Every coin has two sides. The advent of corporate culture into the Indian film industry has both pros and cons. On one hand, it has sorted out the financial crisis that the industry was earlier facing, ensured the agreed payments to the cast and crew whatever the business outcome may be and decreased dependency on individual producers.
On the other hand, somewhere the passion of one individual filmmaker is found to be missing in films produced by corporates and the creativity is compromised. So ideally ‘creativity’ and ‘business’ should co-exist and maintain a judicious balance to achieve cinematic excellence.
This is what noted director and producer Anees Bazmee said while addressing the ‘In-Conversation’ session on ‘Corporate Culture in Film industry’ at IFFI recently. Addressing the interactive session, Anees said for a filmmaker, business is very important, but at the same time creativity should never be compromised.
“A film should always be based on creativity, passion and conviction. There are many successful films produced by corporates, but more creative people should be part of corporate teams to ensure creativity is not dictated by business,” he asserted.
Director Vikas Bahl said, “Filmmaking is a business of heart and corporate culture should match the creative film-making process. One software called ‘Guts’ to be inserted into the excel sheets of corporates.” Flagging the issue of piracy, Vikas urged both government and corporates to join hands to resolve the challenging issue.
Director Abhishek Sharma stated that corporatisation has ensured the ‘cleansing of money’ from the industry. The Indian film industry should be more organised and formalised to be called as an ‘industry’ in true sense. “Are we truly an organic industry? We need to introspect. We need to come together keeping aside personal profit and loss and think about the industry as a whole,” he opined.
Producer Mahaveer Jain said corporates are pumping in more money so that quality films can be produced. “With more players, more films are being produced and more people are getting employment,” he added.
The session was moderated by a film trade analyst.
