Commercial Angle In 'Art Film Making'

It is often noticed that the very mention of the word ‘art film’ tends to bring a frown on the face of many masses. They assume it to be a rather boring and with a black and white message sans entertainment, glamour and visual appeal. However, the recent trends have shown an enormous increase in the number of movie makers showing interest towards art movies. While some among the group consider movie making as an art and a means to spread message and awareness in the society, there is also another group that has got its head in this art as well. Apparently, they have listed out few benefits of making an art film. Firstly, the recognition factor would be much higher given the fact that it is going to be global and the patrons would be higher. To add to that, if the film is good, then they tend to win awards during international film festivals. Once that happens, there are chances that it may get Indian National award. With that, the government has got a policy wherein the Doordarshan gives Rs 15 lakhs. Added to that, there are many local celebrities who are connoisseurs of such art movies and as patrons; they would give a few lakhs as encouragement (it happened for Tanikella Bharani’s ‘Sira’ where CC Reddy presented Rs 1 Lakh and others some more lakhs in different screenings of the movie). The icing on the cake is that on a whole, the investment factor will be just between Rs 5- Rs 15 lakhs. There are times when folks earned almost 4 times the investment. For producers, it is definitely better than making a commercial film @ Rs 25 crore and shedding tears once it bites mud. Indeed, not every commercial film can be a Magadheera or Kick. While the commercial angle in this art film making seems to be quite tempting, there are enough challenges in this genre. Creating awareness and getting to spread the word is one major hurdle. Also, with many talented youngsters showing interest in this field, the competition has become high and with the little awareness, even the film festival audience has also increased in good numbers. Earlier, it was just cities like Delhi, Mumbai that had such events but now even places like Hyderabad, Chennai, Cochin have got into it extensively and are promoting art films in a big way. True art film lovers say that there is a need for such films to come to the society since the message they have is clean and creates an impact to improve the current conditions. The statistics of making such movies has already been shown to you. What’s your take on this?!