Hola and goodbye

Most indie-minded film-makers raid their bank accounts, borrow from enemies and enter into unconscionable deals to squeeze their movies into cinemas. The idea is to recover as much investment as possible from box-office takings, get a “released in theatres” stamp so that television rights can be sold, and add the coveted critical praise, if any, to the press kit. Publicly, indie film-makers boast of having stormed cinemas; privately, they weep and whinge over the sweat, money and energy expended on pushing their labour of love into an already crowded mediascape, only to be slain by indifferent reviews, an uncaring trade and clueless audiences.

Independent film-maker Sandeep Mohan has bypassed these inevitable steps completely for his second feature Hola Venky! He is taking the low-budget and low-octane comedy directly to his intended audiences, screening it privately for small groups on an invitation basis and raising a few thousand rupees each time to eventually pay off the production’s ₹ 10 lakh budget. One such screening took place on Friday at the Ministry of New, a pretty loft in midtown Mumbai that rents out space to freelancers who don’t have their own offices. Mohan popped his film into the projection equipment, positioned the light beam on a white wall, hooked up a couple of speakers, and pressed the play button. As Hola Venky!, a gentle comedy about a software engineer with performance issues who hooks up with a Mexican detective during a training programme in San Francisco, US, unfolded, a diverse group of viewers settled on mattresses and benches and sipped on pints of beer. Some of them had been invited there; others had followed the movie’s Facebook page. Afterwards, they deposited money in various denominations into a bowl, which the organizers generously handed over to Mohan. The 39-year-old film-maker had, meanwhile, packed his movie into his backpack.

Mohan put together Hola Venky! “on a whim” after the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) certified his debut movie, Love, Wrinkle-Free, adults only. Movies cannot be released without the CBFC’s nod, and television channels tend to avoid adult-rated films. Mohan spent so many months trying to get Love, Wrinkle-Free re-certified that he decided his next project would involve a different kind of cinema.“Hola Venky! is an experiment that represents my frustration with the board,” Mohan says. “I felt hurt, like I was being controlled, and I felt that if I made my next film cheap and kept my budget low, I wouldn’t hurt anybody else.”

It’s not as if he never wants to see Hola Venky! in cinemas—it’s just that he’s having a great deal of fun travelling around the country, making new contacts and meeting potential producers and taking his movie directly to viewers. “I wondered what would happen if I recovered the money before I eventually approached a distributor,” Mohan says. “I wanted to understand how it all worked, I wanted to reach out to new audiences.”

Mohan raised half of the movie’s budget through the crowdsourcing platform Indiegogo and used a skeletal crew to shoot in Mumbai and San Francisco, where most of the plot plays out. Hola Venky! stars American actor Roger Narayan as Venky, the divorced techie who embarks on a journey of maturation after his manhood is physically attacked. Also starring American actor Sonia Balcazar, the movie played over four weekends in San Francisco between late January and February, and was also screened at private venues in Seattle. The screenings in India, in places like Gurgaon, Delhi, Pune and Goa, have been at companies, offices, restaurants and coffee shops. Mohan often gets the space for free; at other times, he parks a percentage of his modest earnings with the establishment’s owner. The community group Gurgaon Moms has hosted an event; in Kochi, where screenings will be held on 28 and 29 March, a music composer has given Mohan his hall for free.

“These screenings extend the journey of the film in a way,” Mohan says. “My energy levels are back, I feel that in my heart, I’ve managed to do something. I got my theatrical kick in the US, and I want to try and pay back everybody who invested in my project through Indiegogo. Nobody is going to help you, so you are going to have to help yourself.”

For details on Hola Venky! screenings, visit www.facebook.com/holavenky.