October 4, 2017
Bollywood director Sujoy Ghosh, whose first short film "Ahalya" took
the Internet by storm, on Wednesday said the digital platform for film making is
the future as it empowers the audience and liberates them to choose how and when
they would like to watch a film.
"I do not think the moviegoers would
completely shift to the digital platform, but they are becoming increasingly
fond of the platform as it is more empowering. In the digital format, the
audience has the freedom to pick and choose when and how he or she would like to
watch the film," Ghosh told IANS on the sidelines of the screening of his latest
short film "Anukul" presented by Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films
here.
The 18-minute-long film, derived from a Satyajit Ray story written
in 1976, revolves around the relationship between Nikunj Chaturvedi, a
well-to-do Hindi teacher, and his robot Anukul, hired for domestic services.
Veteran actor Saurabh Shukla and Kolkata-based Parambroto Chatterjee feature
in the two key roles in this film dealing with ideas such as intelligence versus
instinct, faithfulness and the eternal debate between right and wrong.
Ghosh, the director of famous Bollywood film "Kahaani", said there is a chance
that apart from the big films, most of the other genre of films would shift to
the digital platform in the future.
"I strongly believe that we go to the
cinema for an experience and for that experience to be good, I think it needs to
be big, be it in terms of presentation or idea. It is possible that apart from
big platform cinema like "Baahubali" or a big thought and big platform film,
everything else would shift to the digital platform in future," Ghosh said.
Talking about the challenges in making the film for the digital platform,
Ghosh said while the platform provides a better reach to the audience as a
filmmaker, it also demands a greater amount of dedication and hard work.
"As the audience on the Internet is not limited to a country or a community,
more effort needs to be put in creating things like subtitles or the language of
the film so that it can reach everyone," he said.
Asserting that making a
short film needs the same amount of effort and efficiency like making a full
length feature film, the director said the makers should focus more on the
content of cinema rather than worrying about its length and which category it
would fall into.
"A film is a film and every film, irrespective of its
duration, demands the same kind of effort. Whether it is a short film or a full
length feature film, it does not make a lot of difference in terms of direction,
acting, sound design or cinematography," Ghosh said.
"I think we should
not worry about making short films or medium films or large films. We should
focus on making films. And the time it takes us to tell the story would
categorise whether it would go to the web, to the screen or any other format."