'The Biggest Film Star in the World'
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How were the films selected for this festival?
When one has done 150 films, it's hard to select 12. My wife Jaya [also an actress] helped select films that were lesser known and films that covered the range of my career. We were constrained by the problem getting good prints. Producers are wary because of piracy and misuse of prints. For older films, the negatives are in such bad shape that it's impossible to make duplicates. Preservation and restoration are expensive in India.
Why have Indian films not caught on in America?
It's partly because of the language barrier--English is strong in India but our national language is Hindi--but mostly due to a lack of exposure. We lack the concerted, collective effort at marketing necessary to be successful here; Hollywood is a master at it. India's film industry is not corporate, we operate as individuals. And, we need to tap into theater networks here--Sony, Warner, Columbia have their own distribution systems--so our films can find a place to be shown. Things are changing, entertainment is now being taken seriously. With India's economy opening up, Indian food, clothes, films are being appreciated. Festivals like this one will spread the good word.
What changes have you seen in your 35 years in films?
Greater acceptability. It used to be infra dig for people from good homes to be associated with the film industry for fear of social norms being destroyed. Now, Hindi cinema is a parallel culture. Our film industry is the biggest in the world--bigger than Hollywood. By 2015, it's projected to be one of the three top industries in India, the third biggest revenue earner. Speed in communication has had a huge ripple effect. Television has brought a superior Western product into people's homes virtually free. The quality of our films has thus had to improve to get people back into the cinemas. But in our older films, the written word was important, now dialogue isn't as poetic. With the emphasis on speed, the lyrical quality's been sacrificed.
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