Exclusive: Wallowing in Self Pity, NFDC In Dire Need of a Shake-up

Wallowing in self pity, the rigid organisational structure of NFDC needs a shake-up badly, writes Khalid Mohamed.

Don’t miss the beginning.

The opening of the expert-packed Evaluation Committee’s report on the government’s film bodies kicks off rather thrillingly. It moves right into top gear, stating, “The fundamental question when we evaluated the workings of the National Film Development Corporation was why we need to give the tax payers’ money to the production of films?”

Is it to provide support to an art form? Or is it to provide extra capital to an industry?

The august committee opted for art form over the (film) industry, which it is then observed would merely bolster “the tyranny of the market place.”

A round of applause is due to the committee for expressing genuine concern over the tax-payers’ money. Alas, the evaluation report was binned by the previous government without so much as a, “Sorry guys for wasting your valuable time over a futile brainstorm.”

Long Awaited Revamp

The presiding government, too, appears to be in no mood for a renewal programme of the half-awake-half-snoring NFDC, which occupies precious space in the Nehru Centre’s high rise opposite Mumbai’s Haji Ali sea face at Worli.

The building is shaped like a vintage cigarette tin but it isn’t exactly smoking cinema out there right now. It has either kicked the habit or sneaks in a drag or two occasionally.

Lore goes that it was that NFDC’s earlier avatar, the Film Finance Corporation, an official body to encourage parallel cinema, was founded at the behest of Mrs Indira Gandhi. Let a hundred flowers bloom. And they did at the turn of the 1960s right into the 1980s.

Once supportive of the nation’s best filmmakers ranging from Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal, Basu Chatterjee, Mani Kaul, Govind Nihalani, Kundan Shah and many more (hello, it even co-produced Sir Richard Attenborough’s Oscar garlanded Gandhi), it’s now a ground where angels fear to tread.

Or even compel journos like me to shudder. Will I be permitted to pass through its glass doors for a tête-à-tête with the chairman, managing director, whoever, for an update on what’s happening, guys?

Marred By Red Tape

Also, I wanted to know if they would be at all interested in marketing my documentary on Shyam Benegal? I could neither get an update, nor a “not interested” response on the Benegal docu.

Jaane bhi do yaaron, I told myself stoically, while NFDC’s lumbering PR agent growled, “Everyone is busy” adding words to the effect, “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.”  Around that time, the corporation was chuffed with the marketing success of The Lunchbox. Plus, its log was associated with the international marketing of Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. So who needs squirts like moi? Ah, c’est la vie NFDC.

Celebrity names like Ramesh Sippy, Om Puri and Hema Malini have been appointed as its chairperson down the years in the recent past. Did they do anything constructive? Change the Alcatraz-like system out there? If they did, my cup of knowledge needs a refill. Seriously, on the rocks.

Back now to the recommendations listed on that binned report of the Evaluation Committee. Here are synopsised excerpts:

• Films supported or funded by the NFDC should strive for innovative cinema which would garner critical acclaim. Risks should be taken instead of falling in line with the mainstream movie structure, which may be lively and vibrant but has its own profit-centric ethos.

• The selection of projects – meaning the incubation and approval of scripts – should be stringent and transparent.

• Regional cinema should be accorded its due importance. International co-productions should be encouraged. Ditto films based on Indian literary works.

• First-time filmmakers who come with strong scripts as well as established directors must form the backbone of NFDC.

• The body should be renamed to underscore its Indian identity. So how about the National Film Development Corporation of India, please? At its inception back in the 1960s, it was tersely known as the Film Finance Corporation (FFC). In 1975, it became the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC).

• The production of feature length documentaries should be initiated.

• Publicity and marketing are a must-do.

• An additional amount of Rs 30 crore to the present budget (amount undisclosed ) should be allotted to NFDC.

Noble thoughts and recommendations, indeed. But till these are put into practice – if any enlightened soul has the time and the wherewithal – they will remain on paper, wasting away in the narrow corridors of the ministry of information and broadcasting.

And so hundreds of flowers are about to wilt.

(The writer is a film critic, filmmaker, theatre director and weekend painter)