It's a pity our film-makers or stars do not give the stock market its due. Or, probably they think there are not enough people out there who understand the stock market well enough to appreciate a movie on the stock market. Demat account penetration in the country is only one-two per cent. A good chance that even the multiplex audience might shun such a movie, they might be reasoning.
But, how do you explain 'fast filling' and 'full' signs on The Wolf of Wall Street shows a full two weeks after its India release and nearly a month after the global media frenzy that accompanies Leonardo Di Caprio releases?
As former Sebi chief G V Ramakrishna famously said, you need not have suffered a heart attack to be a heart surgeon. After all, Indian movie-goers have appreciated dinosaur movies without knowing much about fossils. They have enjoyed science fiction without knowing astrophysics, when the stories were told intelligently. But, when you see the same computer graphics-aided dinosaur with a garland in its mouth attending the hero's wedding, you know where you are going wrong.
Unlike in the US, where Hollywood (in California) and Wall Street (in New York) are separated by thousands of miles, India's movie capital is also its financial nerve centre. This means film people and market folk move around in the same circles and interact more - some assistant director is dating a stock broker's daughter and so on. Yet, all we can boast of are some half-hearted attempts. Hollywood has managed to put the camera inside dealing rooms with Michael Douglas' Wall Street and its sequel Money Never Sleeps, the Kevin Spacey starrer Margin Call and Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street. While these movies chronicled the bad brokers, their flashy lives and their downfalls, Will Smith's In Pursuit of Happyness brought to life the good broker who overcomes hurdles and makes it big the right way.
Look at what we have managed. I remember Madhur Bhandarkar's Corporate making an attempt to explain the broker-corporate nexus, but it was in the passing. In Rock On, Farhan Akhtar plays a high-flying investment banker, who waxes eloquent to his client in native lingo to strike a chord. But even here, the Street was only incidental to the main plot. There have been some B-grade attempts, which are better ignored.
That is why I have started work on a movie tentatively titled 'The Doberman of Dalal Street'. Like its inspiration, it will have a superstar in the lead and since I am yet to meet a nice guy on the Street, at least not someone colourful enough to make a movie out of, it will be on a Streetsmart baddie - flamboyant, substance abuser, and a party animal.
My only trouble is that I am not sure whose character I'll choose for the titular role. Right now, I am spoilt for choice. Several likely contemporary candidates are likely to sue me in distant courts if I show their choice of wine and women on screen. Forget talking about other dubious things they do.
Maybe they will change their mind if they catch The Wolf of Wall Street before Jai Ho carpet bombs the screens. When Di Caprio is livid with unflattering details in an article in Forbes, a headline from which the movie has borrowed, he calms himself by saying, "There is no such thing as bad publicity." True. Hope my Dobermans listen.
