Filmmakers Shekhar Kapur, Sudhir Mishra and Hansal Mehta have called the deplorable practice of streaming the edited versions of certain films on OTT platforms. The discussion among these filmmakers originated on 'X' (formerly Twitter) when the Mr India filmmaker posted his appreciation of the new Netflix series Adolescence.
Calling Adolescence a "great series" with "next-level storytelling", Kapur posted that "it defies the regular three-act structure of cause and effect and plunges you deeply into the minds of the characters and allows you to reflect upon yourself."
Reacting to his tweet, filmmaker Sudhir Mishra added, "Nobody will let us do something like that. One should do it as an independent film. Something of our own which wanders, then stops, digs and goes where the smell takes us."
Kapur responded to Mishra's tweet by asking whether OTT platforms today would let him make his National award-winning film Bandit Queen the way he made it years ago considering how the version of it streaming on Amazon Prime is, according to Kapur, "unrecognisable" from what he really made and whether they would do the same to Western. "Someone has cut it beyond recognition. And yet it carries my name as director. And no one asked me! Are we lesser beings than Western Directors? Would they have the guts to cut a Chris Nolan film without his permission?"
Kapur expressed his disappointment at seeing the butchered version of a work that got made after much anguish and "days/nights spent arguing and fighting over each edit and each cut."
"I remember those months with Renu Saluja and myself on Bandit Queen. And then some random person carelessly cuts the film for OTT release? I want to ask this person. Did you even think about the love we give for our art? Did you think about how Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s beautiful music was affected as you so carelessly butchered the film? Or the actors' performances in the film? For you were not there when we shot the film in a punishing 50-degree heat. You were not there when we would stay up all night discussing the nuance of each scene, each moment, of the film, before filming it? Of course not... For we are Indian filmmakers... So who cares?"
Concurring with Kapur's tweet, filmmaker Hansal Mehta (Scam 1992), wrote, "We’ve become so used to being treated as slaves of the West. No protest. No pushback. Total submission. Because they are doing us a favour. Our integrity as artistes is neither protected by us nor by a guild that could potentially protect us. The so-called ‘association’ is busy behaving like a political party or stoking divisive propaganda. Meanwhile, directors are rendered powerless and bereft of any support system. Maybe your status as one of the country's foremost artistic spokespersons to the world and as a government-decorated Padmabhushan will help bring about change. Until then, back to our submissive selves? Members of the new content-driven colony that creates cattle feed to drive subscriptions while fulfilling the artistic ambitions of its Western masters."
