"FILMMAKING IS A BUSINESS OF CREATIVE PEOPLE, NOT A CREATION OF BUSINESSMEN." tells Subhash Ghai to students of WWI

First time in four years of unprecedented growth of Whistling Woods, founder and filmmaker, Subhash Ghai took a master class with 400 students post the screening of his evergreen film Taal. He shared the stories behind the making of the film through scene-by scene narration and enlightened the students on how to make a great film with given resources, budget, talent and technology. He specifically spoke on the topic "How to handle a crisis" and how to come up with better results. He also shared his experience of rewriting the characters traits when it came to casting in this case Anil Kapoor was to play a role which was originally written for Govinda as a dancer than a musician."Every technician and actor must know his limitation of excellence if they want to be on top… even if you decide to be the 1st assistant director or chief assistant forever. Our generation is the victim of misguided motivation to become writer/director/producer/editor in the first film itself.

"Script writing and Directing are two different forms of talent and we should not live in dreams to become a Raj Kapoor, Manoj Kumar, Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar and so on, unless you are multi talented and have full command over each department. Great directors like Raj Kapoor, Bimal Roy, Mehboob Khan never wrote a script but shared their vision with specialized writers and translated it on the screen" said Mr. Ghai.

Subhash Ghai said that he thoroughly enjoyed making Taal because it was a huge challenge for him to create a pure musical film with a thin storyline and work with actors who were not big stars at that time. "I knew that A. R. Rahman would justify the journey of music and its sound from chapter one to chapter six of the script along with the growth of characters and each of my stars including Aishwarya and Akshay put their level best to get of the final result while playing such complex roles."

Mr. Ghai further added "Though filmmaking is purely a passion and an obsession of a Director, he must know, that he is only the captain of the ship, not the owner of the ship, so he has to take care of the Producer's finances too. He/She must do his best within the budget and resources available and must not try to make his own show reel at the expense of the Producer. The Director must respect his Technicians and Actors with full faith. Happiness around the project is the most important thing while shooting a film."

As a technician Subhash Ghai has always been one of the pioneers in India with respect to introduction of new technology in cinema. In Taal he recorded the background music and some few voices in his Audeus studio in Mumbai whilst Rahman was playing his orchestra in Chennai through a new sound technology known as Codec recording.

He also added that the Producer must accept the fact that, no one can predict or knows whether his product would be a blockbuster or not. But it has to be a sincere film and it must reflect the sincerity of each department, particularly Actors, Director and Writer. And we must not only aim on the initial business of four days, but look at a longer run in theaters quoting recent blockbusters like 3 Idiots and Dabanng. "To achieve this, it is important to work more on the script rather than promotion only." he concluded.

Talking about proven good writers or team of good writers, he expressed strongly that they must be paid a percentage of the film’s budget like in Hollywood, so they are encouraged to have a respectable position. However, Writers must stop dreaming to be Directors since Direction is sure a different art and craft.

Subhash Ghai signed off by saying "I am proud of my students and faculty most of whom are moving ahead in the right direction and discovering themselves as experts in their art and I am sure that they will learn more from the industry once they join it. This will be their new beginning!"

Promoted by Filmmaker Subhash Ghai, Mukta Arts Limited & Filmcity Mumbai, Whistling Woods International is Asia’s largest Film, Television, Animation and Media Arts institute, providing world-class education in all technical and creative aspects of filmmaking and television. The Mumbai campus of 20-acres is located inside Mumbai’s Film & Television production centre Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari (better known simply as ‘Filmcity’), and offers courses that vary in duration from 6-months to 2&½ years, both full-time and part time in nature. All the major specializations of the Media & Entertainment industry are catered to, including Acting, Animation, Cinematography, Direction, Editing, Producing, Screenwriting and Sound for the Film & TV Industries. Whistling Woods International also offers, in association with Manipal University, India’s first MBA in Media & Entertainment.

Whistling Woods International
Film City Complex
Goregaon East
Mumbai 400065

This release was published on openPR.