Richard Atenborough’s Gandhi had been released 30 years ago ( 2013 )in 1983. Ben Kingsley enacted Gandhi in this movie. A foreign director and half –Indian actor brought one of the most charismatic personalities of the  history to the silver screen. In 2005, Sahara India Motion Pictures released Bose —  the Forgotten Hero. It was premiered at Kolkata on May 6. There was a biopic on Nehru called Jewel of India, but was not up to the mark.The stay of Gandhi at South Africa was captured in The Making  of Mahatma.. Ketan Mehta’s Sardar was good in terms of acting and screenplay but was average in terms of production values. The movie on Savarkar was not so good. After Gandhi, the good biopic of a historical personality that was made was Dr. Ambedkar.

Farhan Akhtar encted the role of a flying Shikh – Milkha Singh, Priyanka Chopra has enacted the role of the boxer Mary  Kom. A biopic is proposed on the life of Bruce Lee – Birth of a Dragon. Shoojit Sircar and Anurag Basu propose to produce independently a biopic on Kishor Kumar.

Prabhat Film Company is a renowned film studio that was the creator of brilliant films during the 1930s and 1940s. It was established in Kolhapur as a partnership firm, with five partners from Baburao Painter’s Maharashtra Film Company – V. Shantaram, Vishnupant Damle, S. Fattelal, Keshavrao Dhaiber and Sitarampant Kulkarni. Prabhat moved its studio from Kolhapur to Pune in 1933.

This new studio had the largest stage floor, one of the finest art departments, well–equipped sound and editing departments and its own laboratory.

They made memorable films such as Amritmanthan (1934), Sant Tukaram ( 1937 ), Kunku /Duniya Na Mane ( 1937 ), Manoos / Aadmi ( 1939 ), Shejari / Padosi ( 1944 ).

Prabhat  Film Company was established by Sitaram Kulkarni, K. Dhaiber, S. Fatehlal, Vishnupant Damle and V. Shantaram in Kolhapur on June 1, 1929. It folded up in 1959. It has a rich legacy that survives even today. In 1942, V. Shantaram left Prabhat. In 1945, Vishnupant Damle passed away. In 1957, S. H. Kelkar bought the Company. In 1959, Prabhat was sold by Kelkar to Indian government. In 1961, The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) was set up at the premises of Prabhat in Pune. In 1969, Anant Damle buys the right of all Prabhat Films productions from one Mudaliyar.

The Damle family starts the project in 1969 to preserve the legacy of Prabhat. They are digitising 18 short films/documentaries that Prabhat produced during 1933 to 1949.

Prabhat’s film Sant Tukaram was awarded as one of the best films in the world in 1936 at the Venice Film Festival. It created many records. It was the first film to run continuously for 57 weeks. In 1941, Sant Dhyaneshwar was the first film to be screened in the USA.

It closed down in 1953. But from the premises emerged in its new avtar – the Film Institute of India in 1961. The institute FTII set up a Prabhat Museum on Law College Road, Pune as a tribute to its predecessor – the Prabhat Studio. It displays artefacts, photographs and documents of a bygone and glorious era of film making in Maharashtra and India. It also has a number of props used in those days.

Prabhat is evergreen at 90(2019).

 

Those conversant with film making are aware of the term spot boy. The number of persons working as spot boys has increased due to the increased production of films and TV serials. This is the position at the lowest rung in the entertainment industry. It does not have much status. The simplest possible definition of a spot boy is one who executes all and sundry work on the sets. He is the counterpart of a peon in industry and commerce. The spot boys play a great role in outdoor shooting. A spot boy arranges the meals on the set, collects the vessels and plates, distributes tea, manages the guests on the sets, bids good bye to the persons leaving, arranges the chairs for the actors and keep them shifting as required, holds an umbrella on the head of the stars and so on and so forth. A spot boy facilitates the shooting by doing odd jobs. There are two types of spot boys in the entertainment industry. Those employed by the producer and those employed by the stars. A production house generally manages with a team of 5 – 7 spot boys. An ambitious project may need a team of 15 – 17 spot boys. Spot boys are given credit in the titles. The shift is of 8 hours. They are paid RS 450 per shift. If the work is prolonged, they get over time. A star too employs a spot boy along with other supporting staff such as secretary, driver, make-up man and hair – dresser. A spot boy attends to the personal requirements of the star. The tasks are done silently. A spot boy employed by the star gets better remuneration. Some stars make the producer pay for the spot boys. A spot boy must be a member of Federation of Western India Cine Employees which allots an identity card.

 

In Hollywood, more than 70 per cent of films are made out of books. One of the reasons is for pure business risk reduction.When a story works on paper, without music, without stars, the story has the potential. In addition, popular books tend to be cinematic. There is already a connect,e.g. Twilight  and Hunger Games . In India, 3  Idiots  was a big hit. There is a trend here in India to look for alternative to stars – the story. Certain things that feel good in a book do not work on the screen e.g . thoughts of a narrator. These could be incorporated through a visual or any other device. Some complicated novels have been converted into films e.g . Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence. The source material is kept aside and film making becomes the focus. Every page of the novel cannot be filmed, but this is compensated by cinematic elements, acting, music and cinematography. Deepa Mehta has adapted Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children into a film, (2013). Salman himself has written the screen-play. Salman got to see the rushes and the rough cuts. Francis Coppola had said that no film is ever as good as the rushes and no film is as bad as the first rough cut. Salman did sit through post – production and learnt about the montage and how the tiniest adjustments added to the rhythm of a scene. Movies are made in the editing room.

A script is locked for shooting. Even then there things that just happen on the sets. These are little touches which happen on the sets. Sometimes these come from the director, actor or anyone. A script is never set in stone. Distilling the novel into a script would mean doing away with a lot of elements. According to Rushdie, what Michael Angelo said about a sculpture applies to the scripts. When Angelo stood before a block of marble he would take away everything that was not the statue, as if the statue was already in stone. If you think the book as a block of marble, and the film as a statue that is supposed to come out of it, take away the things that is not the film. 

A book can afford to off tangent but a film has to follow the clearest line that will capture the audience.

A 500-page novel has to be transformed into 100 – page script that retains the essence, spirit and complexity of the book. It is similar to pouring the contents of jugs into one.

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala did this with ease. She is a writer of 20 screenplays, two of which won Oscars.She wrote 12 novels, one of which (Heat and Dust ) won the Booker. She is the only person ever to win both the awards. Merchant Ivory—Jhabvala team did many adaptations. The lady had Jewish parentage. She passed away.

Abhishek Kapoor adopted Kai Poche. His next film is based on Charles Dickens work—Great Expectations.

Several films recognised by the Oscars over the years for their biggest categories tend to be book adaptations.

Great Books Made  into Great Films

                                                    *The God father                      *Atonement

*Harry Potter                          *Schindler’s List

*Lord of the Rings                 *One flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

*Forest Gump

Upcoming Films Based on Books

                                                        *The Host                                 Stephnie Meyer

* The Great Gatsby                 F—Scott Fitzaerald

*Iron Man                                  Warren Ellis

*The Reluctant Fundamentalist      Mohsin Hamid

*World War Z                            Max Brooks

*Safe Haven                             Nicholas Sparks

*The Hunger Games: Catching Fire     Suzanne Collins

*The Wolf of Wall Street         Jordan Belfort

*Carrie                                         Stephen King

*The Hobbit2; The Desolation of Smdug         J.R.Tolkien

Some Top Oscar – Recognised Films Based  on Books in the Last 10 Years

* Argo ( 2012 )

* Life of Pi ( 2012 )

* Hugo (2011 )

* Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close ( 2011 )

* The Descendants

* The Social Network ( 2010)

* Precious (2009)

* Slum Dog Millionaire ( 2008 )

* No Country for Old Men ( 2007)

* Million Dollar Baby ( 2004 )

* Lords of the Rings: Return of the King ( 2003 )

 

 

Several films recognised by the Oscars over the years for their biggest.categories tend to be book adaptations

 

Amitabh Chakraborty’s Bengali movie Cosmic Sex  was premiered at Osian’s –- Cinefan festival in Delhi in August 2012. It had an uncensored sexual intercourse in an Indian film. Rii, leading actress, who had given an uninhibited performance was present. She took the questions from the audience. The idea of the movie was to achieve spiritual equilibrium through sex. Rii is the common link  between a set of films defying  conventional rules and decorum. She featured in Bishh, Gandu and Tasher Desh. Except Bishh  which had a theatrical release, the other films were restricted to special screenings and festivals. Cosmic Sex  is Chakraborty’s second movie in 23 years after his experimental debut Kaal Abhirati.

The budget of Cosmic Sex  is a meagre Rs 80 lac. Tasher Desh  has been made by Q or Kaushik Mukherjee, who is Rii’s partner in life. She is officially Rituparana Sengupta.

 

There are four ways of watching films – in 2D, 3D, IMAX or at a higher frame rate (HFR) at 48 frames per second. HFR enhances the viewing experience. Most cinemas across the world do not have the capability to show the HFR version. However, the projection equipment can be upgraded to suit the format. 24-frames is the industry standard for the last 80 years. It is the cheapest speed to provide basic quality. However, it produces movement artifacts like strobing, flicker, and motion blur. Science tells us that the human eye stops seeing individual pictures at about 55 FPS. Therefore, shooting at 48 FPS gives you much more illusion of real life. It gives the movie a wonderful immersive quality. The projection technology will take some time to catch up with the film making technology. 48 FPS shows more matter on the screen in a split of a second. All projection equipment is capable of playing HFR. What is needed is licensed software that allows decryption of 48 frames both on the digital server as well as the projector. Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An unexpected Journey  has been released in HFR format too. It is a prequel trilogy to Jackson’s wildly successful and Oscar-lavished The Lord of the Rings  films.

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