National award-winning film critic and filmmaker Utpal Borpujari believes that all kinds of cinema can co-exist in India. For him there is a potential for everything.
“Although, I don’t like the term Bollywood and I think regional is a derogatory term because we all are Indian cinema in various languages. We have ‘Pushpa’, ‘RRR’, and ‘Baahubali 1 and 2’, which are the biggest hits right now. So, there is a potential for everything. It depends on how you market it,” said Utpal Borpujari while speaking at the India Today East Conclave.
Borpujari whose debut feature ‘Ishu’ won the national award further said that films in each language are doing very well.
“‘RRR’ and ‘Pushpa’ is one extreme, and then on the other extreme, we have an Assamese film like ‘Village Rockstars’, which was India’s official entry to the Oscars 2019. It was made on a budget of Rs 10 lakh only. No one expected it to do any commerce, but it made Rs 1 crore in Assam only,” he added.
#ConclaveEast22: "Creative inspiration is the ultimate goal", says artist Paresh Maity.
Listen in to this special conversation as filmmaker @nilamadhabpanda, actor Kapil Bora & filmmaker & film critic @UtpalBorpujari also join in.
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While speaking further on cinema, Utpal Borpujari said that the OTT platforms exposed the audience to all kinds of cinema.
“And I believe that because of that, the audience has evolved,” he opined.
“Then we have recent filmmakers like Bhaskar Hazarika who made ‘Kothanodi’ where Kapil (Bora) plays a pivotal role. It was a big hit and won a national award. Then there is ‘Amish’, which is streaming on SonyLiv, which caught everyone’s attention because of the extreme nature of its subject, but it also did well.”
Speaking on creativity, Borpujari said: “First of all, it is your own creative vision that needs to be fulfilled. Only good art is sustainable. Sometimes you don’t get a commercial return. Picasso, Van Gogh, and even Ritwik Ghatak did not make money in their lifetime. So, you have to trust what you do. Weekend collections will come and go, but a piece of art that’s remembered even years later, is important.”
Utpal Borpujari’s documentary ‘Memories of a Forgotten War’ on World War II has also been widely appreciated by critics globally.
