In Europe, independent producers are called tastemakers, but in India, the breed was almost extinct until a spunky girl from Delhi emerged in the field. Combining passion and pragmatism, Guneet Monga rose up the ranks to sell interesting Indian stories to the world. Tell her an idea whose time has come and Guneet will give it the right shape and size to make it commercially viable, festival-friendly and award-worthy.
We woke up with the touch of Guneet LunchboxA decade and two Academy Awards later, he tells us what a classic genre film tastes like. StrikeA rare critic-friendly action thriller that has found life at the box office, Strike This is also Guneet’s Sikhya Entertainment’s second collaboration with Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions. This unexpected pairing of independent voice and mass appeal is taking the partnership forward eleven elevenA police procedural that takes the form of a mystery thriller, will release on ZEE5 on August 9.
“We need more producers who are willing to go the extra mile and innovate in the business of cinema,” says Guneet.
“I am doing something new every day,” says Guneet, who is in Delhi to visit her ailing mother-in-law. She describes herself as a “production geek” who is willing to do anything to make a film. “I did crowd-funding when there was no structure for films. Vendors And BasterdI have worked hard for many years to open the doors for collaboration with foreign production and distribution companies like Pathé.”
Guneet says, “We need more producers in our film industry who are willing to travel the extra mile and innovate in the business of cinema.” She adds that post Covid-19, things became “challenging for all of us”, forcing producers to look for new ideas to keep the audience engaged. “We are a 100% equity industry. I can disrupt it one story at a time. I am not a studio. I cannot do it on a large scale. It takes two to three years to make a film. So it is incredible that family-run production houses are joining hands with us.”
Some excerpts from an interview…
How do you see your association with Karan Johar?
It is empowering. I am independent and as commercial as Dharma is in Hindi cinema, I see it as a great partnership of content and scale that gives a pan-India reach. I think Karan is also a cinema lover at heart. He saw the potential in it Lunchbox And it was very helpful when other people did it. made this body (What have you made of?) A decade later, we come together again Strike This is yet again a one of its kind effort that has brought the extreme action genre to the fore in India.
What inspired you to experiment with the classic action genre in India?
Stylish action movies like old boy, kill BillAnd this john wick Both these series have done well in India. Quentin Tarantino has a huge fan following here. deadpool and wolverine Despite being an adult film, this film has opened very big. Why can’t we do it in the Indian setting? Strike It is an expensive independent film, which required a certain budget and distribution network, and the partnership with Dharma helped make it a reality.
How do you view the excessive violence in the film?
Strike It is a classic genre film. Calling it violent is like saying that a horror film made you feel very scary. Right from the start, we said that it is India’s most violent film. It is a thought-provoking screenplay that does not celebrate violence; the film is based on the idea that violence leaves no winner. After a point, you start feeling bad for the goons. They are unemployed youths who boarded a train for a petty robbery but the sequence of events goes out of control. It is one of the best reviewed films by critics and is being remade in English.
While Indian documentaries are making their mark at the Oscars, our feature films are failing to make it to the Best Foreign Film category…
For feature films, an Indian committee selects the contenders. But documentaries don’t have to go through such a process; the committee has to select films with solid US distribution because it’s an American award. I’m not saying it will guarantee the award but if you work with a US distribution network, the chances are higher – if not today, maybe five years from now we’ll be able to do it right.
It is both expensive and tedious for Indian producers to run a campaign in the US. With an American distributor, the film is more likely to be written about and become part of popular culture. end of sentence period AndElephant WhisperersWe were with Netflix. Its offices helped us understand the process and help us reach out to different voters with the documentary.
A scene from ‘The Elephant Whisperers’, which won the Best Short Documentary Award at the 95th Oscars
Do you go back to the locations where documentaries are shot to find out what impact they had on the lives of the people honored or talked about in these films?
As filmmakers, we tell stories. The socio-economic impact is a larger conversation that is beyond us, but I am in the midst of setting up a rural distribution network. I have tied up with Frontier Now, She Leads India and Equality Now to take documentaries to the grassroots. Theatres don’t screen them. There has been digitisation, but are streaming platforms keen on this form?
I organised a few screenings in and around Hapur (where end of sentence period was founded recently, and also held a fundraiser in Los Angeles. I have money to hold ten screenings, but now I am raising money to hold 10000 screenings so that it becomes a movement.
There was a time when you used NFDC and government treaties for foreign collaborations, but now you are working with private equity. Has this affected the content?
The treaty with France was signed in 1985, but I was the first person to use it. Lunchbox and the second time MasaanI am still doing co-productions, but they are structured differently now. I am doing co-productions with the US, where we don’t have a treaty. It depends from producer to producer and the vibe of the production. I have also worked with Balaji Pictures Pagglait And KathalI think they were independent films but they found a place on Netflix. It depends on how you want to tell your story.
