ENTERTAINMENT
Many aces up his sleeves
Saibal Chatterjee

For more than a year now, India has been on Hollywood producer Ashok Amritraj’s radar again. It is the absence of a fitting screenplay that is holding him back. He says, "Among the scripts that have been coming to me are for standard Bollywood fare. There is no reason for me to do that. I am looking for something different, something special."

From left: Director Anand Tucker, Ashok Amritraj and Steve Martin during the making of Shopgirl; and a still from The Double, which one of Amritraj’s recent productions

While he waits for that "something special" to turn up, Amritraj, who is among the most successful independent producers in the business today and has four major productions in the pipeline, is in the midst of a television project, particularly close to his heart: a filmmaking talent hunt.

The non-scripted television show, Chance of a Lifetime, features a dozen aspiring filmmakers from India, the UAE and Singapore competing to make the ‘best’ short film on any of the social issues listed in the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals.

The shoot was wrapped up with a final schedule at the 66th`A0Cannes Film Festival in mid-May. Negotiations are now on with television networks the world over. The six one-hour episodes produced and hosted by Amritraj are likely to go on air by the end of the year.

"I’m really excited about the show," he says. "The idea is to bring young filmmakers from different cultures together as they shine the spotlight on pressing issues facing the world. Altogether 150 million and 200 million people are expected to watch Chance of a Lifetime."

In Chance of a Lifetime, produced by Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment in collaboration with the United Nations, UCLA Burkle Center, Image Nation Abu Dhabi and Variety magazine, four teams were made up of three contestants, one from each region.

Each team was given a series of tasks involving the making of short films of varied lengths on global concerns such as universal education, access to water, women’s empowerment and health for all. The contest culminated in the making of the winning film — a 10-minute documentary.

A still from Ghost Rider — Spirit of Vengeance

The eventual winner has already been chosen. The world will know who the winners are when Chance of a Lifetime is aired. Besides Amritraj himself, among the filmmakers who appeared as judges on the show were Ketan Mehta, Santosh Sivan, Nagesh Kukunoor and Anubhav Sinha.

Amritraj produced his last Indian film — Jeans, a Tamil-Hindi bilingual starring Aishwarya Rai — way back in 1998.

"As a whole, the Indian movie industry operates in a chaotic fashion but everyone out there seems to understand how it works," says the feted producer of more than 100 films made over a period of three decades.

He is now planning another shot at an Indian film because "the entertainment industry here is far more organised today than what it was when I produced Jeans 15 years ago". Amritraj is also enthused by the fact that "some interesting films are being made in India although basically the classic Bollywood stuff still dominates the cinema landscape".

A still from The Other End of the Line

He believes that the scenario needs to change at a much faster clip.

"India has been at the crossroads for some years now. Real growth happens only when you make different kinds of films that can travel across the world," he adds.

"The ‘Bollywood’ coinage is probably at fault," he says. "Unfortunately, penetration for quality regional cinema is limited even within India although they win National Awards and are critically applauded. Regional films are far more culturally rooted. These are the ones that should be pushed more aggressively."

Amritraj puts the problem in perspective by pointing to two sides of the big picture.

He points out that it has taken filmmakers from the West to come to India and produce real gems (Gandhi, Slumdog Millionaire, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Life of Pi).

He adds that the only authentic cultural exports that India has produced in all these years are Satyajit Ray, Pandit Ravi Shankar and, to a lesser extent, Zubin Mehta. "Everything else is a little bit of PR," he says.

"We do like to believe that Indian cinema is doing extraordinary things, that it is growing, but the truth is that this growth could be much faster," says Amritraj, whose recent productions include films like Ghost Rider – Spirit of Vengeance, The Double, Bringing down the House, Shopgirl and Premonition.

Among Hyde Park’s upcoming titles is Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return, a 3D animated musical adventure that brings back many of the characters from Wizard of Oz, voiced by Lea Michele, Dan Aykroyd, Jim Belushi, Kelsey Grammer and Martin Short.

Also in the mix are a "big family adventure film", Midnight Sun, a drama about a boy and a polar bear set in Canada and starring teen actor Dakota Goyo; Every Secret Thing, adapted from a Laura Lippman detective novel; and an untitled project based on an Elmore Leonard crime tale starring Jennifer Aniston, Tim Robbins and Isla Fisher.