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| Wednesday, September 17, 2008 |
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Mumbai
For my next film, I’ve been casting and putting together a crew and it gave me a chance to meet lots of aspiring actors ( I hate the word struggler), writers, assistants, DOP’s from all across the country. Somewhere, two things are common amongst all these passionate, aspiring, talented future film-makers. They all thought Bollywood is a bad world and the day we start working like Hollywood, things will change. Second, I found most of them under-prepared.
Now, first thing first. I love reading biographies & interviews of all time great directors, producers, actors and specially writers. I thought I must share some of their views as it may give you guys insights into the business of filmmaking in Hollywood. Hope you enjoy:
‘…people today don’t respect screenwriting as an art. People didn’t think this way in the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s.
“Understand this: all the sleaze you’ve heard about Hollywood? All the illiterate scumbags who scuttle down the corridors of power? They are there, all right, and worse than you can imagine.” Screenwriter William Goldman
“In this town everybody’s a whore. Everybody can be bought.”Producer Robert Evans
“The ladder of success in Hollywood is usually agent, actor, director, producer, leading man; and you are a star if you sleep with each of them in that order. Crude but true.” Hedy Lamarr
“Movie business is probably the most irrational business in the world … it is covered by a set of rules that are absolutely irrational.” Mike Medavoy
“Hollywood is a place where they’ll pay you thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for fifty cents.” Marilyn Monroe
“In this business, you don’t get what’s fair. You get what you negotiate.” Peter Guber
Sixty years ago, studio head Howard Hughes sent his executives a memo saying he only wanted to make movies “about fighting and fucking.”
“Well, that’s the last cock I have to suck,” said Marilyn Monroe after she signed her first big studio contract.
Well, well, well. It is a dirty world. Almost everywhere.
Very often people trying to make it in this World-of-Glamour feel that the world is divided between two. Them, the lucky ones & US, the talented ones. Its not wrong to feel that way but it’s not true either. Lucky is not necessarily success or fame or money. Lucky is being able to be free. Being able to do. Being able to choose.
There is a Buddhist tale about a turtle, the turtle is moving through a swamp, covered in mud, when it passes in front of a temple. There it sees a turtle shell, all covered in gold and precious stones. "I don’t envy you, old friend," thought the turtle. "You’re covered in jewels, but I’m doing what I want to."
Also practically everyone is trying to hit it big without investing, reflecting, introspecting, reinventing. Last year a young aspiring actor told me “Sir, I’m working so hard still I’m not getting any work.” “How are you working so hard if you don’t have any work,” I asked him. “Sir, I spend 3 hours working out, 2 hours of dance classes, 2 hours of fight lessons, 1 hour of swimming…then I’ve to do my skin treatment etc… etc and nights I have to socialize for PR so… ” “But when do you act’ I asked. “What do you mean? Nobody has given me an acting job yet?” “But nobody has given you body-building, dancing, PR jobs either.” I questioned.
He understood. He met me recently and he wasn’t a muscular, vanity-conscious boy anymore. There was inner joy and character written all over his face. He said “Thank you sir. I hated you that day but then it started making sense but I had no idea where to start. Nobody was giving me any chance. So, I started going for auditions. They are free and anyone can go. In last year I have done more than 700 auditions for almost all kind of characters. This was my schooling and recently I got my first big job.” Yes, he is going to do a very critical role in an A+ list project.
This is exactly what I keep telling all my writer friends, ADs etc. When we don’t have any work, then is the best time to prepare. So that when the work comes you are ready. A film-maker needs to invest in life. We can’t be seeing world cinema all the times. Or discussing movies. In Bollywood, we don’t have a habit of seeing dances, plays, paintings or reading literature, poetry. We also don’t enjoy travelling, interacting with other professionals. And it’s so clearly visible in our cinema. We have a very Bumbaiya, filmi, one sided, stereotypical view of everything. Its because we don’t invest and we don’t prepare. So, all my aspiring friends get prepared and be ready before the opportunity comes.
Ernest Hemingway, the author of the classic "The Old Man and the Sea," combined moments of tough physical work with periods of complete leisure. Before he sat down to start a new novel, he would spend hours peeling oranges and looking at the fire.
One morning a newspaper reporter noticed this strange habit.
"Don’t you feel that you’re wasting your time?" asked the reporter. "You’re so famous; shouldn’t you be doing something more important?"
"I’m getting my soul ready to write, like a fisherman fixes his gear before taking to sea," answered Hemingway. "If he doesn’t do that, if he thinks that only the fish matters, he’ll never catch anything."
Love.
ps: I'm looking for lots of newcomers. |
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| Posted by Vivek Agnihotri at 12:21 IST |
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Last Post: 29/07/2008 |
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Vivek Agnihotri is one of the very few people in Bollywood who can be classified as ‘intellectually filmi’. The reason is that, besides being armed with an intense passion for silver screen, he also holds an immaculate degree from Harvard! Added to that is the fact that he is also a visiting professor at IIMC!
He made his debut with Chocolate, a film that was truly ahead of its time and was appreciated by everyone alike. What followed was Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal, a football-centric film that made its place in every cinegoers’ heart, that too in a country where cricket reigns supremacy!
Catch up with Vivek as he shares his thoughts in cyberspace in Bollywood Hungama. |
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