Malaysia lays out red carpet for filmmakers

Sessions and master classes on scripting, direction and cinematography were part of the Bengaluru International Film Festival, concluding today.

A session on co-production possibilities and multilingual productions was held yesterday. Aditya Shastri moderated the discussion.

Malaysia tries to get Indian producers to shoot there as it helps in promoting the country as a tourist destination, Logi Dhasan Thanaraj, consulate-general of Malaysia, said.

“The government of Malaysia works with airlines and hotels to make shooting easy,” he explained.

Mark Woods, former Australian reporter for ‘Variety’ magazine, said India had a good image abroad because of its “big fat Bollywood films.”

He had a word of advice to filmmakers: “Decide on what you want to do. Independent stories or big budget films, have it all structured.”

It is important to work with a local co-producer in a foreign land, he has found.

“The co-producer helps you get through all legalities and permissions and eases the process,” he said.

Akshaye Rathi, film exhibitor and distributor, said films like ‘Dangal’, ‘Secret Superstar’, and ‘My Name Is Khan’ had done well globally as the “content was relatable to individuals from every country.”

He said most Indian films only make sense to the Indian diaspora, and that is the reason the country had little recognition on the global platform.

With KGF, he observed, Sandalwood had made its presence felt on the national scene. “Online platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime way bring together people from different communities and backgrounds. I have seen Spanish people watching Sacred Games with subtitles,” he said.

S Krishna, popularly known as Kittappa, spoke about the challenges he faces while shooting abroad.
“Indians have to be punctual when shooting on a foreign land. Foreigners stick to the time,” he says.

Kannada film producer Jack Manju made out a case for dubbing films into Kannada.

Food prices slashed

Food prices were slashed at PVR Orion: filter coffee was priced at Rs 60 (usually around Rs 150) and popcorn could be had for Rs 60 and Rs 100 (usually min Rs 300), and colas for Rs 65 (usually Rs 210).

Worldwide crowd

The festival drew people from across the world. Some had come all the way from Germany, USA, and Spain. Film lovers from districts across Karnataka and the neighbouring states were also in attendance.

Star-studded festival

The festival saw many Pawan Kumar, T N Seetharam, Vasanth S Sai, S Krishna were some of the directors Metrolife caught up with. Many theatre artists were also present at the festival. As many independent films were screened at the festival, a lot of aspiring filmmakers and actors were seen making conversations with the cast and crew of various films.