Let Screen Content Speak

For someone whose career in journalism debuted with the entertainment and sports beat in general at The Rising Nepal back in the good old days of the early 1970s, some key issues pertaining to the Nepali cinema curtains are seductively inviting for comment. Hence habit prods a desire to pen an article every now and then on this sphere of communication. It’s a habit nudged by interest. At a seminar organised the other month by Film Directors’ Society, Communications and Information Technology Minister Rekha Sharma made a pertinent query as to why Nepali films were not doing well. Putting emphasis on quality fare, she said: “Nepali should also become competitive,” she said.

Attempts at force-feeding mass theatre-goers with something they do not have taste for or if they are left with limited choice will only compel them to seek and migrate to alternative channels of communication and entertainment. Mass audiences these days have many options, including movie viewing. If an industry churns out mediocre and lacklustre fares for too long, the patience of audience is bound to get overstretched. It causes thinning crowds and shrinking box office collections.

 During the COVID-19 pandemic period, works at studios slowed down severely and many film banners delayed the release of their productions for long while some makers sold their works to streamers and other modes of screening. There are directors who dismiss obsession with box office revenue as repulsive and insulting. At a 2022 New York film festival autumn, American film producer-director Martin Scorsese said such thrust cased movies to be “devalued, demeaned, belittled from all sides”.

Art costs, too

Discerning film makers admit that productions entail costs, but they abhor preoccupation with revenue takings at specific distributions sectors. Their grievance seems to be against reports and discussion on blow-by-blow stages and numbers focusing box office collections in a vulgar display of rank commercial interests. Although Nepali cinema can be ranked in the list of the world’s top 12 countries in terms of numerical strength, the revenue pocket is shallow and scanty. Most movies in most industries almost everywhere tank at the box office but the energy, determination and creative/professional urge among cine-creators do not wane easily.

Some makers want their films to be certified for exhibition within 48 hours after their registration and also demand that the number of foreign films be restricted. This is where Minister Sharma did not hesitate to call for quality output for rewarding returns. The Film Development Board has also come aboard in making adjustment to some aspects of the proposals made by producers and exhibitors. In 2019, Scorsese compared superhero movies with theme park rides: “The situation at this moment is brutal and inhospitable to art.” 

Higher stakes such as state governance and major public institutions that demand qualities other than what are essential before the camera should not be ignored. Curiosity drives people crazy, celebrities are constant centres of much public attention. But going overboard in creating artificial aura turns exacting to the fastidious not easily carried off by stardust. 

This columnist confesses to being allergic to individuals acting all the time anywhere and everywhere to underscore their wish to remind the public that they are a class above the average — celebrities to adore and revere. However, when someone make special contributions off screen, too, s/he should merit extra respect and warmth from the adoring masses. Most movies in most countries tank at the box office but the energy, determination and creative/professional urges do not wane easily. Although Nepali cinema can be ranked in the list of numerically world’s 12 largest film producing countries, the revenue pocket is far from being deep. 

In an age of multi-channels of entertainment that are easily accessible and at considerable convenience than audiences previously had, let not the industry people squabble too much. Failure to address the existing challenge with matching response would drive potential viewers at the multiplexes to migrate to other genres and channels of entertainment. It would be a fatal folly to take movie viewers for granted. Tastes change when new options are available. Today, the options are far too many than, say, what the situation was at the turn of the new millennium. 

Expectations 

Cinema should excite expectations to the extent of luring viewers flock to the theatres in impressive droves and enable the industry to keep going. Let the cine-sector’s collective presence be reliably received with eager and warm welcome on the strength of the quality of the fare they offer. The urgency is either to face conditions with suitable answers or stay fixed and recede to the deep background of near oblivion.

In Nepal’s case, the need is for serious and sustained drive to the uplift of cinema quality, i.e., the end result of this part of cultural industry. Things have improved when compared with the 1980s and earlier. But this simply is not enough. For the strides taken by movie industries in other countries are even faster. The gap should be reduced with the support of crowd-pulling stories on the screen.

As people in one corner of the world today can easily access to the best of film fares through various formats and channels, audiences tend to develop discerning tastes instead of rushing for ticket bookings at multiplexes. They have also developed diverse entertainment interests. A comprehensive strategy addressing prevailing issues should offer suitable answer to existing risks to the industry, including artistes, and those behind the camera, such as various sections of the production, distribution and exhibition departments.

Incentives for above-average fares should not be lacking to encourage and promote cinematic form of art. Cinema, after all, is visual literature on screen. Printed literature might exact extra energy for sustaining audiences’ attention span whereas its visual incarnation feeds the eyes, ears and mind with smooth drive. As for the impression and lasting impact a particular form of media might create, the debate can go on and on. The prime task is to serve their audiences with great care and imaginative narrative at the creative pedestal.

(Professor Kharel specialises in political communication.)