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From
reality based "Traffic Signal" to comical "Malaamal Weekly", from
social film "Dor" to issue based "Phir Milenge" and "Corporate",
Percept Picture Company (PPC) is certainly living up to its motto of
producing innovative and quality films.
"Our
philosophy at PPC is that if you've got a big idea make a movie. If you
don't have a big idea then don't make movies. We strongly feel that one
shouldn't make movies for wrong reasons - we shouldn't make a movie
because we know the stars well or to be in the entertainment business,"
said Shailendra Singh, joint managing director of PPC.
After "Traffic Signal", the production house is gearing up to bombard the audience with variety cinema.
"We
made a lot of movies last year. This year almost nine negatives are
ready. We have 21 films on floor that encompasses directors like David
Dhawan, Priyadarshan, Nagesh Kukunoor.... It's a long list of
intelligent directors. The idea is to cater to all genres of audiences.
"We
don't make movies for everybody. For instance 'Traffic Signal' was for
a very niche intelligent audience. It must have appealed to someone
looking for out of the box entertainment. Our intention is to create a
niche through our products in the entertainment market, which is quite
huge," added Singh.
Singh says that audiences' perception is changing.
"The
concept of typical buffet entertainment - everything for everybody - is
changing now. Audiences want to be challenged with the entertainment
and such products are finding larger audiences."
And the script surely gets priority.
"Since
the star phenomenon is changing, audiences want to watch a good story
well told. We don't follow the star line because if you have noticed
... recently we had four big releases and all bombed. I don't want to
name them but they had the biggest stars India could produce. So if you
make a movie and it has a good story people are going to watch it.
Stars, music are frills and they don't carry a movie too far."
Singh takes pride in offering a platform to enthusiastic newcomers.
"I
think PPC is the only brand that has been supporting newcomers in all
fields of filmmaking. We are making a movie with Shoojit Sircar, who
made 'Yahan', for the second time. We are also making a movie with
Robby Grewal who did 'Samay'. His second film is called 'MP3 - Mera
Pehla Pehla Pyaar' and it targets youth.
" 'MP3' is very simple
and entertaining. It is about the first kiss, first love and I think
everybody is going to relate to it because all of us at some point of
time have experienced a first kiss or a first love. It's a simple
universal subject."
Bringing freshness on screen is important, Singh stressed.
"If
you survey the international market, you have practically four films a
month targeted to this age group (youth). We don't make cinema for this
age group at all. That's why, instead of Shah Rukh Khan carrying a
backpack in a university we have actually allowed an actor to play his
age in 'MP3'. His name is Ruslan Khan and he was actually 17-years-old
when he did it."
According to Singh, survey plays an important role in the making of a film at PPC.
"We
are not putting pressures on ourselves ... we are focusing on our
consumers. We do full on survey. Every year you will have films for
children. We plan to build the PPC brand so that after two years people
would say it's a PPC film not a Bhandarkar film."
Apart from "MP3", the production house's forthcoming releases are "Ru-ba-ru", "Kabootar" and "Dhol".
"We
have spotted a formula. We have built an in-house marketing team called
P9. It is doing a great job. We have in-house distribution capability.
Then we have a very smart balance of Kukunoor and Bhandarkar. We are
able to experiment because we have A+ filmmakers. In case I have a flop
with a newcomer, I can back it up with these A+ directors."
By Arpana, Indo-Asian News Service
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