Let’s Do Honest Business.
10-01-17
Like in love and war everything is fine. Today business is like war. Business men will tell you it is a ‘cut throat’ business. Do people in the business follow ethics? Not everyone, only an honest man can do honest business and the rest of them are after money or fame.
Here I am writing about the Indian film industry.
One of the directors stayed in our lodge for a couple of months. We were discussing the Indian film industry. I was more interested to know how to sell my fiction for movie production.
Excerpt.
" I do not know how much it will cost my graphic driven fiction ’Broken Heart’ to make movie version”
“Jivan, the way you narrated your story will require high budget”
“No, problem. I will modify the ghost (CGI) so that we can make it with a moderate budget. Well, how much will the producer pay for my fiction?”
“According to the production cost they will pay you money”
“Money is not everything to me; I am looking for an opportunity to work as a creative director. I will develop more subplots; convert my fiction into movie script, design poster, set design, run title, subtitle, assist director and graphic artists. So much work I am willing to do it for free of cost. My name should come under creative director”
“There is no post as creative director in the Indian film industry. They will take you as an associated director. There are different departments to handle different work. You cannot work in every department; if you want to work in every department then you direct your own movie”
He changed the topic “you know there are ‘writers’ writing movie scripts for Rs 50,000/- they need bread and butter to survive….”
{ he is not a writer he just scribbled down what he heard about a local thug’s way of life at the local bar over a quarter bottle of whiskey and few fried peanuts. Believe me those ‘writers’ cannot write decent stories. They can only write for cheap low budget movies for local people, like a local thug’s slum life with cutting, chopping, drinks, drugs, sex, rape, extortion, few vulgar dance and hell lot to filthy dialog. Such movies are running successful cos audience taste had gone bad. Our middle class culture had been overtaken by slum culture. song and dances are part of slum culture but not our middle or lower middle class life. Today most of the actors and actresses end up performing Kuthu dance. Remember " why this kolaveri very, kolaveri de" song?
Youngsters and elite society enjoy Kuthu songs and dance in movies. Some of the young actors are promoting slum culture with hip hop songs. Call it culture erosion. Culture is tradition. Money you can make but you cannot buy culture. Culture means traditional values . One particular cast in Tamil Nadu performs Kuthu dance when they take out a body for burial. dance is free style vulgar dance. }
“I told you it is not all about money. Let producer sign my ‘writer and producer agreement’ I will permit them to make movie version of my fiction in their choice of language”
“Tell me more about your writer and producer agreements”
After I explained to him he said “No producer will sign your agreement. If you want to sell your fiction for movie production you will sign their agreement starting with ALL RIGHTS RESERVED….and take whatever money they offer to you….” Period. If you tell them about your writer and producer agreement they will think you are a problem man and will ask you to get out!”
I said “FINE!”
There is always next time and this is NOT my END! Producers think after spending millions of rupees and making a movie version of my fiction I will sell the same fiction to other producers and make more money.
Why should I not think like a producer? “He will pay me peanuts and make a movie out of my fiction and sell ‘his’ movie rights to eight other regional movie producers and make a killing. Neither I will get royalty nor I will get a chance to work for the movie version of my fiction”.
Know the facts. If only the movie became a hit , he can sell the rights to other movie production houses. We Indians make more than 1200 movies per year. Let’s assume that ten to twenty percent of the movies are hits. Twenty to fifty percent of the movies recover production cost and the rest of the movies goes to dogs!
This is how movie fiction writers are selling their fiction to producers and production houses. There are people who write exclusively for movie production. To keep the audience not to run out of theatre they add full of dramatic twists and turns and they call it suspense ! Melodrama, stupidity and sentimental scenes in their movie script. Verdict? Commercial HIT!
Those writers stand in a long Queue in the early morning in front of the producer house or production house. They may have to follow the same routine for quite some more days or till producers ask them to narrate their story. Producer will give one hour's time to narrate the story. How you present your story makes or breaks your chance.Such writers end-up narrating their story to five, ten or twenty more producers before they make a sale!
This type of ‘writer’ will never ever publish their fiction. They think some producers will steal their story or story concept. For them their stories are like classified top military secrets!
Know the difference between a genuine writer and a writer for movie production.
Genuine writer
A genuine writer will publish his fiction. He will never steal or get inspired by some other writer’s story concept.
Story writer for movie production.
He will watch almost every Indian and foreign movie. He gets "‘inspired’ to write " similar" the story for movie production. He will use more than one or as many as story idea and mix with right amount of ingredients like masala (add violence, sex, item number and dramatic twist and turns) to write one story for movie production.
Having stolen story concepts from other movies he will never ever publish his fiction co’s he himself had stolen ideas from other movies now he is worried that when he narrates his story to producer , producer will steal his ‘story’ concept and make a movie. Actor/producer Kamala Hassan is the only person who admitted using story ideas from all other movies to write movie scripts .
We story writers publish our fiction. There are billions of published fictions available on bookstores. If ‘we’ writers think that our story or story concept producer steals then we will not be publishing our fiction. Only 420 producers will make movie versions of our fictions without paying or getting permission from the author.
An honest producer will never steal a story or story concept from any of the fiction. If the writer comes to know of it then he can block his movie. Imagine, if a 420 producer steal story or concept and make movie and later a genuine producer buy story right to make movie he will not only block movie but also legally sodomize 420 producers. Beg or borrow. NEVER steal .
Be honest, let’s do business.
Author
Jivan
N B . Too many people had judged me with my appearance. My appearance is for you to identify me but I am NOT what you see or think! I am invisible!! I AM MIND!!!
