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Manish Mundra: The Indie saviour

Dubai-based Manish Mundra, who has financed many of India’s independent films of late, premiered his latest in Cannes to a standing ovation. We caught up with the new patron of Indie movies to talk about his passion for cinema.

Dubai-based Indian businessman Manish Mundra, who lives in Deira with his wife and two kids, had no connection with Bollywood, apart from being a huge fan of Hindi movies. All that has changed over the last two years, and now he’s become the backbone of India’s Independent film community. Out of six movies in his hands right now, four have been winning critical acclaim across the globe.

Manish is in France right now with his latest Masaan, directed by debutant Neeraj Ghaywan, which has been chosen for the highly prestigious Un Certain Regard section at Cannes Film Festival.

TWITTER GIVES MOVIE BREAKS

Struggling filmmakers and writers from India are flooding his Twitter and Facebook accounts with their scripts and not without reason. “I was following a lot of filmmakers on Twitter and one day Rajat Kapoor (director and actor of Aankhon Dekhi) said he is not getting any producers to make good films and he is leaving the film industry. I wrote back saying that I can produce his film. We exchanged numbers and connected. I financed the film and now I have six movies and so many awards with me.”

Despite having a degree in MBA and a thriving oil business in Nigeria, Manish always knew that someday he would definitely be part of the movie world. “We used to watch a lot of movies when we were kids, that passion got embedded while I was growing up. I was always sure someday I would have enough resources to be a part of good cinema. The last two-three years I was confident that I have enough back-up to make movies.”

And today he is being called the guardian angel of the independent movie scene in Mumbai. Bollywood runs by the star system, whereby it is not easy to find finance for movies with new actors or directors. On such occasions Manish steps in as a Godfather. “The concept of movies that was there 20-30 years back is not the same. Technology, star value and distribution has been great for commercial cinema, I think if we concentrated more on content, we would have been somewhere. I want to back content driven cinema, which can go beyond boundaries and show the real soul of Indian cinema that is the need of the hour.”

With movies like Umrika, Dhanak and Masaan he has already been to prestigious festivals like Sundance, Berlin and Cannes, apart from winning a number of awards at the festivals.

FUNDING COMMERCIALLY CHALLENGED MOVIES

Even though right now it’s all about investment for Manish, he is pretty sure in the next few years the money will start rolling back.

“The main problem is funding. These films are commercially challenged, while we are working on making them commercially viable, there needs to be funding to keep the process going. I had prepared to invest without getting any returns for a long time. We want to continue to make good content driven films that will be loved by both Indian and international audiences by reducing costs to the bare minimum. We have started line producing films and scripts that we select. Generally producers leave it to the directors to shoot or outsource the shoot and come back with the final product when the shoot is completed; the cost of production increases in that process. We have our own line-up of producers who have experience in executing, location scouting, scheduling and shooting. We have the capacity to budget the film. We have developed an understanding with the distributors in India, so each film will be distributed according to its size. Passion and professionalism are the two important sides I have to juggle. If you want to generate content driven cinema, you will have to support Indie cinema till it starts earning on it own. Till it stands on its own feet, I will have to work harder on my other profession to keep the money flowing. Hence I need an excellent team on both sides.”

Last year, Mundra was one of the biggest contributors to the Mumbai International Film Festival, which was facing cancellation due to lack of funds. He reportedly contributed $83,000 for the smooth continuity of Mumbai’s beloved film festival. Mundra has now partnered with Sundance Institute of filmmakers to groom fresh talent and scripts from India. He has also started his production company Dhrishyam Films with the hope of being the defining voice of India’s Independent movie scenario.

arti@khaleejtimes.com

Filmography

Aankhon Dekhi (2014)

Both critics and audiences loved his first production Aankhon Dekhi. This film also won the critics’ choice award at Filmfare for the best film and best actor for Sanjay Mishra. It won best story, best ensemble and best supporting actor (female) for Seema Pahwa at the Screen Awards.

Umrika (2015)

“This film got selected for the Sundance Film Festival where we won the audience award. We sold this film in more than 40 territories across the globe. Swati Shetty is my co-producer (who he met via Twitter) and Prashant Nair directs it.”

Dhanak (2015)

“It is a film by Nagesh Kukunoor, which was selected for the Berlin Film Festival. We won a couple of awards like Generation Kplus section – the Grand Prix for best feature-length film and a children’s jury special mention for best feature.”

Masaan (2015)

“This film is selected for the Un Certain Regard competition at the Cannes Film Festival. This is a gem of a film. I have produced this film with Phantom, Macassar, Sikhya, Arte and Pathe.”

Waiting (2015)

“This is a film by Annu Menon. It has Naseerudin Shah and Kalki Koechlin as main leads. This is solo production of mine, however a friend has come on board as well.”

X (2015)

An experimental film that has been directed by eleven directors.