The trickle of Bollywood films shot in the Capital is turning into a torrent.
At a recent Business Standard function, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said with pride that Delhi was easily the country's most comfortable city to live in, with its broad roads, flyovers, a faultless metro service and tree-lined avenues. Most Delhiites would challenge her claims, given the chronic shortages in the supply of electricity and water, the waterlogged streets and the rising crime graph. But Diskhit could count on filmdom's support.
In recent years, at least half-a-dozen films based on Delhi have been released (Rang De Basanti, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye!, Delhi 6, Aisha and Band Baaja Baraat), and several others have been shot extensively in the city (Chak De India, Love Aaj Kal, Dev D, Paa, 3 Idiots et al). Abhinav Deo’s Delhi Belly adds to the list of Delhi films. Saif Ali Khan recently shot in the city for his thriller, Agent Vinod. Another big-budget multi-starrer, Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, has been shot here. It’s not that the film world had ignored Delhi altogether earlier — after all films like Ab Dilli Door Nahin, Dilli Ka Thug, Phir Subah Hogi, Chashme Baddoor and Monsoon Wedding all played out in Delhi; but the trickle has now turned into a mini-torrent.
As a result, the city, perhaps for the first time, can now count actors, technicians and sundry specialists amongst its residents. Film equipment is readily available, so are studios for pre- and post-production work. One such person is Sandeep Marwah who runs Marwah Studio in suburban Noida. His studio was used by Mani Ratnam when he was making Dil Se.... The acclaimed director wanted to capture Chandni Chowk in the film, but the crowds and the chaos there made him give up the idea in less than a day. “So, we created Chandni Chowk in our studio,” says Marwah. “Even after watching the film, nobody could make out the difference.”
Marwah reckons that 15 to 16 films are now made every year in Delhi, up from not more than 3 or 4 earlier. The reason, he says, is that there has been an upsurge in low-budget films in Bollywood, made for Rs 3 crore to Rs 8 crore, which has led producers to look for manpower, studios, equipment and locations outside Mumbai. Delhi fits the bill. Another reason, according to UTV Motion Pictures CEO Siddhartha Roy Kapur, is the growing number of film directors who have spent their formative years in Delhi — men like Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (Rang De Basanti and Delhi 6) and Dibakar Banerjee (Khosla Ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye! and Love Sex Aur Dhokha). “It’s a city they know well and thus want to portray on screen,” says Kapur.
The directors couldn’t agree more. “You can take me out of Delhi but you can’t take Delhi out of me,” says Mehra. “Delhi is strategically placed today as far as the business of entertainment goes. It’s far more dynamic being the centre of power and politics. More real stories can emerge from the city besides a boy-girl narrative. It’s also a friendly place to shoot in.” And how much of his experiences in the city show in his films? “I try to give back through my films what the city has given me,” says he. “While Delhi 6 was a philosophical film, showcasing a microcosm of India in Chandni Chowk with resonances of religious and caste intolerance, the boys in Rang De Basanti were really me and my friends in college, a disillusioned lot who wanted to shoot politicians to bring about change.”
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Film analyst Taran Adarsh feels that unlike Mumbai, Delhi is under-exposed on celluloid. “Delhi is a beautiful city. If the films’ subject demands, Delhi shall play a centric role — like in No One Killed Jessica.” Kapur agrees: “Since the Hindi film industry was based in Mumbai, a whole lot of 1970s cinema had taken images of Bombay to every small Indian town, and people became familiar with Marine Drive.” So, Delhi offers visuals that are fresh. Delhi Belly shows Delhi in a different light, not the archetypal wide roads and monuments but the meandering bylanes through the lives of three bachelors. Delhi boy Akshat Verma, who penned Delhi Belly, adds: “It’s actually the characters I have grown up seeing — crazy, funny, and surreal — that I wanted to capture through my film. The idea was to showcase an urban film.”
The support services in the city, too, have improved. Marwah says he provides assistants, technicians, junior artistes, cameras and lighting equipment. “We have provided manpower for films like Delhi 6, Rang De Basanti and Chak De India. Boney Kapoor makes it a point to bring his films to Delhi, like Anil Kapoor Productions’ Gandhi My Father and Aisha.” Eagle Studios, also in Noida, does distribution, digital restoration and rental services. Former special effects director and conservationist Mike H Pandey’s Riverbanks Studio in Chirag Delhi provides additional visual effects facilities.
Flamingo Films, owned by husband-wife duo Nandu and Kalpana, is one of the many outfits in the city to provide technicians and equipment on hire. While photographer Nandu is the technical head, Kalpana runs the company out of a warehouse in Lado Sarai; the workplace is stacked with state-of-the-art equipment, mostly imported from Germany and the US. “It’s difficult and expensive to maintain this equipment, which we often have to take to the US for servicing. Recently, we provided lighting for Rockstar and Mere Brother Ki Dulhan.”
Of course, film shoots are still not a familiar sight in the city. A movie camera can draw crowds eager to get a glimpse of the actors. Kapur says, “During Delhi Belly, we tried to blend the crowd into the process.” Producer Rajeev Bhatia, who was shooting for On The Ramp in Delhi, adds: “Permission must be obtained from Delhi Police prior to the shooting schedule, and when shooting outdoors, the police along with our own security helps manage the crowds.” Summer in Delhi is avoidable. Mehra signs off with the promise of more Delhi films. Come winter, he would start shooting for Bhaag Milkha Bhaag based on the life of sprinter Milkha Singh, which will be followed by Casual Kamasutra which will depict the rural influx into modern Delhi.