Technology is liberating storytellers: Imtiaz Ali
28 September 2023
New Delhi
Changing mindset is a slow process but art has a way of subliminally impacting what people think...Art can challenge prejudices...If it was not so, it would not be a threat and films and books would not be banned, said Ms Nandita Das, actor and film-maker. "Art is a medium of slow, personal, and collective change," she told the audience at the 50th National Management Convention organized by All India Management Association (AIMA). She said that her film 'Zwigato' has managed to make many people more kind towards the food delivery workers.
Ms Nandita Das said that while the mainstream cinema will always have the upper hand because of its funding and reach, there would always be space for cinema with a conscience. "The world is not just for towing the line," she said. She argued that cinema is either good or bad, and good cinema provides all emotional experiences. "People do not want to be told to do this or that and I would never harp on any message," she said.
Talking about the OTT medium, Ms Das said that it has opened another space to watch films, especially films in other languages with subtitles. "The sad part is that a film has to be a spectacle to get a theatre release," she said.
Mr Imtiaz Ali, film writer and director, said that it is not the cinema that is changing for the new medium, but the medium is changing to suit the needs of the storyteller. He said that earlier he could only think of making a feature film irrespective of the duration required by a story. "Theatre cinema is plot driven and I could not do justice to the character," he said. The arrival of OTT has created the option of making longer duration, character-based shows, he said.
Talking about the threat to movie theatres from pocket cinema, Mr Imtiaz Ali said that every time a new technology has come, theatres have faced the fear of extinction - TV, VCR, piracy, and now OTT are seen as threats to theatres. He said that whenever films have stopped working it has been because of lack of fresh stories. He said that when formula films stopped working, new directors like Anurag Kahsyap, Timangshu Dhulia, and Vishal Bhardwaj found an opportunity to tell different stories and the new stories worked. "We told stories that we knew...I tell stories that come to me and I don't fabricate stories based on what the market says," he said.
On the potential impact of generative AI on cinema, Mr Ali said that AI has not hit Indian film industry yet. "It will do something, but there will be ways of circumventing that," he said, adding, "The basic creativity, story, seed would still be human. The audience is human and the people see what is AI generated and what is human created."
Regarding the social media campaigns to boycott certain films, Mr Ali said that it has become very easy to harm someone's film. "All film makers are nervous at the time of release because anything can set off negative sentiments," he said. However, he insisted that the audience is aware of cancel culture and they still like to go and watch a film. "The people are the only saviours," he said.
Ms Nandita Das stressed that there should be freedom for all in telling stories. "To believe in your freedom, you must believe in others' freedom," she said, adding, "With freedom comes responsibility."
The session was also livestreamed on AIMA's social media channels.
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