The indie film factory

Neeraj Ghaywan recounts the excruciating moments leading up to the screening of his much-feted movie Masaan at Cannes. "I was working up a sweat before the film started. I was worried that the audience might not understand what I wanted to show," he says. The fears were unfounded. The film, on the unshackling of moral codes in a changing society with the ghats of Varanasi in the backdrop, got an ovation of more than five minutes. It went on to pick up a special jury prize for a debut film at the Cannes' Certain Regard, and the FIPRESCI Prize in the main competition section, an unprecedented win for an Indian film. Understandably, Ghaywan, who was earlier assistant director for Gangs of Wasseypur, broke down.

Behind his smashing Cannes debut was Manish Mundra and his company Drishyam Films, which has been hailed as a savior by many in the indie film circuit. All it took Mundra – the Dubai-based managing director of a billion dollar petrochemical company – to be convinced about Masaan's script was a day. "Or 30 minutes, if Manish had his way," says screenplay writer Varun Grover.
"I showed him the script at a hotel close to the airport and narrated the idea. His reply was, 'Paise kahan transfer karne hai?' (Where do I transfer the money?)," says Grover, who has penned the lyrics in Rajat Kapoor's Aankhon Dekhi, also financed by Mundra.

Mundra's decisions to finance a film have been purely instinctive — almost all the films he's helped realise were decided within hours. So, when he formed Drishyam Films early this year, it could not have been more encouraging.

Drishyam Films' Masaan releases in India on July 24. Also lined up for release this year are Anu Menon's Waiting, starring Kalki Koechlin and Naseeruddin Shah, and X-The Film, an experimental film that involves the work of 10 directors, including Rajshree Ojha, Sudhish Kamath, Suparn Verma and Raja Sen.

This is quite a coup. The new office space, nestled between Yashraj Studios and Balaji Telefilms in Mumbai, is unprecedented for a company with a modest start. But a glance at the accolades is good enough to silence the critics. While Aankhon Dekhi picked up three Filmfare and two Screen awards, Nagesh Kukunoor's Dhanak bagged the Grand Jury prize and a Special Mention at the Children's Jury of the Berlin Film festival this year and Prashant Nair's Umrika picked up the audience award in the World Cinema Dramatic section at Sundance this year.

Mundra is known to pledge financial help over tweets. In Jodhpur, where he's originally from, he runs a school that provides free education and meals and takes care of HIV positive children. Last year, he pumped in Rs50 lakh into Mumbai Film Festival when it was facing a shut-down because of a lack of funds.

Shiladitya Bora, who recently joined Drishyam as CEO from PVR, says the company is not looking to back just indie films. "We're simply looking for a content-driven script," he says. The plan is to produce two or three good films every year, apart from a few purely international projects. The vision, Bora asserts, "is to build a company like Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures known for films like Zero Dark Thirty, Foxcatcher, American Hustle, etc. We want to build a self-sustaining global studio on the lines of Miramax and take the vision of championing good content to the next level."

His own film, Minefield, about the Sri Lankan civil war, will be produced by Prasanna Vithanage. He's just completed the screenplay. "I am in no hurry and will give as much time as required at each of the stages."

Apart from producing and distributing relevant cinema, and some international projects, Drishyam aims to nurture good talent. An industry insider confides that while other acclaimed indie production houses can help with the production process, Drishyam stands out because of Mundra's intent to build a system that will take full responsibility of the film, from script to screen. The Drishyam-Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab, held in Goa in April, is an example.

"Mundra's vision differs in the way he wants to work on script development, and not just limit himself to the production process," says Srinivas Narayan, who held the lab in India, and is former director of Mumbai MAMI. There is no return in mind, just a vision to take Indian indie cinema to the global platform, he says. "This requires a sustained effort; and in the coming five years, he has a road map in mind that involves considerable effort."

Film critic and filmmaker Kamath says that the tendency to make a hero out of Mundra is not fair. "He's got everyone in Versova excited. And, I think, that's putting undue pressure on him. I get worried for that man," he says.

Mundra is not keen to be seen as a hero, says Bora. Hailing from the Assam town of Jorhat, Bora says Mundra has given him "a once in a life opportunity" to do what he always wanted to. Clearly, Bora is not the only one.