The 0ne Rupee Film - 2

We have started a project named The 0ne Rupee Film. The film does not look forward to traditional producers neither to traditional distributors but to your support and contribution. The film will be made by whatever you donate. These are some recent posts shared from the official blog

If you are interested please follow the blog http://onerupeefilm.blogspot.in/

Or the official Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/onerupeefilm

Friday, March 9, 2012

Promised Post: Explanation, Expectation, Resolution

I hope I don't need to explain the delay. If you are a reader of this blog you must have already guessed that I'm really not doing some office-work, neither do I have a secretary to do this job for me and just like you, I too have my own problems like depression etc. Today, I updated my old website today for the first time as well as an old blog after 2010. And now, I really don't have much time. I'll have to leave soon for the city, I must be there by night. Anyway, let's come to the point.

Why is the minimum amount of contribution still Re.1 while I'm clearly stating that even more than Rs. 25 k is welcome from a single person?

My answer is: See, Firstly, Little Fish Eat Big Fish was initiated and founded in 2008 by me, Sriparna and Arupa da (Arupratan Ghosh). It's been quite a long time since then. In this period we've learnt a lot of things about films and also about other things. We have released three DVDs on our own. For various reasons we were compelled to set the minimum participatory contribution at Rs.100 (150-200 for other states). In kolkata till date spending 100Rs. for 5 short films is not an easy thing for all the students. Yes, there are students who can spend Rs.1000 everyday just for anything but they were not our target audience. People who found interest in our works mostly belong to middle and lower-middle class. What we used to do is, we first focused on recovering the production cost and once it is recovered we used to distribute digital copies for free to the people who could not afford spending 100.

Secondly, till date common people in Kolkata are not really that much interested about the independent efforts in film-medium (Well, basic reason behind this is the trash produced by rich kids and the idiotic school-goers who god knows why ever tried to make a film). Even those who are interested are not habituated to contribute to Independent films or filmmakers. This project looks forward to raise this habit. One rupee is nothing, it doesn't hurt. Most of the people use this very amount only to satisfy pushy beggars. The basic difference between us and the beggar is that we are providing them with a little piece of paper containing information regarding this project so that they can check back and verify or contribute more if they feel like. With the exchanged value of one rupee, the unique approach will surely help them remember the fact, we feel. It's not building houses in the air in the name of Independent filmmaking. Our fathers are not our producers and we still believe in the from-the-mass-to-the-mass structure.

I hope that's enough to clarify why the minimum amount is one rupee only. Now, why am I asking for more?

See, just like the ovum needs sperm to produce a new life, a film needs money to come to life. We believe that there are some friends of ours who like the way we are continuing against all odds. Some of them do receive a handsome paycheck at the end of every month. Among these friends there are some we know personally. They are film enthusiasts, fan of good literature, loves music too. It's a clear call to them, "Dear, it's the time for you to act. Maybe once you dreamt of making 'That Film' but then this job and all, and then you had to get married and now you raise a family... alright! No one is calling you to get out of your closet, but we are on the streets. Can you lend us your umbrella? We'd love to smell it and believe that you are still here with us."

For the next two days, me and Sriparna, we'll be available at JU (Jadavpur University) campus. You can come, meet, discuss with us about the film, contribute. For any assistance call me on 919883103809. When I get back from the city I'll start uploading the storyline little by little in the form of a novella. Can I expect you to just copy and paste that on your blog / web with some basic information about this project. That'll be of much help. Let us know.

Thanks

Monday, March 12, 2012

Just Another Post

We were at Jadavpur University on the 10th and 11th at the stall of Guruchandali Magazine in the Sanskriti, 2012 (a festival organized by the students of engineering dept). The collection is now INR 7,807.15 /- But I'm not really feeling like writing anything else tonight. I'm tired. Moreover, I expected some comments or responses on the last post. OK, so it's clear now, no one is going to come forward and say, "here, I can help". It's more like, "you are fighting for your own cause. So, you shall face all that on your own". But what did I really ask? -- I just wanted some friends who can copy from this blog and paste on his own with some basic information on this initiative when I start posting the the story-line in the form of a novella.

Anyway, depression is natural, and it's only temporary. I believe I'll be able to keep on posting like before because I've gone through worse phases and those days have only encouraged me more.

Thanks

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Trends

Depression is like cloud, you know what I mean if you are a sensitive man.

I came across another talented friend of mine today who seemed to be in a mood of a quarrel. These kinds of friends, see, I used to have a lot of them before. They will never do what they should have been doing. They would opt for a job at some office and curse the society for being so cruel. They'd curse their social and economic whereabouts for everything i.e the obstructions of becoming a popular artiste. But it's actually them who decided to sign the papers because they felt insecure at a point of time.

If you know what you are doing and who you are inside, is there a reason to get distracted like that, my friend? Lack of confidence and recognition can make feel a mediocre artiste that he is somebody like Rimbaud or Artaud, only if people could get it! Gosh!

What's there in recognition? If you are all for work why should you care at all? No matter what, just keep on working, use your brain and muscles and don't become jealous of anyone around.

Analyze, won't you?

Whatever, let's come to the point, if you are subscribed to the Facebook page you must have already come to know that the figure now stands at INR 12,908.15 /- but what you don't know yet is that the highest individual contribution is Rs. 2500. Let's see who's going to break it and donate 5k for the first time.

Our first identified donor from another country is Ginnetta Correlli, a filmmaker friend. Her generosity was soon found in another filmmaker friend named Jason Marsh. We are thankful to them, we think their contributions would motivate others in other parts of the world too.

Be it Re.1 or Rs.1006 people are contributing for real. It's not one month yet since we started at BYOFF on the 25th of February and we're almost at 13k already. May we call it overwhelming, the response? Now we have a reason to be confident and announce, Yes, We'll Start Shooting this April. Now, whichever comes first, 20k or the first shoot, We'll start posting the story-line in the form of a novella, post by post, serially. Friends, asking again, do you have a blog where you can share the novella with some basic information on this project to help raise funds more effectively? --- We think we'll have MAM (Mad About Moviez) beside us. Are you too MAD, about MOVIEZ? Join hands, let's make it happen for the sake of the pure madness

The One Rupee Film Project

Almost always I forget to update this website or this blog. I have too many things on my little shoulder. Anyway, I have started a project name The One Rupee Film. Today, I’m just pasting a copy of all the posts I made there. I’ll be doing this thing whenever I recall about this site and have some time to spend working here. The aim of the project is basically to raise funds for a 90 minute digital feature. It looks forward to contributions from everyone interested and if you are on of them please don’t wait for when I’ll post something here.

You can follow the official blog for this project here http://onerupeefilm.blogspot.in/

Or the official Facebook page here http://www.facebook.com/onerupeefilm



The Day after the National Award

Yesterday I followed some Kolkata based news channels. I was waiting to hear something which was not there. This morning I woke up and went through the whole news paper (which is quite unlikely of me as I have been trying to avoid this regular literature on murder, rape, politics, scams etc). I thought I found it when I saw this headline, "Six Bengalees are Honoured with National Award" but alas it was not even there. Everyone is covering almost everything of National Award, 2012 in Kolkata except mentioning Amlan Datta and his BOM. I found the film quite an extra-ordinary one. So, Happy Holi nevertheless, happy independent films!

I was too much tired last night. So I could not post in time again. I went off to bed with the 'Deer-nest' of dear Subhankar Das. But now I feel that I should have posted here instead of reading poetry. Some hot-headed hot-blooded truck drivers and their companions are celebrating Holi just underneath my balcony and I'm feeling like an America. I really want to Vietnamize or Afghanistanize them by bombing from above! I really don't know how to get to the point which I have promised to explain in this post. In fact by now I got this gut feeling that I'm not going to do it now and here. Pardon me, but it is not possible without piece of mind. I'll do it later tonight. By the way, the Facebook page for this project has not reached 250 yet. It's stuck again on 239 I believe. So, help us out if you can and check back later tonight to read the promised explanation of the slabs.

Thank you
Posted by Anamitra Roy at 11:15 PM




An Update on IrregularityMy blog posts are becoming irregular. I thought of posting at least once everyday but that's quite an office-job really. I don't even know who reads this blog, yes, of course I find that view-counter to cross 40 everyday, but who are the readers? Are you one of them? I was preparing the list of contributors today, guess it'd be ready to upload by tomorrow. The morning started well when a new friend compared this project with Abraham's 'Amma Aryan'. I was like 'pardon me, but I'm not that great, are you mad etc'. Then in the afternoon the awesome-st incident till date happened when my bank notified me about two transactions. One is of 1.17 INR and the other one is of 1.12 INR. What I found to my astonishment is that there are no names attached. It was written "Global Remittance" where the names should have been. I still don't know who they are., but I guess these are the first two contributions from non-Indians via online transfer. People of other nationalities have already contributed to this project during BYOFF but this occurrences proved that even foreigners and NRIs can contribute just 1 Re via internet though it's not recommended for them. It is also not recommended for people who work at MNCs or own Credit cards etc. Why not? --- well, I'll write about that in my next post, probably tomorrow --- Why I'm recommending some people to contribute more than the specified minimum contribution of Rupee 1 and in spite of that why still there is the option to donate as minimum as One RupeePosted by Anamitra Roy at 9:16 AM
Depression

Cooking is a good way to handle depression. And when it comes to experiments Einstein comes second to me. I did not post anything last night. This post is actually delayed by almost 9 hours. It's just I was not feeling like writing anything. I wanted the page to reach 200 by 01:00 hours today. But every time everything can not be in favour of you. This simple truth made me depressed. As the Sun said hi, I posted an angry status on Facebook. I was angry with the useless 722 in my friendlist out of which I consider only 50 to be effective enough and 22 to be real friends. I went to the kitchen, started my day with experiments, came back, criticized Bengali poetry of the last decade and then all of a sudden I realized that I haven't invited all my friends to the page yet! :-D

These kinds of things keep on happening to me often. Like I have already promised four Bengali magazines and one publisher friend of mine to submit some works as soon as possible. Now I don't know whom to betray. Any way, almost without any effort we got 20 more likes today. It's not that depressing really. Moreover, we got another mention in the BYOFF coverage of Hindustan Times (Kolkata Edition). As soon as the HT server is ok I'll post it on the 'Media and Articles' page

We need a lot of support. I hope you to be there, standing by this project. Please help us reach 200 in another 15 hours. The day has started in a positive way, with 5 likes in the early hours. We are on 183 now. Another 17 is not a big deal really, isn't it?Posted by Anamitra Roy at 8:19 PM
4th Day BeginsAt the end of 72 hours after the campaign was launched on Facebook, we were at 158. Not bad really. But I've seen more during my last film. When we stopped promoting the FB page ofMemories... of a Dead Township, we were at 239. We didn't need more. But this time we do need. We need to cross even the 443 at LFEBF Official FB Page in order to make this project a success. Show your support, spread the word as far as possible friends. Can you make us reach 200 by the end of 96 hours? Today my article was published on MAM (Mad About Moviez, a Mumbai based forum of film enthusiasts). You can read it here or you can find it on the "Media & Articles" page of this blog.

The 2nd thing is Paypal, god knows what they are doing with my PAN number. The verification process is not over yet even after such a long time. Once they are satisfied, there should be no problem anymore for you to donate via Paypal. Till then bear with us, and also with Paypal.

More updates are likely to be posted soon. Keep in touchPosted by Anamitra Roy at 1:39 PM Things look positiveYes, quite positive indeed. Today we got another 80 likes and by the end of 48 hours we are on 130. Moreover we got another media coverage. Washington Bangla Radio (USA) aka WBRI posted an article on the 0ne Rupee Film Project. You can read it here (any coverage of this project can be found on the tab called Media and Articles). Hopefully tomorrow I'll create another page named "Partners" in which I'll post contact details of our friends in different cities and states whom you can connect to for making a contribution.

More updates would be posted shortly. Keep an eye.
We need your support. Keep'em coming
ThanksPosted by Anamitra Roy at 12:13 PM I launched the campaign on Facebook last night
I thought of doing it a bit later, but as soon as Hemant Kumar Gaba asked last evening I realized again, the importance of having a page on facebook. Add 10 of your friends to this page and I'll accept that as your one rupee, your contribution to this project. Of course, you can do both, I mean, send some bucks and share the word amongst your friends. Some people are asking "why isn't there a donate button on the page"! See friends I'm only an independent artiste and not a merchant. I don't have any idea about how to do that. If you know, please share your knowledge here by posting a comment. I'd be obliged

The response is quite good so far as I've reached 50 in less than 24 hours. Sriparna is helping me a lot like she always does. I was thinking to add her up as a co-director of the film. She has lived through the story just like me. The protagonist is a male character of course, but with her I think it'd be much easier to get rid of the headache that comes with art and décor. I'm expecting another 50 likes in the next 24 hours. Let's see. Help me as much as you can dear, I really need you beside me and don't forget to like the page if you haven't clicked the button yet. Thanks in advance.Posted by Anamitra Roy at 3:47 PM
BYOFF, 2012 - The fest where I started it
I launched the campaign on the closing day of this years' BYOFF. Thanks to Mr. Gurpal Singh who kept on encouraging me to go for it throughout the festival. If he was not that pushy I don't know whether I'd have started the campaign there (as I thought earlier) or not. Actually I was quite depressed due to a lot of things. During the presentation of my film, in his introductory speech, Mr. Singh all of a sudden started speaking about the campaign. Surprisingly, an old man of around 60 years (pure guess!) took out a 100 rupee note from his wallet and said, "Here is your one rupee. Come take it." That is precisely how it all started on the 23rd of February, 2012.

On 24th, I was feeling enthusiastic enough to run and get some print outs etc for the campaign but again, I lost all the energy by the evening. Mr. Singh probably could guess it. He came again to inspire me while I was just drinking beer out of nothing, sitting inside a cottage or something like that. He asked me whether I've started collecting the money or not. I thought damn man, what am I doing! Am I going to do it or not!

The feeling kept on being felt till I rushed to the open stage to make an official announcement on the evening of the 25th. Not that everyone accepted it with open mind but all's well that ends well. I gathered Rs. 2,444 by the end of the festival. This initiative also got mentions on the BYOFF coverages of Midday, Long Live Cinema and Dear Cinema.

The fundraising did begin finally!
Hoof!

Posted by Anamitra Roy at 11:29 AM



Beginning PostHello,
I just booked the domain to start the campaign. Will keep posting here whenever I have something interesting to share. I'm Anamitra Roy, one of the founder members and the curator of Little Fish Eat Big Fish (The No-Budget Filmmakers' Forum). I just needed to start this blog ASAP so that when I approach you tomorrow I have at least a blog on this project to share with you. The concept is like this: You give me a coin and I give you a paper with my contact and all so that you don't think I will smoke your money away like anything. I know what money is. I made my first short "Jean-Luc Godard Had No Script" back in 2009-10 for Rs 1k. The next that followed was Secret Footage_The Voyage, a 40 minute segment for Rs. 5k and in 2012 I've completed another short named 'Memories...of a Dead Township' for just no money, literally. It's not a style, it's a reality. If I had money, I guess I won't have become a no-budget filmmaker.

I expect your support through the campaign and the production.
And I hope you can trust me.


ThanksPosted by Anamitra Roy at 12:03 PM

Almost always I forget to update this website or this blog. I have too many things on my little shoulder. Anyway, I have started a project name The One Rupee Film. Today, I’m just pasting a copy of all the posts I made there. I’ll be doing this thing whenever I recall about this site and have some time to spend working here. The aim of the project is basically to raise funds for a 90 minute digital feature. It looks forward to contributions from everyone interested and if you are on of them please don’t wait for when I’ll post something here.

You can follow the official blog for this project here http://onerupeefilm.blogspot.in/

Or the official Facebook page here http://www.facebook.com/onerupeefilm



The Day after the National Award

Yesterday I followed some Kolkata based news channels. I was waiting to hear something which was not there. This morning I woke up and went through the whole news paper (which is quite unlikely of me as I have been trying to avoid this regular literature on murder, rape, politics, scams etc). I thought I found it when I saw this headline, "Six Bengalees are Honoured with National Award" but alas it was not even there. Everyone is covering almost everything of National Award, 2012 in Kolkata except mentioning Amlan Datta and his BOM. I found the film quite an extra-ordinary one. So, Happy Holi nevertheless, happy independent films!

I was too much tired last night. So I could not post in time again. I went off to bed with the 'Deer-nest' of dear Subhankar Das. But now I feel that I should have posted here instead of reading poetry. Some hot-headed hot-blooded truck drivers and their companions are celebrating Holi just underneath my balcony and I'm feeling like an America. I really want to Vietnamize or Afghanistanize them by bombing from above! I really don't know how to get to the point which I have promised to explain in this post. In fact by now I got this gut feeling that I'm not going to do it now and here. Pardon me, but it is not possible without piece of mind. I'll do it later tonight. By the way, the Facebook page for this project has not reached 250 yet. It's stuck again on 239 I believe. So, help us out if you can and check back later tonight to read the promised explanation of the slabs.

Thank you
Posted by Anamitra Roy at 11:15 PM




An Update on IrregularityMy blog posts are becoming irregular. I thought of posting at least once everyday but that's quite an office-job really. I don't even know who reads this blog, yes, of course I find that view-counter to cross 40 everyday, but who are the readers? Are you one of them? I was preparing the list of contributors today, guess it'd be ready to upload by tomorrow. The morning started well when a new friend compared this project with Abraham's 'Amma Aryan'. I was like 'pardon me, but I'm not that great, are you mad etc'. Then in the afternoon the awesome-st incident till date happened when my bank notified me about two transactions. One is of 1.17 INR and the other one is of 1.12 INR. What I found to my astonishment is that there are no names attached. It was written "Global Remittance" where the names should have been. I still don't know who they are., but I guess these are the first two contributions from non-Indians via online transfer. People of other nationalities have already contributed to this project during BYOFF but this occurrences proved that even foreigners and NRIs can contribute just 1 Re via internet though it's not recommended for them. It is also not recommended for people who work at MNCs or own Credit cards etc. Why not? --- well, I'll write about that in my next post, probably tomorrow --- Why I'm recommending some people to contribute more than the specified minimum contribution of Rupee 1 and in spite of that why still there is the option to donate as minimum as One RupeePosted by Anamitra Roy at 9:16 AM
Depression

Cooking is a good way to handle depression. And when it comes to experiments Einstein comes second to me. I did not post anything last night. This post is actually delayed by almost 9 hours. It's just I was not feeling like writing anything. I wanted the page to reach 200 by 01:00 hours today. But every time everything can not be in favour of you. This simple truth made me depressed. As the Sun said hi, I posted an angry status on Facebook. I was angry with the useless 722 in my friendlist out of which I consider only 50 to be effective enough and 22 to be real friends. I went to the kitchen, started my day with experiments, came back, criticized Bengali poetry of the last decade and then all of a sudden I realized that I haven't invited all my friends to the page yet! :-D

These kinds of things keep on happening to me often. Like I have already promised four Bengali magazines and one publisher friend of mine to submit some works as soon as possible. Now I don't know whom to betray. Any way, almost without any effort we got 20 more likes today. It's not that depressing really. Moreover, we got another mention in the BYOFF coverage of Hindustan Times (Kolkata Edition). As soon as the HT server is ok I'll post it on the 'Media and Articles' page

We need a lot of support. I hope you to be there, standing by this project. Please help us reach 200 in another 15 hours. The day has started in a positive way, with 5 likes in the early hours. We are on 183 now. Another 17 is not a big deal really, isn't it?Posted by Anamitra Roy at 8:19 PM
4th Day BeginsAt the end of 72 hours after the campaign was launched on Facebook, we were at 158. Not bad really. But I've seen more during my last film. When we stopped promoting the FB page ofMemories... of a Dead Township, we were at 239. We didn't need more. But this time we do need. We need to cross even the 443 at LFEBF Official FB Page in order to make this project a success. Show your support, spread the word as far as possible friends. Can you make us reach 200 by the end of 96 hours? Today my article was published on MAM (Mad About Moviez, a Mumbai based forum of film enthusiasts). You can read it here or you can find it on the "Media & Articles" page of this blog.

The 2nd thing is Paypal, god knows what they are doing with my PAN number. The verification process is not over yet even after such a long time. Once they are satisfied, there should be no problem anymore for you to donate via Paypal. Till then bear with us, and also with Paypal.

More updates are likely to be posted soon. Keep in touchPosted by Anamitra Roy at 1:39 PM Things look positiveYes, quite positive indeed. Today we got another 80 likes and by the end of 48 hours we are on 130. Moreover we got another media coverage. Washington Bangla Radio (USA) aka WBRI posted an article on the 0ne Rupee Film Project. You can read it here (any coverage of this project can be found on the tab called Media and Articles). Hopefully tomorrow I'll create another page named "Partners" in which I'll post contact details of our friends in different cities and states whom you can connect to for making a contribution.

More updates would be posted shortly. Keep an eye.
We need your support. Keep'em coming
ThanksPosted by Anamitra Roy at 12:13 PM I launched the campaign on Facebook last night
I thought of doing it a bit later, but as soon as Hemant Kumar Gaba asked last evening I realized again, the importance of having a page on facebook. Add 10 of your friends to this page and I'll accept that as your one rupee, your contribution to this project. Of course, you can do both, I mean, send some bucks and share the word amongst your friends. Some people are asking "why isn't there a donate button on the page"! See friends I'm only an independent artiste and not a merchant. I don't have any idea about how to do that. If you know, please share your knowledge here by posting a comment. I'd be obliged

The response is quite good so far as I've reached 50 in less than 24 hours. Sriparna is helping me a lot like she always does. I was thinking to add her up as a co-director of the film. She has lived through the story just like me. The protagonist is a male character of course, but with her I think it'd be much easier to get rid of the headache that comes with art and décor. I'm expecting another 50 likes in the next 24 hours. Let's see. Help me as much as you can dear, I really need you beside me and don't forget to like the page if you haven't clicked the button yet. Thanks in advance.Posted by Anamitra Roy at 3:47 PM
BYOFF, 2012 - The fest where I started it
I launched the campaign on the closing day of this years' BYOFF. Thanks to Mr. Gurpal Singh who kept on encouraging me to go for it throughout the festival. If he was not that pushy I don't know whether I'd have started the campaign there (as I thought earlier) or not. Actually I was quite depressed due to a lot of things. During the presentation of my film, in his introductory speech, Mr. Singh all of a sudden started speaking about the campaign. Surprisingly, an old man of around 60 years (pure guess!) took out a 100 rupee note from his wallet and said, "Here is your one rupee. Come take it." That is precisely how it all started on the 23rd of February, 2012.

On 24th, I was feeling enthusiastic enough to run and get some print outs etc for the campaign but again, I lost all the energy by the evening. Mr. Singh probably could guess it. He came again to inspire me while I was just drinking beer out of nothing, sitting inside a cottage or something like that. He asked me whether I've started collecting the money or not. I thought damn man, what am I doing! Am I going to do it or not!

The feeling kept on being felt till I rushed to the open stage to make an official announcement on the evening of the 25th. Not that everyone accepted it with open mind but all's well that ends well. I gathered Rs. 2,444 by the end of the festival. This initiative also got mentions on the BYOFF coverages of Midday, Long Live Cinema and Dear Cinema.

The fundraising did begin finally!
Hoof!

Posted by Anamitra Roy at 11:29 AM



Beginning PostHello,
I just booked the domain to start the campaign. Will keep posting here whenever I have something interesting to share. I'm Anamitra Roy, one of the founder members and the curator of Little Fish Eat Big Fish (The No-Budget Filmmakers' Forum). I just needed to start this blog ASAP so that when I approach you tomorrow I have at least a blog on this project to share with you. The concept is like this: You give me a coin and I give you a paper with my contact and all so that you don't think I will smoke your money away like anything. I know what money is. I made my first short "Jean-Luc Godard Had No Script" back in 2009-10 for Rs 1k. The next that followed was Secret Footage_The Voyage, a 40 minute segment for Rs. 5k and in 2012 I've completed another short named 'Memories...of a Dead Township' for just no money, literally. It's not a style, it's a reality. If I had money, I guess I won't have become a no-budget filmmaker.

I expect your support through the campaign and the production.
And I hope you can trust me.


ThanksPosted by Anamitra Roy at

So, I believe I'm Continuing

I mean I still can't believe that I'm still continuing with projects, trying to organize things, trying to survive....who told me to come this way. I could've done better with engineering or physics on high school. Why shall I survive as an indie anyways?? Isn't it better to edit soap operas in some Esplanade, Rasbehari or Garia production house and get paid 10-15000 a month??

But still, I'm trying ---------

‘Just think, they never sleep!’

‘And why not?’

‘Because they never get tired.’

‘And why not?’

‘Because they’re fools.’

‘Don’t fools get tired?’

‘How could fools get tired!’

I remember reading it while I was in class 10 or 11. Children on a Country Road by Franz Kafka ended thus. I liked it.

--- Anamitra Roy

Representation of Sexuality in 'Indian Culture': Past and Present (The 'Unish Kuri' Debate) [Part 2]

Sometimes we construct our past, that is, the past of India as a land of spirituality and open sexuality. For the second kind of reading, we often cite examples of Khajuraho, Konark Sun Temple, Kamasutra by Vatsyayana and Gita Govinda by Jayadeva etc. Well, this is a very popular way to construct the history as you like it by including and excluding the events and factors accordingly but no one really counts the origins while citing examples like the above. A king or an artist may have spoken for open sexuality and all but that doesn’t let anyone consider open sexuality as a mass culture in ancient India. When we construct the past like that or say that India was millennium ahead in sexuality before it lost its culture in the hands of the British colonizers actually we overlook a number of documents concerned. I’d like to refer to Manusanghita here. This famous Hindu law book admits killing of a woman if found guilty of being engaged in sexual relationship with a man other than her husband.Manusanghita says that in such cases the husband has the right to kill them both without being subjected to common law of the state. I guess we have not forgotten about the ‘Chaturashram’, the general laws of how a Hindu shall spend his/her life. The first stage mentioned there is ‘Brahmacharya’. It says a man shall not have sex or even sexual intentions until he reaches the age of 26. Even in Ramayana Rama decided to disown Sita just for there was a chance of her being impure, that is to say, being involved in some adulterous relationships while she was held in the forest by Ravana. As far as I know, there was a little space for open sexuality in some tribal community (I can’t remember the name). The community had a ‘Pratha’ (custom) named ‘Ghotul’. According to this custom, teenagers, both boys and girls, were allowed to spend days together in a village where they could choose their fittest sexual partners by having sex with each other. It was a kind of sex festival for teens. This is an exceptional case anyways. My friend, if we were that much open about it we would not have to confront the strong feudal patriarchy in our day-to-day lives. Just think of where we are standing today. You are forbidden to have pre-marital sex, you can’t spend a night with your girlfriend in one bed, you can’t even close the door on the face of your parents when your girlfriend is in your room, but, you can watch half-naked Aishwarya Rai or Deepika Padukone or Bipasha Basu dancing on your big TV screen without hesitation. Some half-literates mistakenly consider this to be modernization and liberalization of the society. Believe me, it’s rather a hypocritical interpretation of the terms. It’s a mockery, a mimetic tendency of the colonized mind provokes us to interpret the modernity of the western society in that way. Well, monkeys do mock human actions, don’t they? In hisTintin in Congo, Herge portrayed all the black men with a monkey-like face. Do you remember the ending part of it?

I’m not here to speak for the Hindu conservative ideas. I’m only citing them as examples to break the idea of ancient India as a land with scopes for open sexuality as it seems to be when one speaks of Khajuraho or Kamasutra. There always have been two faces in representations in the Hindu mythology --– the face of Krishna and the face of Rishi Gautama, that is to say, the face of sexual fantasy and the face of feudal patriarchy. I guess everyone remembers Rishi Gautama who turned Ahalya into a stone after finding her guilty of having sex with Indra, the king of gods. The popular version of Ramayana by Tulsidas never clarifies the fact but it can be found in the original version by Valmiki or the translations of the same. When we reconstruct our past in favour of open sexuality actually we are looking through the glasses of a western historicist. We were largely ignorant of our past until the enlightened colonizers gave us light and spoke of it. Thus we came to know about the spiritualism, sexuality and their places in the ancient society. As far as my knowledge is concerned, sex was neither glorified nor kept in a closet in those days. It was healthily discussed in open in the days of ‘Baishali’ or ‘Gandhar’ as it should be. Free-sex did exist but it was not mass culture, so to speak, not available for all. You see, the Bengali word ‘Naagor’ has originated from ‘Nagar’. ‘Nagar’ means city and whoever lives in ‘Nagar’ is a ‘Naagor’. But what meaning does the word ‘Naagor’ convey? It refers to the man who consumes sex, that is who can consume sex. Now, who can consume sex? Of course the man who has the money above the average people to consume it. These people usually used to live in the ‘Nagar’ (city) and thus the word ‘Naagor’ has constituted the meaning concerned. The Kings, landlords and the businessmen who used to visit prostitutes regularly were usually referred by this word in the 18th, 19th and the first half of the 20th century. The word is still often used in the same context. This is to say that the idea of consuming sex or having free-sex, so to speak, was strictly confined within the upper class and had nothing to do with the mass.

Poetry and literature has always been a space for manifestation of one’s sexual fantasies in any language. One shall not refer again and again to Sanskrit poetry and literature to prove the point of open sexuality in India. Take a look at the history of literature in any language. It has always been like that. The religion has always tried to impose taboo and the artists have always broken the limits and boundaries. But where does India or Bengal stand in this map? Coming to a rather recent occurring in Kolkata in the autumn of 1964, six Hungry Generation poets and litterateurs were arrested being charged with obscenity in their writings. Well, I’m quite a fan of Hungry Generation literature and I’ve never found anything obscene in their writings. Rather I’d like to consider this movement as the one and only avant-garde movement in Bengali literature. In the following ten years another writer has to face a same kind of allegation against two of his novels --- Prajapati and Bibar if I’m not mistaken. Samaresh Basu alias Kalkut alias Bhramar was a rather mediocre writer of insignificant popular narratives if compared to the H.G litterateurs. In 1985, Prajapati was finally spared of all the charges by the Supreme Court of India. Samaresh got the support of the famous poet Buddhadeb Basu who stood by the H.G litterateurs too. But Samaresh actually never had the money to go to the Supreme Court and it is heard that it was ABP itself to provide the needed financial back-up. The character of Satyajit Bose in Ghatak’s Jukti Takko r Gappo was supposedly based on Sasmaresh. I’d like to quote Nilkantha Bagchi’s (played by Ghatak himself) statement on him here, “Satyajit Basu, my friend, he started as a socially committed writer and sales pornographies today to earn a living”.

Later on, came Mr. Buddhadeb Guha, the maker of midday sleeping doses for the middle class wives. He is an honest person though and a good singer. He has stated several times that he is not a writer. It was the Ramapada Chowdhury who promoted him and compelled him to become a writer when he was in charge of Desh Patrika. After that Tilottama Majumdar, Suchitra Bhattacharya, Bani Basu, Poulomi Sengupta…..starting with Mr.Sunil Gangopadhyay, the boss of all, the list of mediocre writers selling sex for ABP goes down to Sangeeta Bandopadhyay till date. Taslima Nasrin is also included in this list. She could create some social turbulence with her blasphemous stance but she is not an exception more significant than that.

It is not only a point of polluting the art or the poetry with malicious commercialization, it’s a time when each and every definition is being radically changed and reduced to financial concerns primarily. The concept of a respectable man in India too is often being mistaken with the concept of a man who has got a good bank balance.If things go on like that and if we go on blaming the people and the society meaninglessly like we do, soon it will be a time when we will be unable to answer the representatives of the generations coming after us. The same thing happened in the 1970s. Won’t we ever learn to learn from the history??

Resist! That is the end line.

Representation of Sexuality in 'Indian Culture': Past and Present (The 'Unish Kuri' Debate)

(Although I feel a little feverish and am not in a mood to write I’ve made a promise to someone to complete this post as soon as possible. So my friends please pardon me if you find me to be irrelevant on some issues and in such cases do not forget to leave a comment. Between, there’s some good news. Apparently Snigdhendu Bhattacharya has taken up the responsibility to curate Little Fish Eat Big Fish. Finally others are being a little bit active than the previous days. That gives me a reason to sit back and relax for a while. Show your support for the Indian no-budget Indies. Come join us on the new Facebook page.

Recently I was engaged in a debate with Mr. Akash Ghosh on Facebook. It started this way; I wrote a note on a contemporary fortnight bulletin in Bengali named Unish-Kuri, how they are promoting them and trying to become popular using sex and showbiz spices among the youth of Bengal. Actually the situation is not in theirfavour now-a-days as the sales for the ABP (a renowned publishing house) are going down and down day-by-day. The political atmosphere in Bengal is too violent in the recent times; students are not getting jobs after passing out from renowned institutions, a 32 year old government is about to be wiped away in the next elections, Santals (tribal communities) are opting for armed struggle under the leadership of a Maoist party etc. These factors are causing this ABP published crap to be purchased only by a group of youth brought up in a family with financial standards above the average. Sometimes even they are not going for these kinds of magazines as they got their Iron Maidens and Judas Priests, sometimes Papa Rochas and local DJs for entertainment.

What is Unish Kuri (Nineteen Twenty if translated) actually? It’s an Anandabazarizedmimicry of the American magazine Seventeen. It publishes everything that Seventeen does. Moreover, this magazine even copies the promotional policy of Seventeen. It arranges a Glam Hunt every year which is supposedly a contextual copy of the Miss Seventeen competition. Clarifying the word ‘Anandabazarized’ – Ananda Bazar Publication (ABP in short) has a good cultural reputation in Bengal. So, when they started publishing their youngest magazine Unish Kuri, they added poetry and literature with the Seventeen-kinds-of materials. Actually the magazine was started as a fortnightly for youths where mainly articles concerning culture were used to be published. But as the days went by, the magazine started copying the policy of Seventeen more and more in order to compete in the market.

In the Facebook note, I mentioned an advertisement published in Anandabazar Patrika (the reputed / mal-reputed Bengali daily) of the next issue of Unish Kuri. The advertisement (supposedly the cover of the issue) featured a full page picture of a girl in Black Bra and Blue Jeans other than the contents of the issue. Well, what are they trying to do? Are they now about to compete with the porn magazines like Antorango (Intimate) andAporadh (Guilt)? ABP, the name or the brand, has an aura. People in suburban area pronounce it with admiration. So, proceeding this way aren’t they trying to corrupt the youth of suburbs in the name of selling cultural products??

I’m not a patriarchal motherfucker. Rather I support and promote an unusually liberal approach towards sexuality. I dream of a day when it would become possible for an Indian to kiss in public without hesitation, without being noticed in a ‘Bad’ way. I dream of a day when it would be possible to make love on soft bed of grasses under the wide open sky without being interfered. But I can’t support the commoditization of naked-woman-skin as a spectacle.

Sex sells, I agree with the point. Moreover I’d like to add that it is the eldest of all provisions other than farming and hunting. But look at the state policy; we have registered porn magazines like Aporadh and Antorango, we have access to thousands of porn websites, we have fashion channels and nude scenes/sex scenes from foreign movies on TV, yet we have no licensed porn film industry in India. Back in 2005 I guess, the govt. has legalized prostitution i.e. the selling of sex but it did not legalized consuming sex. Which means the cops won’t be harassing the prostitutes anymore but they are likely to harass each and every customer of them if seen to be coming out of a ‘red light colony’. I support the selling of sex for earning money for the one who needs it but I don’t support the procedure of promoting a product or a service using woman-skin. It’s not sex but a sexual pretention is sold by the capitalists to promote their products. Indian govt. does not allow advertisers to show completely naked woman/man body though it is rather related to art than obscenity. What the advertisers do is to gain attention by showing half-naked young girls. The suspense of the revealed/unrevealed part of a female object is thus sold to the public innately voyeur and believe me it has got nothing to do with our past.