Renowned Indian director, producer and a screenwriter, Bejoy Nambiar marked his foray into commercial cinema with the critically acclaimed ‘Shaitan’ in 2011. His latest Hindi directorial venture was ‘Wazir’ starring Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Bejoy is the winner of Sony Pix’s filmmaking reality show ‘Gateway to Hollywood’. Bejoy has also directed such appreciated short films as ‘Rahu’ and ‘Reflections’.
Bejoy Nambiar spoke about his whole journey in the film industry. He was from a business family and his father had a textile business. Therefore, he studied business management so that he can look after his family business. He was in Bengaluru and was grooming himself for the business. Besides, he joined a theatre club there. He wrote his first play and his mentor guided him. After he succeeded in his first play, he made this into a hobby.
He got an opportunity in New York to extend his father’s business and there he also got an opportunity to enrol in the New York Film Academy. His interest compelled him to make short films and thus it became a hobby. He landed in America, where he got into an argument with the immigration officer-in-charge. The immigration authority there did not understand the purpose of his visit and his visa was cancelled. He was thus deported back to his hometown and his dream of completing the course did not materialize.
After many years, he started writing short stories and therefore ended up with 10 short stories and 10 short films. He started making those short films slowly. He tried making the short movies with the little budget that he had. He started with simple things. He managed to get a good technician from whom he learnt many things. In his wish list, there was an actor named Mohan Lal with whom he always wanted to make a film and finally got the chance. He started spending a lot of money on promoting short films through DVDs and YouTube uploads.
Then, slowly he started applying for the big screen where he failed many times but did not lose hope and finally got a chance. He also started writing scripts and also acted on the big screen and learnt his best.
Starting from theatre to short films to the big screen was not an easy journey. After completing all his hurdles, he finally made a film named ‘Shaitan’ in 2011. Then, in 2013, he made ‘David’, where he was the director, the producer and the writer. In 2014, he made ‘Pizza’, which was a successful movie and then he started making Tamil and Malayalam movies.
According to Nambiar, the maximum importance needs to be given to screenwriting as that is exactly where the entire process of filmmaking starts. He stressed on the importance of understanding what the audience wants and then modifying the content of the movies according to that.
Although Nambiar doesn’t believe in censorship for OTT platforms, he also referred to the peril of excessive leeway being taken by many OTT platforms in showcasing explicit content. On what exactly is the difference between OTT platforms and cinema, Nambiar said that OTT platforms allow binge-watching, which is not possible in a movie theatre.
Sharing his thoughts on how to become a successful director or writer. He said, “To become a successful director or a writer, there are many opportunities. Students need to enrol for film courses. There are many courses through which you can learn many things. One needs to groom oneself and should have basic skills. Also, if someone is a beginner, he/ she should work under a filmmaker, from where he or she can gain knowledge. To become a writer, one must have good depth in writing or can go for online courses or can start writing short stories and poems”.
Nambiar concluded by saying that the film industry has indeed been impacted by the COVID-19 lockdown but how it bounces back would largely depend on how the pandemic pans out in the next two months.
The author, Shweta Das is associated with Adamas University Media School
