It seemed Gandhinagar had changed over the week. Gandhinagar
still looked like the last time, but the numbers of posters had increased. We walked
on the opposite lane this time. Our eyes followed the bundles of paper [which
turned out to be poster prints]folded and carried by young men on their
shoulder, and following them we were led to many distribution offices. At one
point, we were surprised to find a small sheltered lane filled with three
distribution offices, and a place where ticket printing and numbering was being
done.
Shrinivasa Murthy Bhat, was a 60 year old young man we first
met. He was the owner of
Shri Jaya Durga Movies. He has been a part of film
industry for about 35 yrs. He had, small little rooms filled with Film reels
and posters stuck all over the walls. I still remember the old yellow walls
with the texture of age painted by time. Bits of old torn posters seemed like
the walls were bruised all over, and the new posters were like bandages for
covering these wounds. He was a distributor, and we had a nice time knowing him
in person.
The street posters had the film we were about to watch
‘Brahma,’ as well as another film which I wish I could have remembered. So the
other poster was a little scary with this woman who had masculine features and
was too revealing. The poster haunted us for about half an hour until when we
entered the lane I last mentioned. There people guided me to this man. I began
questioning him about Cinema when suddenly in a very relaxed tone he pointed
towards the same poster claiming to have directed its film. Having been in
Gandhinagar for 3 times now, I well controlled my anxiety. I questioned asking
him about the story writer and he claimed it was his, yet without any hint of exaggeration
or pride. I was very glad to having met a story writer. Soon someone pointed
out to the scary women in the poster and told me that the acting too was done
by this Producer cum Director. I wish I could remember what his expression was,
I think it was humility. I froze, not for having met an actor, or the producer cum
director of a film, but by seeing how Bangalore just like Mumbai had become a city
for people’s dreams. He had always been
the villain, and even here in his 1st own film he again played a villain,
but I saw the contrary in his eyes; he was the lead actor claimed by the
ambition he held in his heart. He anxiously was waiting for the day to pass and
to get the audience response for his film, it was a Thursday. He had built courage
and his friends too supported him for this 1st project of his, but
his fate and finance are balancing on a single thread. He dared to dream, but
the audience had the power, would he or would he not fly? That is the paradox
of film industry, where success is to make a mark, if your film is spoken about
in passing after a year of its release you certainly made a mark.
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