Beyond Bollywood: the future of bilateral film links
Anupam Sharma, Filmmaker
“Culture should not be seen as an extra add on, it should be seen as the door which we walk through in order to have a much stronger relationship” — Mike Rann, Ex Premier of South Australia on film links with India.
Australia is home to five major American film production studios, which has helped foster a boom in locally-filmed international productions and delivered significant benefits for the Australian economy. This is an achievement worth celebrating.
However, it is important to ask the question: why aren’t any of these international studios Indian?
We must be careful that our focus on film ties with the US do not cause us to neglect the huge untapped potential of the Indian film sector. While Australia-India relations have strengthened in recent years, the full potential of cultural collaboration is yet to be realised.
Australia’s film industry is one of the most professional in the world, boasting world class film schools. In 2019 it was ranked the eleventh largest in the world, generating US$900 million (A$1.3 billion) in box office revenue. India meanwhile is recognised as ‘the world’s movie-making capital’, producing three times as many films as Hollywood. So, a marriage between the two, or even a love affair, is a win-win for all.
Despite India’s position as one of the world’s most prolific film industries and Australia being home to a large Indian diaspora, a major Bollywood film hasn’t been filmed in Australia for over a decade.
What went wrong? Or more importantly, what can we do to change this trajectory in the future?
The foundations of Australia-India film links were laid in 1931, when a blue-eyed blonde-haired girl from Perth, Mary Ann Evans, moved to India with her Army Officer father and Greek Mother. Under her stage name Fearless Nadia she became famous for her eponymous role in the 1935 Indian film Hunterwali, about a female superhero (one of the world’s first action hero franchises).
The links picked up again in 1998 when Bollywood discovered Australia and showcased Australian locations to billions of Bollywood fans around the world, providing a much-needed boost to tourism, international student numbers, and trade. At this time Australia also learned the power of speaking to the lucrative Indian market through the language of cinema, the language of Bollywood.
Like an Indian goddess, Australia-India film trade developed many arms and grew and grew. Indian production companies would spend millions on filming in Australia, with Australian specialist film services working on major Indian films, TV serials, music videos and commercials. Over time, Bollywood became an Australian subculture and a blossoming love affair emerged.
However, like every relationship, when partners start taking each other for granted, bonds are loosened. Australia-Indian film ties began to weaken when Australia failed to be competitive with the other countries who were queuing to attract the Bollywood dollar. This was caused by Australia’s one-sizef its-all subsidy policy that failed to recognise that Indian films may spend less but provide more benefits by promoting Australia to Indian tourists and international students. India and Indian film particularly need that proactive tender loving care which was absent in Australia’s approach to Indian cinema. As a result, there has not been a major Bollywood film shoot in Australia since 2011.
In the years 2000-2010 Australia was reintroduced to the richness of the global India-centric film space and industry, and the potential of AustraliaIndia stories. The gear shifted with films like Lion, UNindian, Hotel Mumbai, Waiting City, and the establishment of the Australia India Film Fund in 2013. This marked a renewal in the collaboration between the countries’ film industry on telling Indiacentric Australian stories.
The future of Australia-India film collaboration lies in investing in stories between the two countries. This will unlock creative and financial power for the two to be real partners and collaborators, as opposed to Australia merely servicing Indian films. History has taught us not to take India for granted and we must chart the future with inclusion and diversity.
Since the 1960s, an effective formula has emerged for film collaboration between the West and India, one made up of a Western body and an Indian soul. The body is comprised of western style script writing, distribution and production, while an Indian soul brings music, emotion, drama, and characters. The success of Lion and Hotel Mumbai in Australia have proven this with an Australian body and Indian soul.
The growing Indian diaspora in Australia is redefining diversity and inclusion in how Australian stories are captured. Furthermore, streaming services are crossing political and geographical borders. This is fertile ground for the next generation of Australia-India stories.
These next generation of stories need a nurturing environment. Australia needs a strong will to understand, and a reduced urge to judge, the Indian film culture. We must consider the Indian screen sector not as ‘other’ but rather as our own like we do with Hollywood or British films.
Australian federal and state government film agencies funding the production and development of India-centric Australian film content is a promising sign of the future of the relationship.
But in order to tap into the full potential of the Indian film industry, Australia needs an India-specific film policy designed for film professionals to develop an accurate and informed agenda. A cohesive and proactive policy, including grants and subsidies, will showcase our Australian professional film industry and our India-centric stories to the cash rich investors and studios based in India.
India is too important to deal with reactively and we must be more proactive in our approach.
As India this year celebrates 75 years of independence from colonial rule, it is the perfect time to free ourselves from a stereotypical view of Bollywood and embark on a new journey of producing Australian-Indian stories.
Anupam Sharma is the Australia India Film Council Chair and a popular commentator on issues related to Australia’s film industry, diversity, and Indian cinema. Anupam is a filmmaker with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Films & Theatre from UNSW specialising in directing, with a thesis on Indian Cinema. Widely credited as pioneering Australian film links with India, Anupam has led a team of Australian film professionals, working on more than 320 projects at his award-winning film production and consultancy firm – TEMPLE. He launched AI Film Fund, started An Australian Film Initiative hosting Australian film festivals with support from Hugh Jackman and Baz Luhrman among others. He has been nominated as an Australia Day Ambassador for over 10 years and was named as one of the fifty most influential Australian film professionals.