Meeting the film geeks

I had been to this seminar on " New Age filmmakers and new trends" in Bangalore. It was arranged by Commits and called Flickers. Known filmakers like Ashuthosh Gowrikar,Khalid Mohammed,Nagesh kukunoor,Nagthihalli Chandrashekar,Mahesh Dattani. Each of them gave speech about their starts. I enjoyed Nagesh's talk about the way he made Hyderabad Blues ( I haven't seen still...but I have seen part 2). Then each of them had to answer the questions from aspiring film makers. Ashutosh got questions about the source of Swades's story (Expected). He didn't know what to answer. Mr.M.G.Sathyu came into his rescue who is the stroy writer of Swades.
He started to talk loudly at curious audience. According to him the story was written back in 2004 hence it was before the movie "Chigurida Kanasu". He started to give difference between the Swades and Chigurida Kanasu.

In Swades Sharukh NRI - comes back from US....and In Chigurida Kanasu Shivaraj Kumar comes from Delhi..... and similar other differences. But does this difference make it an independent story ?. But then audience were much clever, they asked questions about Shivaram Karanth's (Jhnanapeeth awardee) "marali mannige" which was written in 60's. It has similar story. But then he started shouting at the audience and refused to continue the discussion. But Mr. Sathya for every story there is something called plot, which is the skeleton, around which you build the story. And if the plots are same then I will come to the conclusion (?). I really appreciate your effort in writing the story. But don't you think you should give the credit to the Inspiration. ( Well that is where I appreciate RGV! Godfather was in US mafia and Sarkar was in Bombay. That didn't make him to tell that they were different. Yes they are different stories/films but with the same plot. The RGV didn't forget to give the credit.). Don't tell me you never read "Marali Mannige" before writing Swades.

Meanwhile the discussions turned towards IP and piracy. All the three were against piracy ( offcourse) and copying the ideas ( yeah I know they are against).The since this is my area I had a suggestion for Ashutosh to beat piracy. I gave him the same idea which Rupa publishers used to beat book piracy. Release the DVD and CD at lesser price. Reduce the profit margin and ear by quantity. But he though its an idea which will fail. ( But I think Chetan Bhagat has sold lakhs of books @ Rs.90).Anyways its difficult to explain them.

Mahesh Dattani spoke about his movies and scripts. He spoke about "Dance Like a Man" and "Morning Ragaa". I had liked both so I was keen. It seems he conducts workshops in Bangalore. Probably it will be a good break for me.

At last our master Chandru spoke to us. There were questions like why did "super star" fail ? etc. He was very patient and answered as many questions.Then there were questions about remakes, multiplex, regional movies etc.

Well it was interesting to listen to these young directors. Hopefully I have gained something out of it.

Well Thanks to commits for this seminar.