Mumbai. The 2nd Biennial edition of CineTalkies – CineTalkies 2024 was successfully organized by Sanskar Bharti in Mumbai at National Stock Exchange Campus, Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai from 13th December 2024 to 15th December 2024.
The programme began with the inaugural ceremony on the evening of 13th December in the august presence of legendary actor, producer, writer and director of Marathi Cinema Sachin Pilgaonkar as the Chief Guest and the MD – CEO of National Stock Exchange, Ashish Chauhan. Also present at the ceremony were the Patrons of Cine Talkies 2024, renowned actor and producer of Bharatiya Cinema, Khushbu Sundar and Bharatiya Film Industry’s seniormost critic, journalist and author Bharati Pradhan.
The opening ceremony began with Abhijit Gokhale, the organizing general secretary Sanskar Bharti, welcoming the audience and throwing light on the Theme of the Conclave, which was Bharatiya Cinema: From Woods to Roots. He mentioned in his remarks that our roots were strong enough for filmmakers to take a dip into them and come out with refreshing ideas on their content. Mentioning the success of films like Kantara, Munjya, Stree and others, he said that our sanskriti offers a lot of fresh stories and perspectives for a filmmaker. He mentioned that filmmaking in itself is a creative field, and there is an urge to go against the system but through the medium of films, one can also showcase the success of our systems and build the faith of the audience along with entertaining them. He also mentioned that it was time for the industry to come out of the coloniam imposed and self-accepted mindset of regional woods and create the SOFT POWER of a Single Bharatiya film industry.
Sachin Pilgaonkar ji in his remarks, expressed his happiness at the Marathi Bhasha being granted the abhijat status. He also mentioned that Maharashtra’s culture in itself had a lot to offer filmmakers and there should be fresh films made on the history and sanskriti with a modern take. He also stressed that such programmes should be organized more frequently.
Bharati Pradhan said that there was a dire need for the organization of such a conclave where sincere and serious discussions would take place on the content that is being spread through the medium of cinema.
Khushbu Sundar, stressed that there was a need to keep a check on the content that was being silently fed to our youth through the medium of OTT. She expressed her anger at the kind of content that was being showcased on OTT platforms in the name of freedom. She said that such initiatives by Sanskar Bharti would hopefully encourage dialogues and awareness around the same.
The second day 14th December saw 3 panel discussions with esteemed guests.
The first panel discussion of the day was based on the Subject – Is Box Office the only measure of Success for cinema. This panel saw the participation of Shibashis Sarkar, Group CEO of Reliance Entertainment Group and Chairperson of Indian Producers Guild, Rahul Bhole, Renowned Writer and Director and Venkat K Narayan renowned producer and founder of KVN productions. The session was moderated by renowned actor – writer Arfi Lamba. The panel discussed the nuances of Box Office Success and how the benchmark of success has shifted from the number of days in theatres to the number of crores the film earns. Here, Shibashis ji opined that the producers have to be prepared to take the risk and if the story is good, the film will definitely earn at the box office. From his own experience of Reva, Rahul Bhole ji, agreed with the viewpoint and said that though the benchmark is the collection at the box office, audiences do tend to give a higher recall and viewership value to films with good stories. Venkat Narayan ji, expressing his opinion on the recent success of the films of the southern languages in the northern territories said that the films succeeded because people wanted fresh content. Arfi concluded the session by saying that eventually there will be a level playing field in terms of the duration the films are exhibited at the cinema screens.
The second panel comprised of Mrinal Deo Kulkarni, acclaimed writer and actress of marathi cinema, Abhishek Sharma, acclaimed writer and director of films like Pokhran, Tere Bin Laden, Ram Setu etc and Apourv Singh Karki, the writer of Bharat’s most watched tv series on OTT platforms, Sirf Ek Banda Kaafi hai. The panel was moderated by Bharati Pradhan. The subject of discussion was Is Cinema only Entertainment or More. Taking the example of her recent TV series Paithani, Mrinal ji said that she always believed that Cinema was more than a medium of only entertainment. She always looked to give more values to the audience through her work. Abhishek ji mentioned that although he believed that cinema should be focused on entertainment but the base for all his works was Bharatmuni’s Natya shastra. Apourv ji said that the ultimate objective of cinema should always be leaving the audience with something to ponder upon.
The third discussion was on the subject of Local is Global: Is going back the way forward. This panel show the participation of renowned writer and producer Padmashri Neel Madhab Panda, Renowned actor of Marathi cinema, Swapnil Joshi and Niren Bhatt, acclaimed lyricist and writer of superhit films like Munjya, Stree, Stree 2, Bhediya etc…The panel was moderated by acclaimed journalist and film critic Vinod Anupam ji. The common opinion of the panel was that Bharatiya Sanskriti has a lot of stories waiting to be told. Swapnil ji stressed on the need to wear our culture on our sleeve and be unapologetic about it. Niren Bhatt ji said that he took inspiration from various stories on his trips and travels to write for his movies and the stories were well accepted by the audience. Neel Madhab Panda ji opined that Bharatiya filmmakers should also start looking at regional folklores, histories and cultures for their content. Vinod Anupam ji concluded the session by expressing his hope that more and more filmmakers would pick up stories from our sanskriti.
The day ended with a dramatic rendition of the life and times of Punyashlok Ahilyabai Holkar, by the team of Kavyashaili creations led by Kavita ji.
The morning of the 15th, began with a panel session on the core subject Re-emergence of Bharatiya Cinema – From Woods to Roots, with a very distinguished panel. The panel comprised of Abhijit Deshpande, acclaimed writer – director of films like Har Har Mahadev, Table No 21, Dr. Kashinath Ghanekar, etc, K S Srinivasan, acclaimed producer and cofounder of Vasan Brothers films and National Award-winning writer Director Manish Saini. The Panel was moderated by Editor of Amar Ujala, Pankaj Shukla ji. Pankaj ji opened the session with the root cause of the division, the term Bollywood coined by BBC, which was in a way derogatory to the Bharatiya Film Industry as it showed us as upstarts. The Hindi industry took it up as a congratulatory badge and from there the creation of woods started. Abhijit Ji said that the recent success of regional films showed that the re-emergence of the Bharatiya Cinema had started in its true sense but he stressed on the need for the audience to show equal appreciation for films in regional languages. Manish ji said that somewhere the hindi film industry had lost touch with its originality while trying to copy the western content. The time had come for the industry to carefully select which audience they were making the films for.
The last panel discussion was on the subject of role of Women in Cinema. The panel comprised of National Award-winning writer, producer, director Padmashri Madhur Bhandarkar, Acclaimed Actress Pranita Subhash and noted producer Pankaja Thakur ji. The panel was moderated by renowned scholar, journalist and academician Ramachandran Srinivasan. While the panel in general acknowledged the contribution of women and lauded Madhur ji for making Women centric films, they also expressed a concern about growing impact of OTT platforms and the deteriorating projection of women under the name of freedom and creativity. There was also a discussion surrounding the need to provide a safe and encouraging environment to the women in the industry.
The day concluded with the Closing ceremony which was presided over by Sudheer Joglekar, President of Vishwa Samvad Kendra, Mumbai. Ramesh S. Taurani, co-founder of Tips Industries graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. Also present at the event were Vipul Amrutlal Shah, acclaimed producer – director and Patron of Cine Talkies 2024 and Pramod Bapat, Trustee of Bharatiya Chitra Sadhana.
Sunil Barve, noted actor – writer – director and producer in Marathi Language, who was also the Convenor of Cine Talkies 2024, opened the ceremony by thanking the participants, patrons and guests who had graced the occasion and who had contributed in making the 3-day event a grand success. He also expressed his hope that the organizing team would give the demand of the audience a thought and organize an annual event, instead of biennial event.
Sudheer Joglekar, congratulated the organizing team and the participants for successfully executing the event of such a grand scale. He expressed his hope that more people would join this in the coming days.
Vipul Shah, expressed his happiness at being a part of CineTalkies 2024. He said that there was a need for such a platform since a long time and he was glad that Sanskar Bharti had finally taken it up to organize such events.
Pramod Bapat ji in his Key note address extolled the participants to participate in the film societies movements and try to organize such dialogues, film screenings and film appreciation programmes in their areas on a small scale.
Ramesh Taurani, while expressing his joy at being a part of this event, also mentioned that such events were a must for the society as filmmakers were at the forefront of influencing a large party of the society through their films and it was their responsibility to showcase our country and sanskriti in the right light.
Ravindra Bharti, the Vice President of Sanskar Bharti, concluded the event by expressing his gratitude to all those involved in making this event a grand success.
This event saw participation of 200 plus selected delegates from 17 states of the country. Some of the acclaimed names of the Bharatiya Cinema and celebrities from the media world also graced the event.