Show me the money!

There was a time when I got really close to making my film. Of course, I wasn’t getting to make it myself but there was this great consolation that the Best Indian Actor Ever (BIAE) had requested to direct it. I looked upon it as a great opportunity to work with the great man, thinking that, at least, the film would get made. Besides, it was hugely flattering that BIAE had chosen my script to make his film. Out of the proverbial blue, finance, which is usually unavailable to lesser mortals like myself, fell into our laps. Well, almost...because the self-appointed producer, another big name in the Indian film world, offered to give it to us when we went to meet and discuss the film with him for the first time. So, clearly, money was the least of our problems at that time. To cut to the chase, as they would say in some films, after two and a half wasted years, that film never got made. We won’t go into the reasons because that is not the purpose of the post.

Around the time that it was beginning to get clear that something is rotten in the state of Denmark, in a manner of speaking, and that the film wasn’t going anywhere, my friend and working partner came up with a brilliant idea to get the film made.

Although we’d been around for a while, as far as full-length films go, we were, and remain, nobodies. It was too much to even expect that somebody would fund our dream. Not because the dream itself was/is far-fetched but because the film business operates on a very complex and arbitrary plane, which completely discounts the one factor that should be the very basis for a good film, i.e., the script. In the Bollywood scheme of things, and I don’t care if they contend otherwise, the script is almost always incidental. Although technique, look and style seem to have acquired some importance lately, it’s still the star system that drives the Bollywood wagon. If you have a star, you have a film...other things can follow. And, which star worth his salt was going to agree to act in a film that had no sex or romance, very little music, little violence and in which what-we-call the “heroine” was going to die in the first 30 minutes? And, oh, nothing also of what passes for humour these days? Having said that, and knowing that without a star the film would never get off the ground, I tried my luck with a few people. Needless to add, I have nothing to show for the effort except long meetings with some big “heroes”, two of whom, I must confess, showed genuine appreciation for the script. So, if we were going to make it work, it was obvious that we’d either have to get lucky or get smart. In the end, we were neither but that’s another story.

It was around this time that the Internet was starting to spread its tentacles far and wide, reducing the world to a global village, or so the hype went. So, my friend suggested tapping the Net for finance. To start a website for the proposed film. To put up a part of the script on the site and to ask people around the world to read the script and, if it seemed remotely like something they might want to watch, to contribute to the fund. To be part owners of the film. He proposed a very elaborate and transparent system, whereby all contributions would be listed on the site and in the end credit titles of the proposed film. The idea was for people to send in whatever amount they thought fit, if any at all, directly to a bank account that was to be opened specifically for this purpose. All accounts were going to be audited (or whatever it is that fancy accountants do) by a CA and posted on the site. It was a great idea and I thought it could work.

Hmm...I wish we’d seen it through and pursued the idea but, obviously, we didn’t. There’re many reasons why we didn’t but that doesn’t matter now, does it?

I believe many people did, and are still doing, what we’d thought of back then. And, with some luck too, or so I’m told. And, that makes me want to kick myself...really, really kick myself for not seeing the idea through. However, it also fills me up with what I think might be a new resolve...to give it a shot. To try this avenue before I completely give up on the script. To know that I have done all that I could’ve possibly done before I finally consign it to the metaphorical flames. Sure, my chances aren’t so bright now but, I think, I owe myself another shot. If all goes to plan, then, I hope to give myself that chance by the end of the year.

Besides, BIAE is still as keen on the acting job.