Film making is no longer art but a commercial activity in India: Ananth Mahadevan

Filmmaker, actor, writer Ananth Mahadevan’s ‘Meet the Author Event’ held at English Book Depot

By Arun Pratap Singh

Dehradun, 11 Oct: Bollywood actor, writer and director Ananth Narayan Mahadevan is currently in Dehradun to shoot for his latest Hindi film that he is directing. Last evening, he participated in a ‘Meet the Author’ event presented by Garhwal Post and hosted by Sandeep Dutt of English Book Depot here to discuss his popular book, ‘Once Upon a Prime Time’.

Ananth Narayan Mahadevan has a long career of over 40 years in Indian Cinema and Television, having acted in many popular TV serials and films and having directed many popular films and TV serials. He is in fact a National Award-winning filmmaker and some of the popular films directed by him include Dil Vil Pyar Vyar, Dil Maange More, Aksar, Aksar 2, Life’s Good and a Marathi film, Bittersweet. He also directed a very popular TV serial titled ‘Ghar Jamai’.

‘Once Upon A Prime Time’ is a book that documents the journey of Indian Television besides being an account of his own journey on Indian Television. At the ‘Meet the Author’ event hosted at The English Book Depot last evening, he addressed school children from Doon International School and his fans who had come to attend the event. He also read out some passages from the book where he mentions how he got a role in then a mega TV serial, Sword of Tipu Sultan, directed by Sanjay Khan and the physical struggle involved in his travel from Mumbai to Mysore, passed a day without food, and how the sets of the serial caught fire which killed 62 people and seriously injured director Sanjay Khan who had to undergo 72 surgeries during the course of recovery.

During his talk, Mahadevan also said that the journey of TV serials in India started in 1983 when Doordarshan was the only TV channel. He reminded that some of the very talented film directors like MS Sathyu, Shyam Benegal, Basu Chatterjee, Govind Nihalani, Gulzar, BR Chopra, Sai Paranjape and even Satyajit Ray took to TV and made great TV series. He said that, in those days, very meaningful work was done on Television and serials of all genres like comedy, historical, mythological, suspense and even horror were produced. Many serials were based on leading literary classics which were a treat to watch. He added that, unfortunately, unlike in the West, in India, many of these works have not been digitised and documented as they ought to have been, and this is what prompted him to write about his journey on Television and document those times in the form of a book. He added that the book is a chronicle of Indian TV but also an account of himself having lived through it all.

Mahadevan lamented that, with the mushrooming growth of the TV Channels which kept on growing in numbers, the quality of TV serials has gone down significantly. He also quoted noted film maker and TV director Sai Paranjape for whom he had acted in a popular TV serial ‘Ados Pados’, who told him that she can’t imagine making a TV show under the present circumstances.  He also lamented that meaningful cinema has faded away with time but the good thing is that people like him, who still prefer meaningful cinema, have survived despite the onslaught of crass commercial cinema. He added that he dislikes the term Parallel Cinema used for meaningful cinema as, in his opinion, the meaningful cinema is the real cinema, with the so- called mainstream cinema more of a commercial circus. Mahadevan said that, in the past, even commercial cinema was not that bad even if some of the films were poorly written or directed, they still had innocence which is totally missing in the present time films. If there was Amar Amar Anthony, there was also Guddi and films like Bhuvan Shome. Mahadevan felt that the audience today has no choice but to see the present circus in the name of cinema. He said that in the Western world, film production is still looked upon as a work of creative art whereas, in India, it has turned totally a product of commerce.

When asked for reasons behind this, Ananth Mahadevan said that India today lacks thinkers and visionaries in the creative arena and the film making having become totally a commercial activity, creativity is no longer in demand and the quality of writing has also gone down.

Pics courtesy: Bhumesh Bharti & Mohtshim Khan