A film centre, walking distance from the sea in Mumbai's Bandra; with a cafe, a bookstore and a 100-seater theatre that will show only independent cinema and documentaries.
Hipsters, find a bucket for your drool. Intellectuals, inhale and then exhale, slowly. Film geeks, do your happy dance. Bengalis, try not to faint. Thanks to the concerted efforts of National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) and the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), Mumbai is going to have its first centre for alternative cinema.
Christened FilmBay, the centre is intended to be a temple to alternative cinema.
"It has long been my dream to have a space for cinema as art," said Kiran Rao, who will be heading up FilmBay, "where one can experience and engage in different ways with a diverse and challenging array of films, and FilmBay is that dream coming true."
Rao isn't the only one with such a dream. The loyal and sizeable turnout at events like the Mumbai Film Festival, held annually in the city, is proof that there is an audience for non-mainstream films, despite what producers and distributors might say. So for those thousands, if not anyone else, FilmBay is a dream come true. Considering how all-pervading Bollywood is, especially now that films do tie-ups with retail brands, the idea of a space that won't be invaded by commercial cinema sounds like a godsend.
But can FilmBay really be the forum for a "diverse and challenging array of films", the way Rao has envisioned? Fifty Shades of Grey was considered too challenging for India, and all it had were a few nipple shots and blink-and-miss-it glimpses of pubic fuzz. There was not a single revolutionary idea in that film - unless you consider the idea of a blindfold and a room with truly ugly red upholstery a revolution - yet even the edited version of the film submitted to the Central Board of Film Certification didn't get an ok.
So you've got to wonder: what are Indian independent cinema's chances of posing real challenges to its local audience?
With Bollywood bigwigs like Yash Raj Films and Dharma Productions taking a few indie films under their wing, some of us might have forgotten that alternative cinema in India has a long tradition of raising uncomfortable questions. Known as "parallel" cinema back in the 1960s, filmmakers who belonged to this genre took pride in their anti-establishment politics and liberalism. They made films that were unlikely to be financially viable, but were rich in ideas and idealism.
For 20 years, parallel cinema fought the good fight and found an ally in quasi-governmental agencies like Films' Division and NFDC, which helped produce most of what would be called independent cinema today. As the cost of making films increased and the budgets available to NFDC were slashed, parallel film floundered in the 1990s. Few filmmakers were able to rise above predictability and preachiness.
However, there was a resurgence in the 2000s, as a new lot of directors arrived on the scene and were inspired by the techniques of foreign films that the internet made available to them. A more contemporary voice has emerged in Indian indie cinema today. We rarely get to see the Indian films that win acclaim in the indie film circuit and win prizes at festival. Even when the films have Bollywood backing, the local studios back the commercial projects. This is why a film like Kanu Behl's Titli has been screened around the world, won rave reviews, but remains unknown in India despite belonging to YRF. With FilmBay, the hope is that films like Titli will become available to Indian audiences and create a more diverse and varied film culture in India.
But standing between many of these films and their audiences are two significant obstacles: three ministries whose anxiety borders on paranoia and the CBFC, the self-appointed protector India's most delicate sensibilities.
Even though it has traditionally had people from the film fraternity in its board, the CBFC has never been best buddies with the industry. However, the kind of wrangling we've seen from the censor board this year is a new low in the relationship. The new CBFC board, appointed in January 2015, has so far objected to random words, abusive language, nudity, references to sex, depictions of carnal frolicking and violence.
What's left of an average Bollywood film, you may ask. Well, if it's a Rajshri production, everything. As for other films: the opening and end credits, as well as the boring bits. The CBFC's demands have ranged from offensive to ludicrous and you get a sense of the film industry's frustration when director Vishal Bharadwaj says "the censor board is behaving like the Taliban".
Predictably, smaller films are the ones that bear the brunt of this moral guardianship. Blockbusters tend to be conservative. It's a surefire way to appeal to the most number of people. The worst a big-budget film will suffer is having to lose an 'item number' or a titillating sequence. Cynics will point out that such superficial snips can generate the kind of controversy that turns out to be excellent publicity.
For smaller films, particularly those with across bold themes, the CBFC's censure can be a deathly blow. The kind of films one would expect to see in FilmBay would probably be most likely to earn the current CBFC's disapproval. Take, for example, director Navdeep Singh's experience when NH10 was presented for certification to the board. This is from an interview of Singh's, in which he spoke about NH10's encounter with the CBFC:
"But the first time we went for the censor certificate, half the members wanted to ban the film. ... That's when we went to the revising committee. It was a surreal experience. There was a lady who seemed 'liberal' - and I made that judgement by the cotton sari, bindi and silver jewellery she was wearing - I thought she would be on our side, but she was the one who said that the film needs to be banned, 'because you guys are giving ideas to men on how to be violent towards women'. I argued with her that real life is more horrific, and there are instances like the Delhi gangrape. She said, 'Yeh sab educated women ke liye hota hai (These things are for educated women), masses influence hote hain'."
Never mind the elitism and ignorance in the censor board member's opinion, the key takeaway is that the CBFC is viewing every film only from the perspective of the ill-informed. According to CBFC, that is the mass of the Indian population. It's this understanding of the nation that leads CBFC to assume adults can't deal with hearing abusive language in an A-rated film.
The government's faith in us doesn't improve much even when the target audience is more aware and/or educated, as would be the case for documentary films. The Economic Times reported that the government has instructed greater scrutiny of proposals for shooting non-fiction projects.
"Officials in three ministries - Home, Information & Broadcasting and the Ministry of External Affairs - have been ordered to keep a close watch on proposals for shooting movies or documentaries, especially by foreigners, that are pending approvals, officials in these ministries have told ET. As part of this exercise, more than 200 permissions granted in the past couple of years will now be reviewed, ostensibly to ensure that these 'do not spoil the image of the country'."
From the sound of things, Sesame Street may prove to be more provocative than the average documentary on India at this rate.
It would be naive to assume that this "fool-proof system" of review is only to ensure foreign filmmakers don't get access to subjects that the government thinks should be kept out of public eye. The gag on Indians will feel tighter - after all, these are our own stories that we will be barred from telling. There's so much of our history that is already shrouded in lack of documentation and silence. It seems our present is doomed to suffer a similar fate.
Of course, no one from the government seems to notice the piercing irony that the repressive policy that is supposed to prettify the country's image is more damaging to India's reputation than a documentary. Just look at how countries like China and Iran are castigated internationally for restricting free speech. It seems like we may be on our way to join that elite list.
What's being done in the name of preserving India's reputation may well be among the death blows to creativity in India. Our culture is not the mediocre, blinkered monstrosity that the contemporary political establishment is fashioning, but if we're not careful and inventive, the CBFC's bonsai version of Indian culture and its brethren may be all that we're left with in the future.
It's heartening to remember that despite decades of repressive policies and censorship, both China and Iran are home to some of the boldest filmmakers, writers and artists. Some of them have suffered terribly for their commitment to their art, while others have have managed to tell the stories they wanted to, but with subtlety. Often, politics hides in their films like the pea under the pile of mattresses in the fairy tale about the princess and the pea.
Perhaps we can use the way Bollywood dismisses reality to reflect upon the absurdity of contemporary India. Maybe our filmmakers and storytellers will find their own distinctive way of embedding reality in fiction or smuggling non-fiction out into the open. There are so many stories in India that need to be told, but they need to be told in a way that doesn't leave the storytellers gagged.
Let's hope our filmmakers - and poets, novelists, artists, musicians, and storytellers of all shape and form - are up to the challenge before them.
So can FilmBay live up to Rao's vision of being home to a diverse and challenging array of films? At present, that's a tall order.
