Crouching tiger

talks to Bharat Bala, king of "music videos", on why that's not the right term and on his "reply" to Hollywood productions.

It's over tomato-celery juice at the Mumbai Taj that Bharat Bala announces his thoughts on the Indian film industry. The weather outside is balmy and being a Sunday morning, the traffic, says Bala, is less maddening than it usually is.

With 20 years of experience in directing ad films, documentaries and music videos, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to credit Bala for making India a "visual brand". After all, he has prepared a heady visual concoction for some of A R Rahman's best works, including Vande Matram, Pray For Me, Brother, and more recently, Jana Gana Mana, converting them into exquisite "coffee-table-like visual treats of India".

Bala, in that sense, has had a remarkable edge over other directors who've attempted music videos. But he's uncomfortable calling these "music videos".

He may have a point: When most good music videos were being made on a budget of Rs 20-30 lakh, Vande Mataram was made at Rs 2 crore. Jana Gana Mana was shot on a budget of Rs 1.5 crore, excluding the fee given to the artistes. "I'm yet to conjure a term but even you'd know that they're not music videos. They're short films, maybe," he says, shrugging his shoulders, still in search of an appropriate term.

Now Bala's setting himself up for yet another challenge, bringing the Oscar-winner film, The Lives of Others, to the Indian market. The German film, with subtitles, hopefully without Censor Board scissors, will hit select screens on February 29.

Having tied up with exhibitors like PVR and Inox, Bala says he wants to bring many more international films into the Indian market "" and not just for the audiences but also for Indian filmmakers. "I want to bring intelligent international cinema into India because I'm passionate about it," he says.

He credits the multiplex culture and the changing tastes of audiences as prime reasons for bringing this Oscar-winning film to select Indian cinemas. With just 10 prints of The Lives of Others in India and limited screenings in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bala says he's enthusiastic about his debut as a distributor and promises to bring at least five more international films within the next four-five months.

"These are films that have been well received all over the world but still need to be seen by audiences at large in India," he adds.

Speaking of films, BharatBala Productions is also heading towards its next directorial venture, an Indo-Japanese film, tentatively called The 19th Step, which will cost around $12 million and will release early next year. "I think it's high time India looked for an answer to Hollywood's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and I think our film, in its treatment, not just the budget, will be just that," he smiles.

Isn't he being overconfident? He disagrees: "I think we, as filmmakers, have a lot of stories to tell. I'm never driven by budgets, on the contrary, I sincerely believe that I'm driven by ideas and collaborative attempts." Bala's first film, Hari Om, directed in 2004, travelled to 40 different film festivals and bagged as many as eight audience awards in best film categories.

The film was produced jointly by BharatBala Productions, Tips and Tricolor Films, a US-based company started by venture capitalists and managed by Hollywood studio executives and consultants. Though he's still tight-lipped about the actors in the Indo-Japanese film, Bala says that it'll boast of the best talent from both the film industries.

"It's a tale of a Samurai warrior and yes, this will be a martial arts film with action that Indian films have never seen before," he adds. While 30 per cent of the film, he confirms, will be shot in Japan, almost 70 per cent of it will be shot in exotic locations in and around south India on a tight 90-day shooting schedule.

In addition, Bala is working on another film which will be based on a classic Hindi novel but set in a contemporary scenario. "There are five more films in the directorial pipeline from our production house which we'll announce within the next four months," he adds confidently.

For someone who was studying zoology, Bala, in a span of 20 years, has directed close to 500 television ads, documentaries and music videos. In all these, it's his visual portrayal of India that remains firmly etched in the minds of audiences.

"My father, a Gandhian, suggested that I needed to create something that revolved around the creation of an idea called 'India'. That's when we made Vande Mataram and since then something along those lines has always worked," he says.