Guneet Monga on Indian cinema going global, 10 years of Sikhya Entertainment, and fall of Phantom Films

In an industry obsessed with deifying the star, the spotlight often evades those who work tirelessly behind the scenes. The success of a film is often attributed to its face but seldom to those who constitute the spine. And so, in this column titled Beyond the Stars, Firstpost highlights the contributions of film technicians who bring their expertise to the table. _What Will People Say,_ starring Adil Hussain, was recently announced as Norway's official entry for the Best Foreign Film at the 91st Academy Awards. What is interesting is that one of the co-producers of the film is India’s Sikhya Entertainment, founded by producer Guneet Monga. Following the premiere of the coming-of-age film on Netflix, Firstpost caught up with Guneet for an interaction. Excerpts below: How did What Will People Say come together? How did you manage to strike a deal with Norway? What Will People Say was originally a European production. And the shoot was in India and Sweden. One of the producers on the film was a German producer, who was my co-producer on The Lunchbox. He introduced me to Iram (Haq, director). Another person who introduced me to her was the actor Riz Ahmed. He called me to say that a close friend is coming to India for a film so why don’t I meet her. I met her in Cannes. The meeting was set up by the Swedish producer. It was that moment when all the producers met and magic happened! We connected instantly and decided to collaborate on this project. [caption id=“attachment_4145177” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  A still from What Will People Say. Netflix[/caption] What Will People Say revolves around a Norwegian girl Nisha who encounters a culture shock when she moves to Pakistan. Since you have been aggressively global in your approach, do you ever feel a similar identity crisis in terms of the country you belong to? I love the country I belong to. I embrace the problems we have. I don’t shy away from them. There’s no point of brushing anything under the carpet. Having said that, as a filmmaker, I do feel the content we put out there should travel the world. I do find a lot of the business practices that are more sound internationally. I do have concerns for how independent films with stories, which are not star vehicles, are treated or perceived. I’m glad I’m considered an Indian filmmaker, not a Bollywood filmmaker. I’m considered an indie filmmaker, not an art-house filmmaker. So there have been a lot of stereotypes that I’ve battled. When a film premiers at Cannes, it doesn’t imply it’s an art-house film. It just means it’s a cool film. If an Indian filmmaker’s film travels globally, it’s like hitting the jackpot. Do you think your film clashing with India’s official Oscars entry , Rima Das’ _Village Rockstars_ , will create a conflict of interest? I think both of them are really cool independent films by women directors. I’m very proud of Rima. Of course, I’m a co-producer on What Will People Say so there’s a lot of personal joy. But more power to Rima! If that takes India forward then it’ll be great. I think both the films make me win as a filmmaker. As an expert on the economics of film distribution and promotion, what do you think is the way out for small regional independent films like Village Rockstars for funding their Oscar campaign ? It’s not just that we get nominated in September and we do a two-week campaign to land an Oscar nomination. It has to be much more long drawn out. It is about the festivals you’ve done, particularly in the US, over the year. It is about the PR you’ve built in the US over the year. Films which emerge big out of film festivals should have a year-long plan of  making their presence left in the US market. You either tie up with an American distributor or have a proper festival outreach programme. Because if you get nominated by your country, you land among 100 films and then it’s very difficult to stand out. It’s not as much about the allocated money as it’s about the business practice. As a recently appointed Academy member from India, what change do you want to bring to the way the Oscars function? It’s unfair that India, which has so many diverse film industries, has only one nomination for the Best Foreign Language Film category. Filmmakers from around the world and festival curators should be able to pick more films from India. Our country has Tamil cinema, Malayalam cinema, Bengali cinema and Hindi cinema among others, so just one nomination from such a multilingual country is too less. I agree that the government has a say in selecting the official entry. It’s a complicated practice but it needs to change. There should be more nominations in the Best Foreign Language Film category so that there’s space for more languages and the festival favourites. [caption id=“attachment_2574534” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Irrfan Khan in a still from The Lunchbox. YouTube[/caption] Your first film as an intern in production was Valley of Flowers, a joint production by France, India and Germany. Then you produced What Will People Say, The Lunchbox and Monsoon Shootout, which were also joint productions by forces from multiple countries. How does this approach benefit a small film? All of these films had a large footprint in many countries because of the producers involved. Maybe you wouldn’t know of What Will People Say had I not been a co-producer on the film. Similarly, people belonging to different countries know that a producer of certain caliber from that country is associated with the project. That helps the distribution, promotion and resource allocation. You tap into each other’s experience. A number of energies come together to add value to the project. I think co-production is the way to go. Do you think Netflix and other streaming giants are the best distribution platforms for a boutique production house like yours? I strongly vouch for that. India has one of the lowest number of screens in the world at nine per million. And doing a pan-India theatrical release is so difficult in terms of the marketing costs. We take a lot of pride in being competitive with our budgets. It doesn’t make business sense that if the budget of the film is X, we’re being asked to pay 5X for the marketing. Over the period of time, theatrical releases have been dominated by star vehicles. That is unfortunate but it’s a reality. So as a producer, it is exciting to have viewers across countries log in at their homes and watch my film. In the 10 years of Sikhya Entertainment, from Dasvidaniya to What Will People Say, what do you think was your breakthrough? The breakthrough was definitely The Lunchbox. It put us on the global map. A lot of conversations about Indian films that I was trying to make for years really progressed after The Lunchbox. But I’m very proud of Dasvidaniya, Peddlers and Monsoon Shootout too. I’m also proud of Kavi, a short film that was nominated as a student project for Oscars. I’m very excited for our next film, Tigers, which is directed by Danis Tanovic, the director of No Man’s Land. Sometimes I do feel a film could have done better at box office. But it’s just your mind telling you that success is measured by the box office. But sometimes, success is just that we’ve made it. What has the contribution of Anurag Kashyap Films been in your career? Is it disheartening to witness the dissolution of Phantom Films? Anurag Kashyap Films was my foundation. It was a school, a mecca, a thriving environment. I was sad when it shut down. I had spent many years learning production but not distribution. I thought distribution was something Anurag or someone else knew. Sikhya was born out of compulsion in some way. I’ve barely collaborated with Phantom. Their dissolution is an unfortunate but tough stand they’ve taken to give out a message about the kind of culture we want to inhabit in our creative community. More power to those who took this tough but very important stand.