The new, improved avatar of RPG's film wing

Today's Telegraph (Metro), to the delight of people like us viewers, tells us about Kolkata-based RPG Enterprises' newly restructured film and TV business. They are making a fresh start in Tollygunge after two debacles in Bengali- Mantra by Rabi Ranjan Maitra and Swapno by successful mainstream director Haranath Chakraborty starring the reigning king of Bengali cinema- Prosenjit.

They have divided the film business into three units to remain focussed- Bengali films, Hindi films and South Indian films (Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam). Aparna Sen, the head of Bengali films and television content, will produce Bengali films on their behalf. Her unit will start with her English-Bengali project The Japanese Wife (Japani Bouma in Bengali) starring Rahul Bose, Raima Sen and a Japanese actress to be shot in Sunderbans and Japan apart from Kolkata. The Hindi unit, headed by BR Sharan, will make Rituparno Ghosh's Draupadi.

Like a true corporate in film business, there will be a creative team under Aparna for screening and greenlighting scripts submitted by filmmakers and aspiring filmmakers.

Rather than a being more of a financier, RPG will be an active producer by bringing a quality control function to making films among other things, again a corporate characteristic. Aparna will be mentoring young directors, help them with the script (An area of her expertise by her own admission), cast & crew and in the process taking away a lot of problems that a director generally faces. This will ensure the director is focussed on his film. The aim is to marry quality with economic viability. They are now open to receiving scripts.

Later they will make content for Bengali television.

Looks like a dream come true for almost-starved viewers of meaningful Bengali cinema. Also talented telefilm directors, like Parambrata and many others, who rue about lack of opportunities in Tollygunge for fulfilling their big screen dreams, will now have a place to look forward to.

Adlabs sets foot in Kolkata

Adlabs has set foot in the city with their film-processing and post-production business. The processing lab is coming up in Salt Lake and the high-end post-production set up has started in Moore Avenue, closer to the heart of the film industry in Tollygunge.

As Kapil Bagila, corporate head, strategic Planning, Adlabs Films told The Telegraph (Edition 21.12.06), "There are only three regions (In India) which actually and consistenly produce film content- the west, the south and the east." So after winning over the first two, it was high time they came to east. According to him they've already received a very positive response.

The processing lab will host a state-of-the art Dolby preview theatre, a first in Kolkata.

Someone clued in to Tollygunge film industry knows that even in Satyajit Ray's time he would go to Prasad in Chennai for the processing of films. The trend is much bigger today with every producer who wants a good technical quality in his film going to Chennai and Mumbai (Adlabs Mumbai has many clients from the city). All this despite the existence of government-owned Rupayan which has some of the modern equipment but is yet falling out of the race because of poor-quality technicians and a sincere urge to keep updated.

Now here is the buzz from two people from Tollygunge. Riingo, a talented maker of ad films and telefilms, with his first feature film Kranti released in Puja this year, is still not finding it exciting as yet. As he says, the machine was never a problem, the men behind it was. So he will wait and watch. Oona Ghose, an assistant director in feature films, including the upcoming Aamra, is not hiding her excitement. She was waiting for such facilities for long and was in fact one of the people from Kolkata who were pestering Adlabs to consider the city as the next destination.