Onir, Director of I AM, was in Sydney recently to promote the film and spoke to Rohit Revo.
‘I Am' is one of the biggest crowd sourced films in India – co produced by over 400 people from 35 cities across the world. How did you get the idea of doing this.
This is opening up to another cinema which is entirely funded by individual contributors. We decided to use Internet as a platform to raise money to make films. I believed there is an audience who can put in the money and can make a truly independent film happen. I AM is a purely independent film. For me, the most important thing in my life is to make my films the way I want them to make. I AM would probably be the first crowd sourced mainstream feature film in India thru social network. [pullquote]I AM would probably be the first crowd sourced mainstream feature film in India thru social network.[/pullquote] For me this was not just fund raising where people could contribute Rs 1000 and become a CO-OWNER. This takes the process of making to the end user - the audience.
We have not only raised finance but also volunteers for crew and cast thru social network. Moreover I feel this is a way to build an active audience while making the film.
Bollywood today seemed to dominated by family owned production houses or corporates. Do you think with initiatives like yours the independent film industry in Bollywood now has something to look forward to.
This model of working could become an important tool for filmmakers of independent cinema. It shows independent cinema is really on the rise. Certain films cannot take a burden of worldwide release or even a pan India release. We do not have alternative platforms for such films but in the West, they have emerged. In India, we need to move fast on that.
Where do you see India cinema go over the next decade. We have seen a lot of movies targeting NRI audiences abroad. Do you think to grow we need to get we more Non NRI audiences for Bollywood films?
Absolutely. One has to accept Indian cinema has a huge audience in the country itself and thus people are very complacent about reaching out more. But we have to accept we need to reach out to the non Diaspora audience as well, to widen the reach of the Indian cinema. There is however a new emerging group of filmmakers who are making films which can be considered both as part of Indian cinema and also global cinema and that will widen the reach of Indian cinema.
You are making 4 films as part of this I AM initiative. Can you talk a little bit about the structure of the film?
It is actually 4 stories which are interconnected and the actual characters move from one story to other. These are stories about modern people living in modern contemporary India. The first story shot in Kolkata is about a women's desire to be a single mother without the burden of the marriage. The second story is about a Kashmiri Pandit lady returning to Kashmir after 20 years and meeting her Kashmiri Muslim friend. Juhi Chawla stars in the film alongside Manisha Koirala playing the role of a Kashmiri Pandit, who returns to the valley after 20 years. If you look at the current situation in Kashmir one has lost her identity at home and other is stagnating in a situation related to militancy and military. The third issue is about a child abuse survivor and the fourth issue is how police uses the article 377 to harass and blackmail gay men.
All these stories for me are inspirations from a poem of Rabindra Nath Tagore in Gitanjali …Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high ….and reminds me about my father who had to flee his home. Each of these characters in this film are thriving for that space where they can live in dignity and live without fear and trying to be free in spite of gender, sexuality or personal or political history.
Onir you have been born in Bhutan and lost a home...like most of we Kashmiri Pandits too...Did these influences of loosing a home influence the making of this film'?
When I went to Kashmir I had gone there for another film and I had already heard stories of my co producer Sanjay Suri who had lost his house. I remember I went to his house even before he went back there. I could immediately connect Even I have never gone to my home for the last 17-18 years and nothing can replace it and I have heard how Kashmiri Pandits have come to Delhi and Mumbai but have lost their home. I could immediately connect to the situation and nothing can replace your home. Same thing for Kashmiri Pandits they are happy in Delhi but nothing can compensate a loss of home and no one should be forced to leave their home that should be the choice of that person. A home is a part of your identity. No one should be forced to leave a home, home that should be the choice of that person.
You have been to International Film Festival of Kerala, Vancouver International Film Festival, Engendered IView Film Festival New York and Hamburg. How confident are you of the commercial success of this film.
I think we have made it in a certain logical budget for the kind of subject we are portraying in these films. There is a growing audience in India for new cinema. Look at last year a Lot of non commercial films made money be it Phas Gaye Re Obama, Bin tere Laden and all these films are project films and there is growing appetite for new stories in India and at the same time the Diaspora audiences at the same time are opening up to the other cinema. So we are hoping for good reviews and expect good audiences.
I AM RATINGS BY INDIAN FILM REVIEWERS: 4 STARS - Nikhat Kazmi (TIMES OF INDIA)4 STARS - Subhash K Jha (SantaBanta.Com)4 STARS - Khalid Mohamed (PFC)4 STARS - Pratim Dasgupta (The Telegraph)4 STARS - Mihir Fadnavis (DNA)4 STARS – Suparna Sharma (Deccan Chronicle/Asian Age)4 STARS - Jeeturaj (Radio Mirchi)4 STARS - Anna M.M.Vetticad4 STARS - Reema Moudgil (Unboxed Writers)8/10 STARS - Devansh Patel (Harrow Observer, London)3.5 STARS - Rajeev Masand (CNN IBN)3.5 STARS - Taran Adarsh (Bollywood Hungama)3.5 STARS- Shubhra Gupta (Indian Express)3.5 Stars - Pankaj Sabnani (Glamsham )3.5 STARS - Joginder Tuteja (IndiaGlitz)3.5 STARS - Bhavikk Sangghvi (Red FM)3 STARS - Mayank Shekhar (HINDUSTAN TIMES)3 STARS - Namrata Joshi (OUTLOOK)3 STARS - Nandini Ramanand (Timeout Mumbai)3 STARS - Anirudha Guha (DNA)3 STARS -Vijay Dinesh (NDTV INDIA)3 STARS- Sukanya Verma (REDIFF)"Stories No One Told You Before" - Sidhish Kamath, The Hindu"I AM is surely one of the best films of the year so far…" - Indranil Roy, Anand Bazaar Patrika"I AM In Touch With Reality" - Aseem Chhabra, Mumbai Mirror
The film has received the following global acclaims –
NETPAC Award for the Best in Asian Cinema at the International Film Festival of Kerala '2010
Special Mention by the International Jury at the IFFK '2010
Triangle Media Group's David Flint Honorary Award for Promoting Human Rights
Official Selection: Opening Film Engendered IView Film Festival New York, Sept.18th '2010
Official Selection: Vancouver International Film Festival (Canadian Premier) Oct.'2010
Official Selection: International Film Festival Of Kerala'2010 (In Competition)
Official Selection: Hamburg QIFF 2010
Official Selection: River To River Film Festival, Florence 2010 (Audience Choice Award, Best Film)
Biennial Global Awards felicitated Sanjay Suri and Onir for ‘I Am', the award was for Media For Social Justice. Onir was in Nottingham to receive the award from the Lord Mayor of Nottingham Jeannie Packer and the Rt Hon. Vernon Coaker MP Minister for Schools and Learners.