When we think of the movie
capital of the world we think of Hollywood, California. Actually, the
world’s movie capital is in Mumbai. This place is called Bollywood,
which is the nickname for the Indian film industry.
Sunset Bollywood is
a documentary examining the rise and fall of 3 of India's biggest
superstars. Sunset Bollywood is Komal Tolani’s directorial debut. Komal Tolani is
a Hong Kong-based Indian filmmaker. As Associate Producer for Bang
Productions Ltd. in Hong Kong, Tolani worked on various documentaries
for CBS, National Geographic and the Discovery Channel. In 2004, she
set up Bindaas Productions Limited
in Hong Kong to direct and produced Sunset Bollywood The film has gone
on to an extremely successful run on the International Festival
Circuit. And now sold to National Geographic Channel.
What Sunset Bollywood discovers
is that Bollywood celebrity remains in the blood; a narcotic substance
that the film’s three main characters Rahul Roy, Bhagyashree and Kumar
Gaurav, are still addicted to. Comeback after disastrous comeback, all
three of them desperately seek one more hit, refusing to acknowledge
that one hit is all they may ever have. It was great to have Komal in
our CEF FINAL CUT PRO 5 Class recently. So we took the opportunity to find out more about this director.
Was Sunset Bollywood edited on Final Cut Pro 4.5?
Actually it was edited on Final Cut 4.0! We cut it on a G4 laptop using about a terrabyte of external hard drive space.
 
copyright to FATBARS LIMITED 2009 | Do you believe that it is harder to be a documentary producer/director because you are woman?
Yes
and No. Yes it’s harder because often people do not take you as
seriously when you are filming. There still exists (in some places) the
misconception that women are not as able as men, or that they are not
as serious when they take on projects.
No, because when I was
filming in India, I found being a woman helped in certain situations.
People were more willing to talk to me or open up to me on camera
because they didn’t think that I would exploit them or cast them in a
bad light. I felt many people were more willing to trust me. Also being
a woman helped in some negotiation situations since people didn’t think
my film would be aired or sold, so they were happy to give me things
for less (Copyrights especially)
What advise would you give other women who want to shot their own documentary?
DO
IT, DO IT, DO IT! There are going to be so many people who discourage
you or tell you that it won’t work, or that it’s a crap idea etc. But
if you genuinely believe you have a good story to tell then grab your
camera and do it. Also don’t worry if you have not worked out all the
logistics before hand, once you start, things become clearer. Just be
patient and persevere, even when things go wrong. It took me over a
year to complete the documentary and there were many times that I
thought it would never get finished because of the many delays I
encountered, but you have to stick with it.
Look
out for Sunset Bollywood on National Geographic Channel. We all look
forward to Komal Tolani’s many more films in the very near future.
Client : 客戶  Bindaas Productions Ltd
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