Poramboku Productions
Production No.1
Producer Pothuraju samarpinchu Tarasasankam, Telugu Chitram.
Everybody ready, lights on, ready, shoot
Vinandoyi verri mohaallaara vinandi;
Kaani rojulu vachchi, kallu moosuku poyi, poramboku sannasula saavasam chesi, Madrasulo Production Officu pettinaanu.
Directorlu, actorlu, dance masterlu, sangeeta darsakulu, production panivaaralu okatigaa cheri, naa talakaya nunnaga goriginaru, tadari tarinari naa naanna torri naanna. Jaihind babu Jahindu. Pongadalu Pokundalu.
I grew up listening to a Telugu Parody skit on 78 rpm record from my Dad’s collection, the beginning and the conclusion of which is given above.
Though the dictionary meaning of Poramboke is land belonging to Government, both in Telugu and Tamil, it is a euphemism for “useless person”. In this skit, a producer by name Pothuraju, commences production of a Telugu film titled “Tarasasankam” under the banner Poramboku Productions. He goes through a lot of troubles and concludes by singing, “listen idiots; due to misfortune, ignorance and association with useless guys, I have commenced film production in Madras. The directors, actors, choreographers, music directors and the production workers have together made me a pauper.
This was probably recorded in the early or mid 50’s. Though very hilarious, it actually depicts the struggles of a film producer.
Why am I suddenly recollecting this?
Recently, a young film producer committed suicide in Chennai. An actor committed suicide in Hyderabad a few days ago. Recently a popular director was caught in idol smuggling. Every now and then we find news alleging female actors’ involvement in prostitution. The number of actors and actresses getting into evangelism is also on the increase. Though every individual is entitled to their own path, I look at it more as an act of desperation. Whenever an actor or a technician dies, his family is literally on the streets, with absolutely no security for them. All this is very disturbing.
I was born and brought up in what is called Kollywood. We had several studios close to our house. Prasad, Arunachalam, Vijaya and Vauhini, Prakash, AVM, Bharani, Syamala, Majestic and Golden, to name a few. All of them vanished over a period of time. Many of our neighbours were either direct employees of these studios or freelancers working for films. I have seen from a close-up the struggles of those associated with film industry.
My dad too briefly worked in films in various departments and at the first opportunity, left it for good. He didn’t want any of his children to work in the industry. Unexpectedly, I worked for a Corporate that got into film production as a backward integration strategy and so I have firsthand knowledge of how that industry functions.
Our organization faced stumbling blocks at every step. Every person or firm willing to produce a film in Chennai has to first become a member of the association of Film Producers. Strangely, Corporate Entities are denied membership. This is done to safeguard independent producers. Companies that are interested in producing films have to necessarily get into a partnership with some individual who is already a member with the association and the film has to be produced and released under the joint banner. The exploitation starts from there.
Our office was stormed with prospective filmmakers every day. During their first visit, they were enthusiastic and eager to narrate stories. But we told them to submit synopses. Most of them weren’t used to working professionally and were desperate to meet an official and narrate their stories. They were fully confident that, if an appointment is given to them, they are sure to produce a milestone film. Handling them was very tough. Many threatened to commit suicide if appointment wasn’t given. A guy frequented our office asking for returning of his script. I didn’t know through whom he had given it to our COO. My COO too couldn’t recollect anything about the script. The guy wept, threatened of lodging a complaint. I asked him to describe the bound script and he mentioned, in the very first page, there would be a picture of Gandhi. I kept looking for that script in our office and suddenly found a stick folder with just three pages, the first with a picture of Gandhi. It was such a mediocre synopsis narrated so badly, I was very angry with him for making me search for it throughout our office. In another instance, a bound script submitted by a prospective filmmaker was lost in transit to Mumbai and he was not ready to believe, though the couriers have given an apology in writing. It just could not be traced. The guy was so agitated. He not only wanted the cost of printing and binding the script, but wanted a lakh as compensation to rewrite as he claimed he didn’t have a backup of the same. He alleged that we were scheming to use his script without his approval.
Those who got a chance too were very unprofessional. They didn’t know what a budget actually was. The budgets were prepared very superficially and even before the shooting was over, the film exceeded the budget. Added to this was huge wastage of resources, that didn’t add any value to the film. In one of the films, there was a scene in which a wedding card is handed over. I am not exaggerating. They bought 10-15 varieties of cards in packs of hundreds. They were lying everywhere in the office and were later used as scribbling pads. Similarly shots that were not required were shot and excluded too. Most of the bills were inflated and the teams didn’t like being questioned at all. They felt they weren’t accountable to anyone, including the producer.
The organization I was working for had incurred huge losses. So did the other corporates, that entered the industry. So are the other independent producers. They all suffer like the protagonist in the skit I quoted in the beginning.
Just the way, farmers in India incur losses after feeding everyone, film producers too suffer after entertaining people. After agriculture, in film industry, almost all the workers are freelancers. There is no work guarantee. Landless farmers in rural India get guaranteed work for 100 days under the MGNREGA. There is no such support for the film industry. They are all caught in a vicious cycle of poverty.
Though the studios have vanished in Kollywood, one can find many men assembled in tea shops in the vicinity and with weak bodies and a lot of enthusiasm and a dream of making it really big in the industry, discuss stories and eagerly waiting for miracles to happen.
Will the situation change?
