br />Out of Thin Air has inputs from top actresses, cinematographers, directors, villains and also lyricists. The people involved in this industry appear to be rather naive. The equipment they use is old, they have just one community hall that screens movies, the actresses hardly use any make-up and most of the stories are plagiarised versions of Bollywood flicks.<br /><br />The crew does not have a budget to shoot outside of Ladakh and an average movie costs only around Rs five lakh. At the same time, the Ladakhi culture is well preserved by these people and is shown in the movies. <br /><br />The locals, however, are more than happy that they have Ladakhi film songs rather than Hindi and English songs to enjoy and have their own film industry. The documentary also showed that tear jerkers films are a rage in Ladakh. <br /></p>
<p>Did you kn</p>.<p>ow that a top heroine in the Ladakhi film industry gets paid Rs 15,000 for a film? This is what Stanzin, the lead actress got for her latest romantic flick Las-Del. For the past seven years, the Ladakhi film industry has done just 27 films. <br /><br />All this information is contained in a documentary named Out of thin air directed by two young girls Shabani Hassanwalia and Samreen Farooqui. It is the story of the local film movement in Ladakh, which took strong roots over the last seven years and has indeed become the voice of the people. <br /><br />Today, taxi drivers, grocery store owners, cops and monks have turned producers, directors, camera persons and actors in one of the youngest, and most dynamic, local film industries in the world. <br /><br />The documentary revolved around various aspects of the Ladakhi film industry. The kind of people involved, the technical aspects and the thrill that the local people get out of watching a movie in their own language. Today, the Ladakhi film industry has apparently surpassed even Bollywood in popularity in Ladakh. <br /><br />Out of Thin Air has inputs from top actresses, cinematographers, directors, villains and also lyricists. The people involved in this industry appear to be rather naive. The equipment they use is old, they have just one community hall that screens movies, the actresses hardly use any make-up and most of the stories are plagiarised versions of Bollywood flicks.<br /><br />The crew does not have a budget to shoot outside of Ladakh and an average movie costs only around Rs five lakh. At the same time, the Ladakhi culture is well preserved by these people and is shown in the movies. <br /><br />The locals, however, are more than happy that they have Ladakhi film songs rather than Hindi and English songs to enjoy and have their own film industry. The documentary also showed that tear jerkers films are a rage in Ladakh. <br /></p>
