Biswapati Sarkar: Panchayat was rejected by a focus group I Exclusive

Writer and actor Biswapati Sarkar talks to mid-day.com about Bollywood being less relatable than south cinema, the relatability discussion around Fighter and the Panchayat verdict

Biswapati Sarkar was among the founders of TVF before he quit the team and founded Posham Pa Pictures. In an interview years ago, Sarkar mentioned that Bollywood is not relatable to the youth. When this writer met Sarkar after a panel discussion on current trends in the Indian film industry organsied by the Screenwriters Association (SWA), we reminded him of his previous statement of Bollywood and relatability. Sarkar has been associated with projects like 'TVF Pitchers', 'Permanent Roommates', 'Jaadugar', 'Kaala Paani', and 'Maamla Legal Hai' among others . 

"Hindi cinema losing cultural coolness":

"This is a good point to mention," Sarkar states before explaining his point with his experience in changing viewing habits. Around the year 2018-19, he observed that he was watching more of Malayalam and Tamil language films. "I realized that this trend is happening more and more. I watch very few Hindi films unless somebody recommends them.  'Laapataa Ladies' came recommended, so I've seen it. Otherwise, even if I click on something, probably after 20 minutes, I'll stop it.”

He feels that it is the relatable characters of Tamil and Malayalam films that attracts him to those stories. “I'm not talking about the big budget films, but normal, decent budget or mid budget or low budget films. I feel the characters are around me, like these are people I know. While the Hindi films characters feel like the characters of other pre-existing Hindi films. This is why in 2018-19 you would have seen the mid-budget, small town template. But even in that, only 4-5 films were good. Eventually, then all those films started becoming templates for each other.”

Sarkar goes on to give examples of range of characters played by star actors like Fahadh Faasil, Raj Shetty and Mammotty down south and the acceptance of audience that encourages filmmakers to experiment with majors stars as the face. However, that has not been a successful formula for Hindi cinema.  "I feel Hindi audience are yet to accept those kind of films,” he mulls. 

Biswapati Sarkar

In the past year, mid-budget films like 'Laapataa Ladies, 12th Fail have been the talk of the town over big-budget multi-starrers. "Clearly there is some cultural coolness of Hindi films that we are losing. So, if 'Laapaata Ladies' is being talked about more than the big-budget films, then clearly, something is going wrong in terms of storytelling." 

But how can we talk about relatability factor and not mention the film 'Fighter'? After the release of the Hrithik Roshan- starrer, director Siddharth Anand's statement on the film's relatability had gone viral. He had said that most people have not sat in a flight and hence could not relate to the film. The comment became a template for memes. "It was a little of context, " says Sarkar who was the co-writer of the film. 

Sarkar adds that a film need not be relatable to connect with the audience. "I feel like, I would love to make a Jurassic Park. Relatability is not necessary, but I think in terms of relatability, the emotion needs to be relatable. Jurassic Park is about wonder. The characters react exactly how I would react if I had a dinosaur with me,” he said adding that the relatability fact has to be with the motion rather than plot and its location. 

Focus groups and predictability:

The past year has surely surprised filmmaker and trade analysts with the kind of films that worked and those that did not. During the panel discussion, Sakar revealed that Panchayat was dismissed by a focus group who said that the series would not work with the audience. However, Panchayat turned out to be a hit with the audience and the third season of the show recently hit the streaming platform and registered yet another successful season. 

“This is one focus group which I had seen live. The screening of the pilot episode had happened in front of me. Even with Panchayat, Amazon released it as an exclusive. When it became popular, Amazon released it as their original," he said sharing that no one can exactly predict how a project will work out.

When asked if he is a better understanding of what will work and what will not, Sarkar shares, "A lot of times it's just instinct. Veterans of the industry can see a film and nine times out of ten, they can guess, whether this will work or not work. Sometimes they're also surprised. But they're also surprised in terms of the volume. A good film will do good business but maybe earlier it was raking in 70 cr and now it is doing 50 cr."

Posham Pa pictures vision:

Biswapati Sarkar is now focusing on exploring different genres through their production house 'Posham Pa' pictures. Sharing his vision for the production house, he says that it will be nothing like TVF. "The idea is to be small and support good progressive stories.  We want to explore all of genres. I think with age, you all change as storytellers. We no longer have fun in the college level shows and content. We've also become different people. So the plan is to explore a few mature  themes, talking  about the world that we live in."

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