Big Budget, Big Risk

on June 16, 2008

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YI Team

tashan trio65 crores is lots of money.
This money has been spent on making the film Dasavatharam.
On the other hand, Bheja Fry was made for around 65 lakhs.
Another superb film, Khosala ka Ghosala (Khosala’s nest) spent not more than a few crores for its making. An important movie like Maine Gandhi ko Nahin Mara was made for little money and earned good returns and several accolades.

Films made on a small budget, despite their genre, have earned good profits for the financiers and the producers.

So there must be a very good reason to make high budget ‘helicopter’ films. What type of reason? Perhaps a new technological innovation.

Film maker Orson Welles used the deep focus technique in Citizen Kane. It meant keeping the background and the foreground in focus at the same time. Welles utilised $500, 000 for this film, which was big money for an unproven, debutant film maker. But spending money on something vibrant and new is a good idea since the money spent is compensated by the novelty of the innovation.

Citizen Kane

In this frame, the foreground and the background are in focus. They are in focus because you can see them clearly. Generally film makers blur the portion that is not relevant to the frame. Here, you can see the boy outside the window, the seated couple and the standing man as three layers or levels of the frame.
This ‘deep-focus’ technique requires sync between the director and the cinematographer because the viewer can choose his or her layer and could be distracted by an unnecessary object or action in any of the layers.
(Information: Kartikey Sehgal)

Let’s compare this to new movies like Summer 2007 and Love Story 2050. You see the most extravagant pans and pulls that do litte for the story or the song. Is it underconfidence that makes the director opt for opulence and compromise acting by flashy editing and camera movements? Satyajit Ray had control over his film and so in Shatranj Ke Khiladi, he avoided lengthy battle sequences, which were not required in the scheme of the script.

Dasavatharam promises the best technical wizardry. This is a good reason to spend money and introduce film lovers to extravagent special effects. Importantly, you can expect a fine performance by Kamal Haasan who has, in the recent past, mixed technology and cinema to good effect in his films. This risk sounds good.

Can you expect the same from a Love Story 2050? Without the guarantee of a sound script and proven performers, movies with big budgets are a risk. Such movies have to rely on ‘entertainment value’; a few laughs from some comedians, some popular songs and a good looking lead pair with enormous fan following. This is an enormous risk and sounds bad.

Every cinematic risk needs to be backed by the film maker’s commitment to cinematic excellence.

Finally, a tribute to a ‘big’ film that has done minimal business at the box office. This link takes you to a classy song that the movie could not have done without.
This is an example of the bad risk we talked about.

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