Mumbai - Day Five
Today is the day of the signing of the Film Treaty between London and Mumbai. At the Whistling Woods Film School, actor Amitabh Bachchan (who may be unknown to us but is one of the most famous people in the world, with more people seeing him on screen than any other) joined our “Honourable Mayor” Mr. Livingstone for the signing. Also there was Adrian Wootton, CEO of Film London, his chair Sandy Lieberson and Ronnie Screwvala, president of the Film and Television Guild of India.
Ken thinks of India as one of the most strategic partners we should have. The statistics highlight the importance. In 2020 it will not be the G8, it will be India, USA and China making up the G3. London is home to more Indian-born nationals than any other city in the world. India could gaurantee that any future Mayor of London would visit at least once a term - that was the importance that India is held. With regards to filming, there were over 40 Indian productions filmed in London last year. One of these, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, was one of the first Bollywood films to be set primarily in London. The production used over 1100 extras and 400 dancers, including many Londoners, and key locations such as Tower Bridge and Kensington Palace Gardens to create a number of major set pieces. Filming at Waterloo saw Amitabh Bachchan take centre stage in the middle of the station’s concourse accompanied by a troupe of dancers. My conversations with the Indian film makers we have met confirmed that they felt that London was a far, far easier place to film.
Another set of startling facts came from a conversation I had with the Deputy British High Commission. We spoke about the slums here in Mumbai - an estimated 50% of the population of the city live in slums. But these are not disorganised or chaotic; most residents have a vote so politicians here have to woo them as much as the wealthy elite. 3 - 400,000 new people arrive in the City from the countryside every year. The largest slum has 1 million residents, and is one of the “green lungs” of the city - here everything that the city throws away is recycled; from the little ends of soap that we throw away in our hotels (boiled down and made into new soap) to the millions of water bottles discarded. A recent report put the economic benefit to the city in the £100,000’s, and if the slum was cleared not only would the city need to find new homes, it would either have to create the most sophisticated recycling system ever known, or find massive land fill to get rid of the waste.
I chatted to one of the heads of faculty at Whistling Woods, and this country also has a surplus of engineers. There may be an opportunity to source the missing technologists that the UK audio visual industry needs from here - more thought and research to do when I return.
That evening we were invited to the Hanuman Returns launch. More views are revealed of this place. The first Hanuman was a massively succesful animation film, and we are told a true rival to Hollywood superheroes. The sequal is to be even bigger, and we meet the corporate partners - with the product manufacturer (over 200 product lines), a mobile phone game to download and even the jewellery maker (diamond pendant tie-ins!) given top billing. But the ambitions of this film are global we are told, which sits a little at odds with a lead character whose immediate super powers seems be acheiveing a face rash, a film who’s audience needs to be conversant with the epic Ramayana, and a less than up-to-date animation style. Nevertheless, the show is fantastic, with actors playing all the (four armed, four headed!) characters from the show.
I leave the rest of the chaps to watch the football, and head to bed. I am now trying to make sense of everything we have seen and heard, and no doubt as a consequence, have a restless night.
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