ANTARDWAND and PEEPLI LIVE are both films that focuses and brings to light social issues in the mainstream debate. The Industry and critics are going ga ga over the well intentioned film 'Antardwand', as they did with Peepli Live.

So what makes Antardwand better than Peepli live.

Antardwand with its unconventional script and no well-known faces, did without the hype of a superstar promoting the film, so in effect did not require artificial ventilation to prop it.  Antardwand aroused the media interest due to its unusual subject, and stood on its own, amongst the crowded releases of 8 films.

Antardwand did not have the superstars tweeting and giving bytes to the media to promote the  film. But yes, it did have Bollywood most respected directors, Rajkumar Hirani, Imtiaz Ali,  Anurag Kashyap, whose hearts were in the right place, to support, their fellow craftsman, who was making his debut as a director, by investing all his savings in bringing to light a true story, faced by his closest friend. Which was so nice to see unlike the dog-eat-dog world of the stars, who are at their manipulative best, in playing mind games.

Also though considered as a small film, Peepli Live production cost was 10 times more than Antardwand, which was made at around 1.5 crore.  Antardwand publicity cost comparatively was negligible and not even 5% of Peepli Live, but made up by its intelligent publicity.

According to a business paper the hype that PEEPLI LIVE makers had managed to generate around it, largely through marketing, has, however, made the small movie big. Bollywood Express, part of Television Audience Measurement (TAM) Media Research Pvt. Ltd, had
tracked roughly 12,500-odd Peepli Live promos aired on 20 different channels between 3 July and 31 July. That’s a total of 127 hours. “Peepli Live is a small film, but promoted like any other big-budget film,” In addition to the `10 crore production cost, the makers spent 6 crore on distribution and marketing of Peepli Live.

ANTARDWAND was born out of passion, with a story to tell, ‘uncorrupted’ by commercial consideration, with a director remaining true to his craft. Not surprisingly still, it won the National Award, perhaps, Peepli Live, may win it this year. President Ms. Pratibha
Patil endorsed it “ I congratulate the film Antardwand because such films are of great use and help for social change”

But yes, Peepli Live to its credit, has brought the focus back to good cinema, without known star cast. It has woken up Bollywood, corrupted by synthetic no brainer ‘proposal’ films, to have a niche, and take Indian Cinema to global standards and not only to NRI audience abroad.

A ‘Dhobhi Ghat’ would be any day better than the synthetic potboilers coming ahead to exploit the festival season…

Content is King...Long Live the voice of Independent Cinema!