By: Kausalya Saptharishi

Dynamic technological innovations in the global media and entertainment industry have radically transformed the way people consume content. From viewing movies on bioscopes, to viewing them on mobile phones, technology has indeed come a long way. However, have the professionals working in this sector successfully adapted to the rapidly evolving technology that has fundamentally changed the way business is conducted? Deliberating over this topic were top-level experts in a panel titled “Sholay to Newton: How Bollywood is Poised to Transform India in the 21st Century” that was held on Day Two of the 2018 edition of the One Globe Forum at New Delhi.

There is a dire need to nurture a new generation of storytellers, said Ramesh Sippy, distinguished Film Director, Producer, in his keynote address. “It has been a long journey, no doubt, and it isn’t over yet. There is a lot to come, especially in the form of young people who have a passion to be good storytellers,” said Mr. Sippy. “If they would like to keep me as somebody whom they would like to emulate, go past, do better than me, then I think they would be coming to the right place.”

Acknowledging the multiple channels and formats in which content is consumed today, Mr. Sippy said, “We can see that cinema and entertainment is not going to be solely for cinemas alone. It’s already across television and web, and there are so many big platforms with all the big players in the world coming in like Netflix and Amazon.” However, he expressed concern over the dearth of trained professionals in the media and entertainment industry. He averred the need of the hour is to have more academies and colleges to impart quality education and vocational training in all aspects of the industry. “In our times we learnt on the sets. It was good enough for those times, but times have changed,” he said.

In his speech, Mr. Sippy also spoke about The Ramesh Sippy Academy of Cinema and Entertainment (RSACE) as his way of paying forward to the industry that has given him so much. “I am going to devote a lot of my time in trying to educate the young so that they can be armed with the right knowledge,” he said. “Whatever they can learn at our academy, they must have their own vision; they must tell these new stories in their own way. But first, they must know how to tell a story. That is ultimately the most important thing.”

He ended the keynote address on an optimistic note, predicting a bright future for the Indian movie industry. “Very often there have been prophesies that this business is damned, it’s finished,” he said. “It’s been said again and again, and yet it rises like the phoenix; it’s back with new technology, new stories.”

After Mr. Sippy’s keynote address, panel moderator, Ashish Kulkarni, Chairman, FICCI, Animation & Gaming, kickstarted the discussion by declaring that the digital era is here to stay and industry professionals should be ready to embrace it.  “Although the basics of storytelling remains the same, the platforms and the way of making the content has changed,” he said. “The buzzwords today in our industry are augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality and immersive reality. At one point in time there was television that came into your bedrooms and now with 3D, the content is trying to grab you. It’s a new phenomenon and we should know more about it.”

He asked fellow panelists to share their views on how technology has transformed the media and entertainment industry.

In response, Stephen Mascarenhas, Sr. Vice President – Operations – Stereo Conversion, India Prime Focus World; Academy Director, Prime Focus Academy of Media & Entertainment Studies (PFAMES), cited the example of Prime Focus introducing cutting edge VFX in the Indian scenario. “It’s quite interesting to see the journey in all these years and at Prime Focus, we brought in a lot of international talent to train the Indian talent,” he said. “We’ve also brought in a lot of technology into India, new techniques of visual effects. We’ve seen a lot of opportunity as well, which is where we feel that there is still more to explore, especially with the kind of technical challenges that we have in India.”

Ramesh Verma, President, AR/VR association, concurred with Mr. Mascarenhas and averred that technology should be accessible to all sections of society. “One of the areas which is still a challenge in India is in terms of the benefits of technology reaching the masses. We see this happening through the mobile phones,” he said. “Here is an opportunity because so far, media was restricted to entertainment, advertising, and radio. But now there is an opportunity for media to move to all sectors because it has the power of storytelling, which changes minds.”

Mr. Verma also noted that the power of interactive storytelling cannot be ignored in the 21^st Century. “At the end of the day, it’s storytelling and that’s where the media and entertainment sector has vast experience on how to make an impact,” he said. “Storytelling per se is going into a new phase of prototyping and sequencing reality. Through the stories which you are creating, you are creating interactive involvement with the subject. So, the entire learning process is changing.”

On a lighter note, Mr. Kulkarni said that the ageless looks of actors on the silver screen could perhaps be attributed to companies such as Prime Focus working their ‘magic’ on them frame by frame.

Kiran Juneja Sippy, Managing Director, Ramesh Sippy Academy of Cinema & Entertainment (RSACE), agreed and recounted an episode from her career: “I was shooting for a film and I happened to be standing behind the camera. The close-up of another female actor was being designed and I could see shadows on her face and I was horrified. I told the cameraman, ‘Don’t you do something with the lighting because she is not young anymore; you need to make her look beautiful!’ “And his answer to me was, ‘Ma’am post-production mein ho jayega.’”

However, Mrs. Sippy also pointed out the perils of technology. “I find that technology has moved so fast and so far ahead that it is difficult to catch up. I find every six months a new mobile coming out, with new kind of systems; it’s a challenge to keep learning and keep adapting yourself to all these changes constantly,” she said. “Am I supposed to change my TV, my mobile, every two months?” She asserted that while technological advances are important, they shouldn’t move at such a frenzied pace. Moreover, technology should also be user friendly and accessible.

Mrs. Sippy summed up by warning against the over-dependence on technology. “It’s great to have all this technology but it’s making us lazy,” she said. “What is happening is that we buy a camera that is automatic, it sets everything for you. You don’t need to learn what it is to do great photography. So, what you’re doing is you’re relying on technology—but what craft are you learning? Where is the talent? It has to be the marriage of talent with technology, which will always bring us the best results. Let’s try and do a good marriage of technology and human beings.”

Fellow panelist, Mohit Soni, Chief Operating Officer, Media & Entertainment Skills Council, spoke about the challenges of adapting to technology in the education space. “From a technology perspective, as a Council, the biggest challenge that we had was to train around 12 lakh people by 2020, which could have never been possible without a technology enabled platform for us,” he said.  “It has really helped us make global local by bringing best of the faculties, best of the instructors to demonstrate the classes. Train the students, not just in Tier A cities but even in Tier 2, Tier 3 and going down to deep root levels where the penetration of Internet has really happened only now.”

Mr. Soni also stressed on the relevance of technology in the media and entertainment sector where continuous innovation and adaptation is the order of the day.  He shared that the Council is striving to make significant contributions to train people in the latest technology to help them embark on a career path in the industry. “Media is transforming and it has opened pathways and doors for a lot of people who earlier thought media is just meant for a few of those creative minds. But it has now changed in its dimensions and each of us is using media in our day-to-day communication. I think that now it needs to be taken more seriously—not just as an industry, but even as a career opportunity for students.”

Mr. Kulkarni observed that with the advent of digitization, reels got replaced with electronic beaming and the number of movie theatres in India has shrunk from 17,000 (in 2005) to 12,000. Furthermore, as movie distribution ventured into the Internet, television and mobile phones, he posed the query to Mr. Sippy, as to how the filmmaker viewed the future of the movie business in this scenario.

“Technology has certainly taken over but the experience of watching a film with an audience, enjoying it with all the technology which has gone into play, is phenomenal,” observed Mr. Sippy. However, he also noted that technology can co-exist with the personal experience of watching a film in a theatre. He said, “Technology has not been developed only to eliminate cinema and see it in the house—it’s available on all platforms. So let’s not forget what the real value of a film is in the cinema hall. Look at China today. There are 30,000 cinemas there where a film like Dangal has gone and done almost $200 million in China alone! All the box-office of India put together could not do that. And it has been made in India—so why should we lag behind? I think we can have 50,000 theatres in the country and still enjoy technology at home. So, let’s take technology with us. It was the technology of 70mm instead of phonic sound that helped make Sholay what it became. But let’s not forget that experience. Let’s take that technology to the theatres and bring the audience to the theatre.”

Mr. Mascarenhas was of the view that some films are best experienced in the movie hall. “You can’t watch an Avatar on a 3D TV and say you’ve had a fantastic experience. But when you see it in a theatre, you actually feel that immersive experience. That’s the difference that cinema and technology bring.”

Mr. Kulkarni brought the discussion to a close by underscoring the importance of quality storytelling. “Our job as a storyteller—whether it is technology or no technology—is to create good quality content. When you create content consciously, you can seamlessly take it all over the world.”