Despite National Awards, accolades at festivals abroad and the multiplex culture, makers of offbeat cinema in India often continue to struggle when it comes to finding big screen release.



An encouraging remark last year by Charles Tesson, artistic director at Festival De Cannes, for the Anurag Kashyap- produced Peddlers said it all about the changing face of Indian cinema. "Good news is that Indian cinema is now fearless," said Tesson, before the screening of Peddlers , which was screened in the International Critics' Week section at Cannes 2012.



The element of fearlessness, Tesson added, was "something we have been waiting for from Indian cinema for a long time". Back home, it has been an altogether different story for Peddlers. Director Vasan Bala struggled to get funds initially to make the film and finally put up an appeal on Facebook to raise the money. The film was finally produced jointly by Anurag Kashyap Films Private Limited ( AKFPL) and Guneet Monga.



The film was made, it won accolades at Cannes and it's been almost a year. Yet, Peddlers is yet to find a big screen release in India.



Despite praise at international festivals and winning National Awards, and despite the advent of the multiplex culture, life continues to be tough for art filmmakers who intend to make films on subjects considered to be low on commercial value. Serious cinema lovers have been curious to watch Peddlers as well as Ashim Ahluwalia's Miss Lovely , which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes last year. However, no release date has been announced for Ahluwalia's film either.



Peddlers is yet to find a big screen release in India. Peddlers is yet to find a big screen release in India.

Miss Lovely is set in the backdrop of the cheap soft porn industry that ruled the market in eighties. Miss Lovely is set in the backdrop of the cheap soft porn industry that ruled the market in eighties.

Anurag Kashyap has reportedly shot a different version of Ugly for the international audience. Anurag Kashyap has reportedly shot a different version of Ugly for the international audience.

Guneet Monga, owner of Shikya Entertainment, is in talks with distributors and plans to release Peddlers within the next three months. She is in the midst of locking 200 screens at various multiplexes where the film could be screened.Monga, however is optimistic, for she sees a change coming. "Doors are opening for offbeat films and several films that won applauds at film festivals abroad are being released in Indian theatres," says Guneet, underlining that the trend is encouraging. Keeping in view the audience mindset, Monga plans to release Peddlers only in big city multiplexes.""India needs to consume cinema differently, just as the way it is in Europe, especially France. We will be able to do so in the coming few years perhaps and accept different kinds of films in theatres and the market will be encouraging," she says.Ahluwalia's Miss Lovely is set in the backdrop of the cheap soft porn industry that ruled the market in eighties. The film was widely appreciated at Cannes and yet its producers are unable to find a theatrical release, mainly due to censorship issues.Ahluwalia is likely to tweak the film according to Indian sensibilities to get it released."Miss Lovely is a very Indian film and yet it is neither typical Bollywood nor so- called parallel cinema," says Ahluwalia, who has to deal with the double trouble of censor hassles and finding a distributor for release.The Rajkumar Yadav-starrer Shahid , a bio- pic on human rights lawyer Shahid Azmi, is another example. The Hansal Mehta directorial, produced by Anurag Kashyap, had a world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival ( TIFF) in 2011, besides special screening at New York International Film Festival and MAMI. Yet, it continues to struggle to find distributors in India.Kashyap, who has been receiving positive response at Cannes during his trips over the past two years, feels the release of a film and viewership has a lot to do with audience sensibility, which is the driving force behind any film market. His film Gangs Of Wasseypur ( GOW) films managed to find decent release and made some money too, but GOW has noticeably been his most commercial film yet."The western audience is more open to all kinds of cinema. They are willing to experiment while Indians are only waking up to it now," says Kashyap, who has reportedly shot a different version of his new film Ugly for the international audience. The film will be screened at Cannes this year and sources confirm that the version to be screened in India will be tweaked to suit tastes here.The story is no different for several National Award winners.NASA scientist- turned- filmmaker Bedabrata Pain won the Best Debut Director's award this year for his film Chittagong , a pre-Partition saga based on the Chittagong uprising.However, after finishing post- production, Pain had to wait for months because no distributor was willing to buy the film. Chittagong finally managed to get a limited release last year, and despite critical acclaim came and went without impact."Distributors developed an impression on the basis of the other film made on the subject ( Ashutosh Gowariker's Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey ), which had a dark ending," says Pain, who was finally bailed out by producer Sunil Bohra. Indian film distributors whose profits are wholly driven by commercial cinema consider award- winning features as well as those that do the festival rounds of festivals abroad as taboo ventures.SAYS trade analyst Komal Nahta: "Festival recognition and prestigious awards are almost considered as red marks on a film's report card. The standard opinion of distributors is that these films have no commercial value. They assume as much without even watching the film." The picture has been the same for ages. Films doing the rounds of international film festivals always found it difficult to get a release in Indian theatres.

Maestros such as Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak made films that won awards and applauds globally but were never considered suitable for all- India release.



Aamir Bashir's directorial debut Harud , about how terrorism affects ordinary lives in Kashmir, got a National Award besides applauds the world over.



Dekh Indian Circus starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, won the audience choice award at Busan film festival. Dekh Indian Circus starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, won the audience choice award at Busan film festival.

No fiction, no takers for Celluloid Man No fiction, no takers for Celluloid Man

It was screened at Toronto in 2010 but finally managed to find a limited release through PVR Director's Rare in select multiplexes in the metros last year.In fact, PVR's initiative has given a ray of hope to small budget filmmakers exploring offbeat subjects and documentary filmmakers who stress on non- fiction content. Director's Rare is not getting housefull occupancy yet, though things are looking up."We started Director's Rare with Indian Independent content and now it is an eclectic mix of cult films, classics, Indian and international indie films, and cuttingedge documentaries. We have plans to experiment with specially curated short-film packages soon. We are enthusiastic because the audience base is continuously increasing," says Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, joint managing director, PVR Cinemas."Offbeat films can get a wider audience if exhibitors decide upon lowering ticket rates of these films at the cineplexes. An average viewer might be reluctant to pay '300 for such a film but might go for it if the rates are somewhere between '70- 80," concludes Nahta.Festival recognition and prestigious awards are almost considered as red marks on a films report card by the trade.The scene is worse for documentary films in India.Shivendra Singh Dungarpur's documentary Celluloid Man released in 15 multiplexes on May 3, marking the centenary of Indian cinema, but not many fans took notice.The film is a tribute to PK Nair, father of film archiving in India. The release of Celluloid Man, though, has come as a glimmer of hope for documentary filmmakers in India, who have forever struggled to find a foothold.Dungarpur's film won two National Awards and was shown at 24 film festivals. It was released in the multiplexes here by PVR's Director Rare after a long struggle.The Jaaved Jaafferi- coproduced Inshallah, Football and Inshallah Kashmir has faced similar ordeal. The film won the National Awards for Best Film on Social Issues in 2011 but never got to see the light of day.Jaafferi's film is directed by Ashvin Kumar, who was nominated for an Oscar for his 2005 film, Little Terrorist , and captures the plight of people affected by terrorism in Kashmir. "It is an interesting film but being presented as a documentary makes it non- commercial," says Jaaved, who pumped in '30- 35 lakh to co-produce the film and is now unsure about its commercial release. As the founder chairperson of the Indian Documentary Foundation, he hopes to find distributors for non-fictional cinema.