Filmmakers should make movies showcasing Indian heritage: Ghai

'Showman' Subhash Ghai says he would like to see directors making more films that showcase Indian heritage to the international audience.
The 70-year-old filmmaker said he regrets that several Oscar-winning films based on India-related subjects were not made by directors from our country.
"I am not fascinated by the Oscars, but we are happy that a film on Mahatma Gandhi got the Oscars. Through 'Gandhi' the foreign audience saw India, but sadly that was not made by any Indian director. It was made by Richard Attenborough," Ghai told PTI.
"We want our filmmakers to internationally showcase our heritage with Indian sensibilities," he said.

Ghai runs a film school Whistling Woods International Institute for Film, Fashion & Communication which was founded in 2006.
Asked about the progress in setting up a branch of his film school in Kolkata, which he had announced about a year back, Ghai said, "We are keen to see it functioning in the east."

The filmmaker, who produced and directed some very popular Hindi films said, "After making 19 movies and 14 blockbusters, it was important to share the success with others.
"While the government spends Rs 37 crore on institutes like SRFTI, Kolkata and FTII, Pune annually, we run the entire project, having all high-tech global facilities from our own corpus. I am happy my daughter Meghna has made it the number one institute in Asia," Ghai said.

Asked why his last all-India release "Kaanchi" did not taste half as much success as films like "Karz" (1980), "Hero" (1983) to "Pardes" (1997) and "Taal' (1999)," Ghai said, "I am quite happy with all my films."
Asked if there was a hit film formula, Ghai said, "At times a film clicks because of it's subject."
To the observation about he launching female leads with new names starting with M, (like Mahima and Misti), Ghai said, "But I had not changed the names of Katrina or Kareena though they had just started their film innings.
"My changing some names is a coincidence. I don't always change names," he said.

Ghai has been roped in by 'Khushhi' World Action Forum (WAF) initiative to support implementation of CSR visions on issues including disability, "I do appreciate their work in various fields," he said.
An admirer of Ritwik Ghatak films, he said that his Mukta Arts production would like to collaborate on future film projects in Bengal after "Noukadubi" made by Rituparno Ghosh and its Hindi version "Kash Ma Kash".