Five Filmmaking Tropes to Avoid
Before I start on Five filmmaking tropes to Avoid– remember when you wanted to learn how to cycle as a kid? You may have had your parent, a sibling, or some helpful uncle hold on to your cycle when you mounted it and ran with you while you reached for those pedals. You may have had those little training wheels for balance to ease you into cycling. I, on the other hand, leaned against a heightened part of the foundation of my home’s exterior wall and pushed my frail self forward; then, I stopped where the wall ended, got off the cycle, circled it around till it aligned with the wall again, now facing the opposite direction and back on it, I’d push myself forward again. Learning cycling took me a while, but that’s my story. What’s my point? If you are a young person fresh out of film school or perhaps even someone with a couple of years of experience looking to direct their first feature film, short film, or any film, or you are a successful businessman interested in financing a feature but are looking for advice on a ‘safe path’ to investment and returns in the Indian film industry, take this blog as your first set of training wheels.
When I ventured to Direct my second Kannada feature film, also my first film as a Film Producer, I approached it as an ardent fan and a typical moviegoer (yes, I was that gooey-eyed passionate cinephile), and that’s how it all went wrong for me. I’ve come back with lessons that I’ll be sharing here. I hope these points help you avoid the mistakes and paths I took.
The appeal of a mass entertainer: Maybe you’re a person in one of the several small towns of Bihar, Jharkhand, or UP making a small-budget feature film to entertain an audience that labors through the week and wants two and a half hours of mindless entertainment, maybe stick to your gun, and that’s only a cautious ‘perhaps’ as audiences evolve, from film to film, everywhere. However, if you are a person who wants to begin with leaving a mark to remember you by, make your first film your sigil, a brand or a calling card that can create recall for financiers and producers looking to back a filmmaker on their next project; aim small, miss small. I might be repeating myself here (if you’ve read my previous blogs), but it’s wise, perhaps even foolhardy, to enter the industry and your first film with a strong (Arnold Schwarzenegger strong) script. It doesn’t have to be a big entertainer, but a movie with a lot of heart. A few films that come to mind are Nazar Andaaz (Hindi, 2022), Dhanak (Hindi, 2015), Minnal Murali (Malayalam, 2021), and U-Turn (Kannada, 2016). I’m sure there are many more. Without going into details about these movies, I’m trying to point out that stories need to be personal, based on characters that live among us, or stories grounded in local flavor and appeal.
You may like to watch an action film on Monday, a story-driven drama on Tuesday, and a tear-jerking rom-com on Wednesday, but that doesn’t mean you can mix them all into one movie. Select one singular emotion and explore it. Select one single character (or two, like in Raincoat– Hindi, 2004) and explore it. Select one locale and explore it. One dialect, one social issue; find your ‘one’ and stick to it. Let everything that happens around it be organic. You aren’t MARVEL to have a kid kidnapped from outside his home while his mother dies during his last few minutes on Earth. While coming of age, travel with a group of ravagers in space and later turn out to be the son of a Planet that this kid eventually kills! (Guardians of the Galaxy — Volume 1) That’s whacky and needs a budget the size of that kid’s father. :)
Alternatively, you may choose to have a nutjob for a neighbor who gets apprehended by the police for growing cannabis in his backyard. Then your kid character walks into his home to discover a darker secret the neighbor held in his basement’s hidden room under a trapdoor the police failed to find. Can you imagine the budget for filming a regular thriller indoors than one that needs a green screen and an animation team that spans continents?
A dilapidated brand called Bollywood: You can’t do anything about this aside from an attempt at changing your mindset on how you look at filmmaking in India. Look at it as an industry rather than a makeshift setup every time a film needs making. Look at it as a single unit rather than breaking it down by unoriginally faux-naming every state’s film industry differently– Bollywood, Tollywood, Mollywood, Kollywood. I’m sure you are smiling now. Are the guys who go around ‘inventing’ sobriquets waiting for Hollywood to feel commoner enough that the bigwigs in L.A. decide to change the Big branding on the little Hill? But that will never happen. Can’t our people see that it only helps the American film industry’s generic film brand– ‘Hollywood’ get hammered deeper into the minds of people of the Indian states where the ‘wood’ bit is used as a moniker to make our filmmaking industry ‘sound’ global. That is the precise opposite of what we want as filmmakers of a particular country or society. Even if, arguably, the more local we get, the better our films can surely get. The faster we come out of the ‘apeing the West’ thinking when making cinema, the better our movies will undoubtedly become.
Even worse are the insiders who determine what script gets made, shooting in some foreign locale for a hip-gyrating song to bringing in ideas of weird relationships that are foreign concepts to our desi audience. Unless you are the next Yash Chopra with the sensibilities and forward thinking of cinema-making like non-other, we need sensitive minds with the right mix of market reading to get our products right. Movies like Kantara (Kannada, 2022), Sita Raman (Telegu, 2022), Rocketry (Tamil, 2022), Dasara (Telegu, 2023), and recent OTT series like Dahaad (Hindi, 2023), The Family Man (Hindi, 2019 and 2020), Mirzapur (Hindi, 2018, 2020, 2023), etc., are perhaps a step in the right direction.
All you have to do is play to your strengths; While I’m definitely not proposing to not experiment with your stories, styles, and portrayals, Choose a narrative with a familiar and rich backdrop. Let that backdrop form a character in your product. It’ll do wonders for your end result. I remember watching this old lady on Youtube or another lady in a South Indian village making cookery videos. I’ve found myself coming back regularly to them not for what they cook but for where they do that. They are unique, and your film can be too.
Censor (Sense or?) Board: The general public has no say in how films and film products get censored. It has always been this way, and with time and divisive vote bank politics played by the political puppet masters, it will only get worse. Even worse are little divisional armies dictating street censorship from the far right to far left ends of the belief spectrum. Either a public referendum on censorship and how much of it or explicit rules can be applied to every film product without bias or extremely liberal thinking- leaving it to the public to self-censor their viewing choices, can be possible answers.
How does this apply to you? When making your film product, keep censorship in mind. This does not mean limiting yourself or playing to the judges who watch your film during censorship. Even if your product is controversial, back it up with detailed research or with concrete evidence for its necessity for that controversial presentation. Play an emotional and sense-driven advocate when questioned. Nine times out of ten, the judges will see your point of view unless it’s a matter of public sanity and safety or, unfortunately, some prominent politician or a political outfit wants it otherwise to suit their current discourse. A film like Newton (Hindi, 2017) did exceedingly well for the Festival of Democracy, even if it sounded controversial during its release.
Script for a Star or an Actor for a Script? This point is as much about actors as people selecting stories and screenplays– and this is where you come in. Since you choose to direct or produce this script as your movie, your judgment comes before all else. Should this film ever get made? Should it be made in the way it is written? Can it be written differently? Will it be accepted as is, or should it be finessed to target one particular audience instead of a few? Important questions that need answering before you begin casting. And when you come around to casting– Do not get writers to write films based on Star Actors (which means your writer will be, at some level, apeing a formula from previous hit films of that one star, thereby writing an unoriginal movie for you to Direct or fund). Even worse is thinking that casting a particular star actor is enough to get audiences to the theatres. Yes, a star actor’s name may get the initial crowds to the theatres (Film marketing strategy 101, whereas you can do so much more), but these crowds will only stick around if the film adds value to their entertainment experience. I’m sure you know of massive stars suffering even more significant setbacks after they went on a signing spree without reading the scripts they are backing on the screens. What makes you think your film won’t be on their debacle list? I’m sure you’ll agree that if you have a good script, a powerful script, Star actors will come running and perhaps even cut their remuneration to bag the project. I’ve heard of miracles happening. You’ll see them too.
Comfort Zone, Comfortably Home: I’m sure you know where I will go next. Good old nepotism. I’ve worn many hats– working in the I.T. industry in a few capacities, for one. People prefer hiring and working with those who speak their first language over those who speak other Indian languages. While there is no harm in referring people with the sound capability of the required tasks, bringing in candidates who aren’t qualified will surely derail your project. Casting your son as a lead actor just because he frequented the gymnasium, has a toned physique gained on a heavy diet of whey powder, getting your cousin to come in to work with you as your assistant because he needs the experience, won’t charge as much as a professional and may even bunk up with you on locations you’ll need traveling to save on room rent or getting a passionate friend to direct your film because he quotes movie dialogues, speaks all the technical knowledge from film magazines and filmmaking books simply don’t point to qualifiers on the list of work experience. You can do better. Work with professionals if you want a professionally made project that can be expected to be taken seriously by peers in the film industry. Yes, certainly have room for fast-learning beginners fueled with the drive to work under pressure but don’t let your film become a laboratory experiment.
If you’ve managed to stay with me thus far, you are serious about either directing a film or funding one. The only mantra to a successful film is to take it seriously and produce it professionally. Stay away from tropes that make filmmaking look easy. Hire me (click here to contact me) or another experienced professional to help guide you in your first project as Director or Producer. We’ll help you get the training wheels off safely and confidently pedal your way to a successful film product.
Welcome to the “Indian Film Industry,” See you at the movies.
