Off Screen Perspectives: India’s Transnational Independent Film Production Culture
Date
2023-09-21
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Abstract
The academic scholarship on Indian film has predominantly focused on Bollywood cinema, examining central aspects such as the aesthetics, style, genre, ideology, industrial structure, and culture, as well as the transnational circulation and consumption of Bollywood in the era of globalization. This resulted in limited scholarship about independent, regional, and alternative cinemas in India. However, there is increasing interest in studying these cinemas, including their aesthetics, production processes and distribution models. Therefore, this dissertation contributes to and addresses this gap in the scholarship by examining India’s transnational independent film production culture. Employing an interdisciplinary approach that draws insights from Media Industry Studies, specifically John Caldwell's “cultural-industrial” method (2008), this dissertation emphasizes the need to examine the political-economic/industrial structures and labour practices in relation to each other. Therefore, it combines textual, industrial, and cultural analysis, alongside bottom-up methods such as personal interviews and participant observation to gain deeper insights into the film policies, practices, and professionals — making and facilitating Indian independent cinema transnationally. The focal point is the National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) – established in 1980 as a state-sponsored organization for developing alternative cinemas. This dissertation examines the management of NFDC, its annual film market Film Bazaar, as well as the professional world of its staff members and producers – who are primarily involved in creating independent cinema transnationally. The case study of NFDC explores how the organization managed and restructured itself in response to the neoliberal-national policies, leading to the formation of a transnational independent film production culture in the mid-2000s. The case study of Film Bazaar addresses the implications of these industrial structures on the programming, practices, and management, revealing the precarious work culture of its labour (e.g., low pay, contractual, and seasonal work). The final case study examines the under-explored role of Indian producers, their production culture, and the emotional labour within these transnational structures of independent filmmaking. Indian producers weave hero narratives, intertwining their beliefs and practices rooted in mentoring, networking, and creative entrepreneurship.
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Indian Independent Cinema, Media Industries Studies, Indian Producers, Production Cultures, Transnational Cinema, Film Festivals
Citation
Bhatia, N. (2023). Off screen perspectives: India’s transnational independent film production culture (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.