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How did Karan Johar help in making the Irrfan Khan starrer The Lunchbox a commercial success? Oscar winner & producer Guneet Monga Kapoor tells Brut at #Cannes2023.
Transcript
00:00Everybody said ek bhi gaana nahi hai, kaise karoge, yeh kya love story hai, isme koi chiffon sareya nahi odh rahi.
00:05And Karan on the other side was like, this is so beautiful, everybody needs to watch it.
00:09So we actually did not have distribution in India. We sold the whole world minus India.
00:13There's so much of cinema made and consumed in India.
00:16What is lacking in terms of, you know, the international markets for India?
00:20Whether at Cannes, whether at Oscars, why have we won such few Academy Awards?
00:25What is your take on it?
00:26It really comes down to the business of Indian cinema.
00:29And for many years, it's been selling all India rights.
00:34For many years, it's been selling the whole world rights in India.
00:38I think getting out of that, getting into international distribution,
00:40that's what Lunchbox was able to do, I can tell you with my experiences.
00:44And the Oscars especially, it's really important to get a U.S. distributor.
00:47I cannot emphasize this enough.
00:50It was amazing to have Netflix on period, end of sentence.
00:52It was amazing for Netflix to be on Elephant Whispers.
00:56And that was the, you know, the push that is needed.
01:01And now that Netflix is in India, and now that
01:05there is Netflix and platforms like that in India,
01:09those lines are merging of global distribution.
01:11And I feel like now more films in travel, like Discovery of a Gangubai or an RRR
01:16is happening now globally because it's easy to access.
01:20Here is a platform which is in 190 plus countries,
01:23230 million viewers around the world.
01:27And that is the power of global distribution.
01:30So while we went country to country in Lunchbox,
01:35now it's the whole spectrum and so easy to access.
01:40And we had a blast working with them in both period, end of sentence
01:44and in Elephant Whispers.
01:47The power of and the knowledge of American distribution,
01:50because those awards are held in U.S.
01:53and they have years of experience of doing the campaign, running the campaign.
01:58And that is not something that you can construct going there for six weeks.
02:02You can participate in it, but there is a lot of work that is to be done
02:06that comes with U.S. distribution.
02:08So it's really at the key of it.
02:09You're so passionate about films.
02:11You've made all kinds from mini documentaries to Bollywood.
02:16And of course, you've tied up now with Dharma Productions
02:19to get something exciting on the silver screen as well.
02:22I would really like to pick your brains on how does this work?
02:27This combination of, you know, we otherwise usually
02:29when we think of critically acclaimed films,
02:31we think of documentaries, we think of it as,
02:33oh, this is something that the common man is not going to understand.
02:36It's something, you know, you require sort of
02:40more knowledge about films for.
02:42But you've done both.
02:45Tell us how this works and what can we expect with,
02:48you know, with the Dharma Productions collaboration coming up?
02:50I think my association with Dharma started with Lunchbox,
02:53which is also critically acclaimed, beautiful film.
02:57We won an award here in 2013.
03:01And 2012 was Peddlers in Gangs of Asipur and 2013 was Lunchbox.
03:06And it was amazing.
03:09So we actually did not have distribution in India.
03:11We sold the whole world minus India.
03:13And that's where I met Karan here.
03:15And he was here with Bombay Doggies.
03:18He directed one of the four films on 100 Years of Indian Cinema.
03:22And that's what brought him to Cannes.
03:24And I met him at a dinner and I was like,
03:25we've made a beautiful film.
03:27Do you think you can present it, release it?
03:29It's a love story and it's beautiful.
03:31And he's like, OK, show it to me when you get back home.
03:33And that's what we did.
03:34We went back.
03:34We did a screening for him and he said, I love it.
03:36And I'll be on board.
03:37And, you know, it really worked in India because of him and his marketing.
03:41And I learned so much from Karan and working closely with the entire team and Dharma.
03:47And to actually put a film out there,
03:48which otherwise everybody said,
03:55And Karan on the other side was like, this is so beautiful.
03:58Everybody needs to watch it.
03:59And that confidence, you know, when you meet your tribe,
04:02when you meet people who love it, you know,
04:04you're just like, yes, let's double it down.
04:06And that's the magic I saw with Karan.
04:08And over the years, we've discussed working together on something.
04:11And now is the time we have actually a big announcement coming up in three days.
04:17And I'm heading back for that.
04:18So we are doing a lot of fun stuff, cool stuff, where I enjoy, you know,
04:26leading it, finding the story, leading it, packaging it.
04:29And I enjoy the support of Dharma in terms of packaging it and marketing it and making it
04:34in India.
04:35So increasing the footprint is at the key of it.

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