Renowned actor Manisha Koirala (‘Bombay’, ‘1942: A Love Story’, ‘Khamoshi’) and filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane (‘Udaan’, ‘Trapped’) at the International Film Festival During the session, we discussed the evolving landscape between theaters and streaming platforms. Festival of India (IFFI) held in Goa. Koirala also revealed plans to write a comedy book about the 1990s and 2000s actresses adapting to Gen Z culture.
“For me as an actor, whether it’s the big screen or a web series, the amount of work required is the same, it requires integrity. Preparation, mindset, everything is the same,” Sanjay Leela Bhansali recently said. said Koirala, who starred in the director’s hit Netflix series ‘Heeramandi: Diamond Bazaar’.
Motwane, who directed Prime Video’s “Jubilee” and Netflix’s “Sacred Games,” noted that streaming offers more creative flexibility. “The great thing about streaming is that in theatrical productions, you’re not stuck with, ‘The movie has to be made in two to two-and-a-half hours.’ You have a story, you have a nail. This could be a movie, it could be 10 one-hour episodes spread over five seasons, or it could be 20-minute episodes. ”
The filmmaker, whose debut feature ‘Udaan’ was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, revealed that ‘Sacred Games’, an adaptation of Vikram Chandra’s best-selling novel, served as a learning experience for the series. “Netflix said, okay, this is the book. We picked it up and took it apart. It took six months longer than planned, but we figured it out. This format. Understand how it works, what a cliffhanger is, and why you need a cliffhanger at the end if you want people to jump to the next episode.
Both agreed that streaming opens up more opportunities for diverse storytelling and roles for veteran actresses. “Thanks to OTT [streaming] Not only on the platform but also the audience, older actresses are playing meaty roles in films,” Koirala pointed out. “That space exists because the hearts and minds of the audience have expanded.”
The filmmaker revealed that his work with streaming has made it more efficient to produce feature films. “What we learned from ‘Sacred Games’ and ‘Jubilee’ has actually helped with the characterization, because now we shoot much faster. We went through five pages a day. All 10 episodes, Jubilee, which consists of one-hour episodes, was filmed in 90 days and included 10 lip-synced songs.
Motwane pointed out that India is still adjusting to the showrunner format common in international series. “We’re still new to the showrunner format in this country. We need to clarify this, we need to build on this a little bit more, so more new directors can come. It will be done.”
According to Motwane, the rise in private viewing on mobile devices is also impacting content consumption patterns in India. “India is a country that first introduced the internet through the phone rather than broadband. The first device most people choose is a mobile phone, which allows for private viewing.”
The session was curated by festival director Shekhar Kapur.
