Documentaries not poor cousin to movies, say makers

Thiruvananthapuram: Why do documentaries rarely make it to the box office, even though they may have run to a packed hall in film festivals? Is it really important for a documentary to have a theatrical release? Deccan Chronicle put these questions to a few filmmakers at IDSFFK 2016. The experience of shared viewing makes a theatrical important, says filmmaker Chandrasekhar Reddy. His film Fireflies in the Abyss will be screened in PVR multiplexes on July 1.

“It is up to the filmmakers, to go that extra distance to get people to see it. If someone refers to a film released in the theatre as a commercial proposition and brand it as a compromise, I would not agree to that,” he says. Normally, documentary makers resort to alternative means of screening. Sanjay Kak, a Kashmiri filmmaker involved in the Cinema of Resistance, says, “As a documentary filmmaker, I don’t believe that it is useful to think of oneself as a poor cousin of mainstream films, who is trying to enter theatres through multiplex routes.”

His films have been shown in small towns and big cities across India. “More people are watching documentary films today than ever before. It is a proliferation of small and big festivals, mobile travelling festivals, screenings by NGOs and political groups,” he says. He adds that one should be concerned about whether people are turning up to watch it, rather than box office returns.

However, some films do have the potential to engage a theatre-going audience, and this can be cashed in on. “But I don’t know how to,” says Neelan Premji, a senior journalist who has made numerous documentaries for television. “I used to work with a TV channel and never had to worry about the returns.”

He proposes that short 30-minute documentaries can be screened before a feature film, like the good old newsreels. “It might help draw more audience too,” he says. The audience might just love it too if more documentaries are screened in a theatre close by.