In the age of torrents and trolls, copying from other-language films has become a risky business. Unni K.Warrier, Vinod Nair and N. Jayachandran say Malayalam moviemakers no longer look at world cinema for ‘inspiration’ but go on ‘inspiring’ others
“I steal from every movie ever made,” said Hollywood director Quentin Tarentino. Until a few years ago, this seemed to be the motivation for some of the Malayalam directors too.
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“New-gen” directors were generally branded copycats but YouTube videos and television shows revealed even 30-year-old films as straight lifts from other languages. To be fair, new filmmakers actually prompted a role reversal and forced their counterparts in other languages to look at Malayalam movies as a barometer for success.
It was safe to lift foreign-language films in the pre-internet era. Many directors have thrived by making copycat versions of commercial successes. With the advent of the internet and file-sharing sites, youngsters trawled the net for movies and fished out striking similarities with many a popular hit. A trade association in the film industry even asked a television channel to take off the air a programme that took up the cases of copycat directors in Malayalam.
The trend has changed for better. Filmmakers from other languages consider successes in Malayalam as a success anywhere. Many Malayalam hits, including ‘Bangalore Days’ and ‘Premam’, are being remade into other languages.
Of the 151 movies released in Malayalam last year, only a few have been found to have copied their themes or storylines from other languages. A couple of movies seemed like lifts but they stood out distinctively from the originals.
Many directors justify these shameless copying as “inspired”. As the netizens started laying bare their claims, filmmakers are trying to approach cinema more honestly and originally.
In sync with reality
The change in approach reflects in technical nuances too. As many directors insist on natural noise in the background, Malayalam cinema has made a sudden shift to sync sound recording. ‘Action Hero Biju’ was shot with sync sound in most parts. Even ‘Premam’ had its sound recording done along with the shooting. New-age directors are seeking to break the artificiality of dubbing.
The trend has given birth to a new breed of technicians called sound cutters. Their job is to cut out the noise on the set while recording sound and dialogues. They silence the unwanted noises around before the shooting starts. They pre-empt the grumbling of a machine from a nearby factory or the entry of a vehicle into the surroundings. They even keep out wailing children and barking dogs.
Sun the real star
Outdoor shooting brings in challenges galore. The position of the sun is a constant worry for cinematographers. They have to light up the scene in accordance with the time of the day, or the day of the season. Some scenes require the soft sun of the mornings or the evenings.
Software is available to forecast the position and intensity of the sun at a particular time. The sun-tracker software is used to determine the plan of action a day ahead of the shooting.