Mumbai, Maharashtra: Filmmaker Ramachandran Srinivasan spoke to IANS about 'Homebound', India’s official entry to the Oscars. He explained why films like this often don’t do well in Indian theatres. According to him, the main reasons are poor marketing, low awareness, and the audience’s preference for big, commercial films. Even though 'Homebound' was praised internationally and received a standing ovation at Cannes, it didn’t get much attention in India. Ramachandran also pointed out that India’s Oscar selections are often inconsistent. He believes that films with strong local roots and meaningful social themes are more likely to connect with global audiences.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Raman Sir, welcome to IONS.
00:02Thank you, Sharik, for calling me to IONS.
00:06Raman Sir, who founded India's official rating for Oscars?
00:10So, what do you think it means?
00:12Why do you think it means IONS?
00:15See, first and foremost, this film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival on 21st May of this year.
00:22The film received a 9-minute standing ovation at that time.
00:28That's possibly one of the reasons why the Film Federation even chose that film to represent it at the Oscars.
00:34Having said that, every film has its own destiny in the theatres.
00:41You know, you have a very distinct difference between films being shown in the theatres and films going on OTT.
00:51A lot of times when you see the trailer, the audience is already deciding where they want to watch the film.
00:57And that is a very important part in them choosing to go to the theatres and watch a film.
01:03When you say that a film like Homebound is 1 hour 4 minutes less 1 minute 32 seconds of edited footage after being censored by CBFC.
01:17You are left with what, 1 or 2 minutes?
01:20Why would I spend the same amount of money that I could watch an entertainer for in the theatre?
01:26That's possibly one of the major reasons why Homebound was not welcomed at home.
01:32Sir, is the Indian public ecosystem causing its own storytellers when it comes to international education?
01:43So, can you just repeat the question? Sorry.
01:45Is the Indian public ecosystem causing its own storytellers when it comes to international education?
01:51See, when India was ruled by the British for a very long time, we still do have a colonial hangover.
02:01So, there are times when distributors and other people start praising films only when they do well.
02:11So, you know, a 9-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival.
02:14So, a 9-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival obviously has its own reasons why the film was being liked here.
02:23You know, you have a Karan Johar who comes on board the home film like the Homebound.
02:29And at the same time, you know, it is completely depending on those kind of people to piggyback those kind of small good cinema along with the big film to package it and give it to distributors.
02:42So that the distributors take cognizance of the fact that it is a good film but it is coming as a 1 plus 1.
02:49So, you know, then you bargain for metric theatres.
02:53When you take it solo, it is very difficult to get the kind of audiences that you want to.
02:59Sir, we are pushing for the authors who are not doing this kind of contradiction.
03:04That's what I am saying. You know, it is very important that a campaign was also necessary for creating awareness.
03:12Multiplexes, which is basically the primary target of a film like Homebound, should have their own programmers.
03:22Now, those programmers give you theatres based on what kind of a buzz it is creating in the market.
03:28You know, even if you look at the kind of box office that it has got so far, it is not a great number.
03:36So, if you collect around sound effects in the early shows and you don't make that kind of an impact,
03:44even the programmers are very reluctant to give more screens because they might have to even cancel shows in that case.
03:54Then rather piggyback on a film which is got at least 40-50 people sitting rather than 5 or 6 people sitting in the theatre.
04:00Sir, if Homebound had a big star, would the theatre not happen?
04:06Not really. I mean, you still had Rajkumar Rao in the film.
04:11I mean, he has a good reputation when it comes to films like these.
04:18Neeraj Ghaivan has a very strong audience when it comes to his kind of cinema.
04:24I mean, he is the same guy who made Masan and other films.
04:27So, having said that, it is a case of not enough marketing to reach the audiences.
04:37I think, yes, that would be.
04:39You know, having a big event and having hundreds of people watch the film is not necessary.
04:44What is important is people should know that a film like this exists.
04:48Ramam, Ramam, that Homebound has brought to India and India, should you take a proxy?
04:55Yeah.
04:57Very honestly, when you look at a film like Homebound doing well or even films earlier that did well,
05:06they are accepted here because the foreign audiences have accepted that.
05:10And that's when you call it a trophy.
05:13That's when you try and push it across.
05:15You know, Lunchbox is a very classic example.
05:17You know, when you had people like Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Nimrat Kaur and Irfan Khan were not really big stars in the Indian market.
05:27A film like Lunchbox did really well.
05:29But having said that Lunchbox may have done recently decently well in India, it also did very well abroad.
05:36But now, when you look at the box office of Homebound abroad, it is much lower than what it is in India.
05:44And that is the reason possibly why this film has not been up to the mark in the, not just in the domestic circuit, but even in the international circuit.
05:56People haven't accepted this film internationally.
05:58Do you think that this kind of instrument describes us because of any rooted and original films?
06:04Not at all.
06:05You know, every film has its destiny.
06:07There are a lot of films which are like Homebound, which do well.
06:12It is just that a lot of people are not even aware that this film is releasing at this time.
06:19There are so many films releasing.
06:21There are so many web shows coming up.
06:23There is so much publicity.
06:25In the midst of this, when people are not aware of a film like Homebound coming, how do you expect them to go to the theatres?
06:32As I said before, you know, the very fact that the film had a nine-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival made everybody think, oh wow, this is how it's going to be received abroad.
06:42So, let's push this because all the people at the Cannes Festival had liked it.
06:57Now, nobody really knows how many people were sitting there.
07:04Who were the people who were sitting there?
07:07Are you aware of what kind of decision makers were sitting there?
07:12Are you aware of who are the people who are in the Oscar voting jury who have been sitting there?
07:19In the absence of such information, you know, it's not really a great decision.
07:26But yes, the jury has taken its decision though the film is going.
07:31Sir, do you know India when you say that in Homebound or Gold?
07:36Yeah, you know, it's very simple is that you always need proof of pudding.
07:42You need, jury needs to justify to a lot of people because everybody who does not get nominated is going to make a ruckus.
07:49And they wanted to say that, you know, this film is done well.
07:54At Cannes, it was in the certain unregard section at Cannes when it was screened on the 25th of May this year.
08:01And that was possibly the reason, that's the justification that they would also like to give.
08:07Let's talk about Pushpa 2.
08:10Had skills, Dr. Why is Google work?
08:12Why is that concentrating to Oscars by beauty?
08:16You know, when you look at Pushpa 2 which is from the Tollywood industry, the Telugu film industry as opposed to its predecessor RRR which made it.
08:28RRR had had a certain global mounting.
08:33It spoke about the British Raj in India.
08:38It spoke about certain issues that the Indians faced back then.
08:43You know, something, I mean, an RRR was a violent lagan if you want to call it.
08:48So, you know, when they sent a lagan and they sent an RRR, they did feel that there was a connect in terms of the storyline.
08:56That's perhaps why it went.
08:58But Pushpa 2 was based on standalone smuggling.
09:02It had a lot of music, songs and all that which were typically more masala oriented as compared to what the songs in an RRR was.
09:12I'm just making this juxtaposition of RRR and Pushpa 2 basically because they come from the same industry.
09:19But yeah, it was a successful film.
09:21But having said that, the jury obviously did not find that it had global appeal and possibly that's the reason why it did not make it.
09:31Do you think the selection period is now from Michelle cinema or when I said, culture really massive?
09:36You know, when Jamarit Raj made a film like Genes, which had Aishwarya Rai in a double role and Aishwarya Rai and Prashant in a double role in that film,
09:49in that film, it was a very weird kind of situation because everybody wondered how a film like Genes could go, could have been nominated.
09:59You know, it was around the time when Kamanasana made a film called Kuruji Purnal, which is actually a remake of Drohokal.
10:07You did not send the original, but you sent the remake.
10:11You know, so that is that kind of a selection that has been there even with the Film Federation of India, which is the apex body which selects the films to go for Oscars.
10:21They've also not been very consistent.
10:23I mean, RRR is a commercial film, they sent a commercial film.
10:27But they didn't send Pushpa because it was totally not just a commercial film, but it was a masala pot boiler film.
10:33Yes, it was rooted, but it did not have the, according to the jury, it did not have the legs and hands to go the distance and being watched by an international jury.
10:47So, films like Bengal, while being qualified in the level, what letter of it is if the committee was in 2013?
10:55So, you know, there are times when a country is trying to look at what kind of image it wants.
11:00So, all the jury members are also given directions on what kind of films to avoid, be it Kashmir Files or Bengal Files, films like that.
11:10I mean, even Vivek Lakini also had a problem with Kashmir Files not going at that time.
11:15So, yeah, you also want to maintain an image of the country at, you know, at these events where film people, artists and all that have an opinion.
11:29Because the government also does not want to get too much of a negative opinion at that point in time.
11:35What is your take on the Pai and the We are Chandramsar?
11:40Not making the cut.
11:41Are we going to improve the tradition and artists in Pai?
11:44See, Veera Chandrahasa or for that matter, the Pai was not really the choice that most of the members had when they were voting.
11:55I mean, the Pai did have people rooting for it, some people rooting for it.
12:01But then it was not a popular choice.
12:03So, at the end of the day, you know, either the decision is unanimous or when they vote,
12:08the number of people who voted for a homebound is possibly much higher than that.
12:14So, I mean, you do have a chairman of the jury as well.
12:17So, you know, it's all up to them as to what the jury selects.
12:21You don't know what kind of people are there in the jury every year.
12:24The different kinds of people in the jury every year.
12:27And it's also not just the FFI but also members of the jury who have very strong opinions about certain films.
12:36And that's possibly the reason why they chose a homebound because they just felt it's a short enough film.
12:42Plus, more importantly for them, they realized that, you know, they could kind of gather international attention
12:49by picking up the subject about Muslim and Dalit youth fighting for the same job.
12:54Is there an unconscious bias in the searching process where individuals socially conscious films get perfect, no matter the competition?
13:03That obviously is a bias because people do want to perceive social films as a medium of sending a message across.
13:16In these days today, back in the day, you know, you had the Indian films that went for foreign festivals
13:25where the ones made you in parallel cinema by Sergei Jitreyev Rinald Sen and other people in that era,
13:31Shyam Benigal as well.
13:34But that cinema was cinema.
13:38Today, you know, the most important thing, we say we are sending films.
13:43We don't even shoot on films, we shoot on digital.
13:46We will stop shooting on film.
13:48So, but having said that, stories are evolving.
13:54I do agree that last year, we had a lot of good stories.
13:57The year before that, we had a lot of good stories.
13:59This year, you know, you had a very limited kind of subjects to choose from.
14:06And possibly, Homebound was a social drama that they found could make waves outside.
14:14You know, Indian films, filmmakers were often told,
14:18Ayizuma Burmahesh, but making a statement like how Sergei Jitreyev Rinald and other parallel cinema makers were selling Garibi or poverty to the international audiences to sell their films and get awards.
14:34But yeah, that's always been the case.
14:36Social stories do result in a lot of discussion about the film, discussion about the problems in a certain country.
14:49And because it initiates discourse, a social subject is always chosen.
14:54Do you think Sukupu was a Malaykaon, which gave labor, was simply to come as a potential for Oscar only?
15:02You know, if you realize, it's the same. Even Zoya Akhtar was involved in this film that you speak about, Homebound.
15:09And Zoya Akhtar was also there as part of Malaykaon.
15:15So, you had two films from the maker, you know, you want to put your left and right both for competition.
15:22People are going to get divided as to, I mean, if you like Zoya Akhtar, you are giving some votes to this and some votes to that.
15:28So, your vote gets divided. So, like having two people shunting from the same party for the elections.
15:33Accordingly, is the Oscar selection presence in India too creative and opaque for film development?
15:41Not really because that's been the process over the years.
15:45The Film Federation of India is basically the apex body that chooses unless you want to change the system and have it a little more open.
15:53But then, you know, how many people in India really know about cinema?
15:59You come out of a movie, you see these films, people taking bites of people coming out of movie theatres and ask, how was the film?
16:07And people give, do you see the direction both?
16:10The direction was very good or the direction was very bad.
16:13And how many people even know what direction means when, you know, Kamanar goes to see a movie?
16:19What does he understand about direction? What does he understand about length?
16:22He just feels if the look is very good, he says the look is very good.
16:26If dialogues are being said by somebody, he says the hero did very well.
16:31You know, people don't realize that there's a script writer who writes those dialogues.
16:35So, in a lot of mainstream India is not really aware of how cinema is and they really don't have the right to even comment on something of that sort.
16:47So, it's better that, you know, there is a certain jury that takes care of this process.
16:52Listen, if you want to learn more from this movie, you can judge more from this film.
16:57But, many movies that have been written from this movie, you can argue with some movies
17:02like Australia, India, India and the movie movies have been shown by the quality of this.
17:06But, someone's film with this movie.
17:08Then, there is a different movie.
17:09I think about this movie.
17:11And the movie is probably like Punk.
17:13I will give you a specific answer.
17:22The first film was shortlisted in Oscar.
17:28That was Mother India in 1957.
17:30The second film that was shortlisted in the top 5 was Salaam Bombay.
17:36And the third film that was shortlisted was called Lagann Once Upon a Time in India.
17:41So, the first film had India in its name, the second film had Bombay in its name and the third film had India in its name.
17:47So, if you actually notice that, people want to see stories from a certain country.
17:53People want to see a certain kind of story that is coming out.
17:58So, when you look at what the audience is seeking, they want a product to come from India.
18:04They want it very deeply rooted.
18:07So, at that point of time, you have to show a story that is Indian.
18:14Sometimes Miller has not really an Indian entry.
18:17But yeah, I mean, it did speak about Dharavi and other places.
18:22That film was earlier rejected by a lot of studios.
18:25They never wanted to release it.
18:26The makers had actually put it on YouTube and had to remove it when they found Sony as a buyer ready to release the film.
18:33Yeah.
18:34So, every film has its listening.
18:36Sometimes Millionaire would have just ended up on YouTube at some point of time.
18:40And to think of that and that film has got so many Oscars for Indians like Rahman, Saab and Sulpokuti for that matter.
18:50Sir, last question.
18:51This time we suffered festive festival success from Oscars for Ibrity.
18:57When picking our entries?
19:00So, you know, that is a dichotomy.
19:03You know, a lot of these filmmakers who are in the jury, a lot of film personalities who are in the jury, a lot of people connected.
19:11There is some politician, political affiliated people also in the committee.
19:15So, you know, a lot of times people do lobby.
19:18I mean, you know that there is lobbying going on in the Oscars as well.
19:23So, people also lobby a lot to get their films selected for Oscars.
19:27So, as long as the jury is not being intimidated or being told specifically by people to do this and do that, they can have, they can take a better decision.
19:41So, if you are told like the subject of the film Homebound itself, if there are reservations for certain categories and if there are reservations for people who are being very specifically told, you know, look after this film.
19:56Something should go from the south this time.
19:59Something should go from Bollywood this time.
20:01Then it becomes very difficult at this point of time for the jury to be independent and take their own call and what they want to send.
20:09On one hand, you give them the decision and then you put a gun on their head.
20:15How are they going to be able to select the right film?
20:18You have to look to the people who are selected from Homebound and Nam.
20:24We all are doing that.
20:26See, the first and foremost thing is I have a message for them.
20:30But I do understand that they have to be, they have to learn to be impartial and they have to stop.
20:36And they have to close their ears when they are taking that decision.
20:40And that is the only way you will be able to send a better film.
20:44Having said that,
20:46Andhumain Kanna Raja, Homebound is possibly the best film that we had at this time to send for the Oscars.
20:53And I think it is a decent decision at this juncture.
20:56All right.
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