Workshops needed for film distributors too: Adil Hussain

Critically acclaimed actor Adil Hussain says when it comes to promoting and distributing content-driven films, distributors in India too need workshops.

Here to present "Mukti Bhawan", a film set in Varanasi and dealing with individuals looking for salvation after death, Adil says content-driven films without a big face don't get as much help from distributors.

"Distributors do need workshops. Look at film like 'Sairat'. Imagine. Who knew the two actors? It was made in Rs 4 crore or something but made Rs 100 crore. That is the best business model you can have. In spite of witnessing all this, they (the distributors) don't understand," Adil told IANS here on the sidelines of Dharamshala International Film Festival 2017.

"You have to have a good film in order to earn money. But you are spending 50-100 crore on a film and it flops. It's such a bad business model. Are you not intelligent enough to see that it is not working anymore. They need workshops," he added.

About the contemporary sentiment that "content is the hero", Adil says that would be the ideal situation.

"Content is not really the hero. It should (be) and that is the ideal situation... it is happening but it is like a drop in the ocean. Distributors want a big name no matter what the content is, so how can they still say that content is the hero?

"Even though the content is great and the director wanted to put another actor, he has no choice but to put that big face because the distributor would not buy it (otherwise)," said the "Parched" actor.

"And big names means those who have spent enough money on PR. How does one become a big name... there is a game. You have to pay 1 lakh a month to the PR agency be always in the news, on first page. Because I am on the news, producers hire me and then even when the film will flop you are in the news," added Adil, who has acted in English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, Norwegian and French films.

Adil says he does not do this on principle. "If I am newsworthy, then I should be in the news. Otherwise if I am newsworthy yet not in the news, then that means there is something wrong with the news platform."

Adil, who will next be seen in "2.0" and "Aiyaary", will be going off movies from May 2018 to May 2019 to concentrate on theatre.

The sixth edition of the four-day Dharamshala International Film Festival began on Thursday.

(The writer's trip is at the invitation of Dharamsala International Film Festival. Kishori Sud can be contacted at kishori.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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