Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | NXg | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest |

Movie making for dummies

TOO MUCH The film was shot in seven days!

T he last time a white man made a film based on an Indian metro, the results were dramatic, in an Academy Award way, no pun intended. How are Kranti Varma and Rubia Braun different, for one only Rubia is the Westerner, second they do not glorify the slums and nobody wins a million bucks.

“‘Who is Raj?' which is the tagline of the film is also the question we want everyone to be asking. It would be too easy if we just gave it away,” echo both Kranti and Rubia, the makers of the concept film “The Successor: Private And Confidential”.

The duo who have worked with big names in Australia have started their own venture called Metro Brava where they go around the five metros in the country and make films that revolve around the city.

Their debut project, “The Successor” is set in Bangalore and it focuses on the the IT industry.

“The basic format of the film is new and has not been done before. We took everything we knew about film making and threw it out and started in a place completely new to prove that anyone can make a film,” says Rubia, who is from Australia.

For the two film makers the successful completion of their film can be viewed as a case study for the future, which is the foremost point they have been trying to make with this project.

The fact that they come from a background of films and know the industry however does not give them an upper hand.

“We are used to working on films with large budgets and for our film we have worked the entire thing in under five lakhs,” says Kranti, who is a local boy now settled in Australia.

It was an alien territory and they didn't know too many people says Rubia, “Also even if we did have a big celebrity attached to our film it wouldn't fit with the theme and would be entirely pointless,” she says.

Doesn't sound simple. “Of course it was difficult, but definitely not impossible, you need to be in the right frame of mind to deal with the problems, and the best part for us was that everyone got paid, on time,” says Kranti.

“It was a challenge and responsibility we took head on — to open film making to people who really are passionate about it. It got to a point where people offered us money to help out and we had to refuse it,” chips in Rubia.

The film was shot in seven days, on 45 locations with no script. Through their film Rubia and Kranti have established a new business pattern. The film also has a music album which showcases songs by musicians from across the world. They are now focussing on their next film which is going to be completely different. “It deserves to be treated differently. People have skewed ideas of the metro life in India,” says Rubia.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail