FICCI Frames 2018 presented an interesting conversation, more like a fireside chat, with ace ad film maker and subsequently feature film director R Balki, who opened up spontaneously as he chatted with senior journalist Anuradha Sengupta.
Balki went nostalgic about his journey from ad films to his first feature film with the Amitabh Bachchan- Tabu-Paresh Rawal starrer Cheeni Kum to his latest feature film starring Akshaye Kumar and Radhika Apte, Padman.
It is a sign of the times that a film with a subject like Padman is today a multi-crore hit; in the days before digital and the internet, a subject like this would have ended straight into a freefall on the box office. While this did not come up during the chat, it was apt that a masterclass with Balki happened during India’s biggest Media & Entertainment gathering for the B2B space, themed “Re-Imagining India’s Media & Entertainment Sector’.
To cut back to the masterclass: Balki shared that he has a truly special relationship with Amitabh Bachchan, saying he is a bigger fan of Bachchan senior than of anyone else.
The conversation began with how the entire process of making a film starts with an inspiration and went on to how things should ideally be rather than how they actually are. Balki said he believes dialogues are the most important part of a script, and revealed that some actor have such a good sense of the script that it is better than that of even the writer of the film.
He also said that the most important aspect a film maker should concentrate upon is that his or her film must engage and entertainment people, and never try to preach. That, he shared, was also why he manages to make content-oriented films. It always helps if a message is delivered in an entertaining matter, he said.
He said that what has helped the cause of content-oriented films is that now, such films have many more screens available to them, and therefore, more exposure. This is what has helped the production of more such films.
Authored by Yohan PC at FICCI Frames 2018
