Gateway to Hollywood

Ashok Amritraj on "Gateway to Hollywood" (photo source: http://pixtelevision.com/pix_gateway/images/gateway_home_top.jpg)

Somehow, I came across and got hooked onto this Indian reality show about filmmakers. Its called "Gateway to Hollywood," and it is a bit like "The Apprentice" for young, amateur filmmakers. The show brings together 18 talented filmmakers from across India and over the course of 16 weeks of challenges, picks the best to direct a film in Hollywood...a dream for any filmmaker!

The show is run by former Indian tennis-pro, now turned Hollywood film producer, Ashok Amritraj, who is eager to give young, talented filmmakers the chance he never had. While the show is poorly produced, the quality of the filmmakers, their tasks, and output were really solid. So good infact that I sat up for two nights in a row and watched the episodes back-to-back.

I love the idea of ex-pats returning to their countries to help their own develop. I honestly think that the health of a developing country's economy depends on the health of their ex-pat community. Look at India, China, Korea, and Mexico. There are many more examples where these come from; but an ex-pat's strong cultural ties, tenacity, intelligence, lessons learned along the way, coupled with the west's business practices of efficiency and ethics, makes him/her a force to contend with.

Unfortunately, Gateway episodes are archived on the horrible rediff ishare platform (as opposed to the infinitely smoother and more reliable hulu, youtube, or vimeo sites), so I've had numerous problems with viewing them. Still I would encourage a view.

I was blown away and heartily encouraged by the latent talent in India; I'm sure every other developing country has this level of talent just hanging out waiting to be discovered!

Here's a part of the first episode:

The Damned Rain

In Gabricha Paus ("The Damned Rain") above, Satish Manwar and Prashant Pethe show the stress on farmers in India; below, the farmer's mother and wife discuss how to raise the spirits of their depressed husband.

Last week, I ventured over to the Indian Film Festival, taking place in Los Angeles. I have been hunting for Indian independent film anywhere and it is SO hard finding any...ironically, more so in India!

(On a separate note, I'm embarrassed to say that the piracy rates are awful in the US. The Indian merchants locally are just unethical bastards...they will make money at any cost. Quite often they shamelessly make money on pirated versions of DVD's, renting out bad quality stuff that they illegally download and charge you an arm-and-a-leg for!! I don't think I mind so much with the big masala flicks...I hate it when they do it to small, struggling independent producers...)

So it was a pleasant surprise to come across some genuinely good and well-intentioned filmmakers at the Festival. The films have been sold out, indicating a demand for such type of films in the US, but it made it very hard for me to see anything. And I can't seem to figure out where I can find this collection of material again.

The one movie I saw, was brilliant. Unfortunately, I can't embed the trailer. But go read/watch it here: http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/en/film.aspx?ID=e1c41e9b-9067-43e7-b1e0-e87304c39c5c; You can also get the main website here: http://www.thedamnedrain.com

The film discusses the heavy subject of farmer's lives in India. Vidarbha District (also where the director/screenwriter is from) has the highest rate of farmer suicides in the country. A helpless Satish Manwar stood by and watched this happen, until he decided to make a movie about their life. In a month, Manwar, who hails from that district had the script written down. For four years, he searched for a producer before finally coming across amateur filmmaker Prashanth Pethe. Pethe is a Merchant Navy officer, who works large cargo ships in order to finance his movie projects. This is Pethe's second film; he has done a wonderful job.

If you get a chance, definitely watch the film!