Konkona Sen Sharma, Kalki-starrer finds no investors over lack of 'popular' male lead

Konkona Sen Sharma and Kalki Koechlin’s upcoming film Scholarship, directed by Raman Bharadwaj, has landed in trouble, as there it is facing a lack of financial backing. In what can only be considered unfortunate, the film has been indefinitely stalled, because investors are not willing to come on board citing the lack of a popular male lead, reports Mumbai Mirror. [caption id=“attachment_3861089” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Konkona Sen Sharma and Kalki Koechlin. Images from Twitter and Firstpost[/caption] Television and film actor Sid Makkar has been cast opposite Kalki. Scholarship went on floors in January 2017, and the shoot began in Jharkhand; the makers are hoping to resume shooting in the coming months. “We started with the idea that a lot of women-centric films are getting made nowadays with proper releases and are being appreciated. Initially, a few investors backed out citing demonetisation as the reason but it’s been six-seven months. We approached a lot of other investors after that but all of them turned us down as our film doesn’t have a big male actor. We had shot for only 15-20 days in January. We’ve found some new investors but we’re still short of the budget we need to complete the film,” said producer Aditi Gupta in the same Mumbai Mirror report. Gupta said that the women-centric nature of the plot was made clear from the very start, adding that the makers had always maintained that they would not change it. Scholarship tells the story of a venture capitalist, played by Kalki, and her help, played by Konkona, and the issues they face in their lives. This problem of lack of funding faced by directors who wish to make women-centric films is hardly new. In an interview to Firstpost, Dear Maya director Sunaina Bhatnagar talked about the difficulty of finding a producer for her film which starred Manisha Koirala and two young female actors. She mentioned that no studio thought that her film was commercially viable, and that they suggested she pick someone younger or more commercially successful. She said, “Audiences have proven that they like women-centric films, such as Piku or Queen. Producers haven’t evolved as much as the audience has. I think the audience is more ready than producers are when it comes to taking risks. Producers judge films only by their return on investment, and that too is based on a formula by which they value someone in monetary terms.”

Also read: Lipstick Under My Burkha, Mom, Phillauri: Why are there so few 'women-centric' films?