Days after he had launched his blog (http://www.lagaandvd.com), asking people whether they would be interested in DVDs of Lagaan six years after the movie was made, actor Aamir Khan was overwhelmed by the response. He thanked his fans on the blog, saying, ?It?s really great to be able to connect with you all directly. First hand, no mediator, no newspaper, magazine or TV channel.? When Anil Kapoor was hard-put to explain why a commercial actor was putting his money into a controversial, rather artsy film like Gandhi, My Father, he also ?explained? the reasons in a blog hosted on indiafm. Actress Shilpa Shetty, sometimes in the news for the wrong reasons, is keen to write a diary.
Ace cinematographer and director Santosh Sivan (Anandabhadram, Asoka to name just a couple and the numerous films he has helped visualise from Roja to Dil Se), who blogs on Passion for Cinema (PFC) says it?s nice to interact directly with people. ?The net is a great medium to do that. It feels wonderful to know that there are many who breathe cinema.?
M Kapasi, MD, Excel Home Videos, says the Aamir blog effort was a joint idea ahead of the DVD launch for an old film like Lagaan. ?We initially thought of chat, but we realised that for this generation, blogs are far more liberal and flexible in comparison. This kind of marketing is very popular in the gaming industry and with our experience in being the master licencee for Electronic Arts (EA) in India, this was an idea we had to execute.?
The feedback was phenomenal ? word is Aamir Khan reads and responds to each reader personally on the blog ? ?we got calls from consumers via the blog which only upheld the quality we all so rigidly chased.?
But the biggest buzz in blogosphere is around Passion For Cinema (PFC). Here?s where the bright and beautiful of the Indian film fraternity from Anurag Kashyap to Sudhir Mishra to Santosh Sivan blog. Here?s where you can read what?s happening on the sets of reclusive Nishikant Kamat?s next film Mumbai Meri Jaan or what are the five best films to watch out for in the next few months ? for instance, Sriram Raghavan?s (Ek Haasina Thi) ? Johnny Gaddar. PFC readers got a glimpse of the trailer too on the site or Rajat Kapoor?s forthcoming film Mitya.
We mailed ?Oz?, who is based in Orange County, California, till recently director of software development for a firm, and, needless to say, passionate about cinema, who created PFC. ?I have been writing on cinema on my blog for the past five years. As the readership grew, there was this growing demand to write more on cinema than on the other topics I used to blog on. Readers started sending in their articles on cinema, their experiences that I started publishing for them… their intense participation to share and discuss sparked off the idea of creating PFC,? he says.
The response has been exceptional. PFC just wanted to freely discuss and express their views on cinema. ?But then filmmakers came in. Directors, cameramen, assistant directors, writers and producers started commenting. It all started with Anurag Kashyap. Then Pavan Kaul. Suparn Verma and Hansal Mehta followed. Sam Longoria from Hollywood found our concept interesting and he came in. More followed. A year later (we celebrate our first anniversary on September 3), it?s a cult movement we had no inclination we would trigger off.? Oz is rather confident about the future.
PFC wants to keep it ?Open Source?, a term commonly used in the software community, for the future. It has many firsts to its credit ? for instance, PFC started blogging right off the movie sets.
Oz says PFC has grown beyond simply being just a medium to share and interact with others. ?It has grown to become a highly powerful networking tool. Producers, directors, writers established in the movie industry now come on PFC to interact directly with the next generation of highly creative people.?
Blogs are also turning out to be a good business tool. For Excel Home Videos, Aamir Khan?s blog was a priceless tool to reach out to Lagaan?s huge fan base.
?For a six-year-old movie that was so heavily pirated and also oftenaired on TV prior to Dec ?05, outselling most of the theatrical blockbusters of the current year is by far an achievement,? admits Kapasi.
For Sivan, it has been a great networking tool. ?Recently, someone contacted me through my blog and now I?m going to meet him at the Toronto Film Festival where I am going with my new film Before the Rains. Hopefully, I will be able to share some thoughts about the festival through my blog.? The renowned cinematographer doesn?t want to start his own site ? not yet. ?Passion for Cinema is a good platform because those who love films already know about it. I?m comfortable there.?
As ?Oz? puts it, when asked whether blogging will change a till-now closed industry: ?The direct contact is a powerful medium or tool. It hasn?t picked up in India… but there is a presence. And the more people start using computers for their source of information the more extensive and powerful the blogging medium will get in India.? He recently quit his high-paying job and ?jumped into the fire? the business side of entertainment is what I?m finding my passion in and you may soon find me with a studio or production house facilitating the kind of cinema which many of us would love but hardly get to see.?
Here?s to many more Mumbai Meri Jaans and Johnny Gaddars.
