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Madhu Gurung
New Delhi

BEING Male, Being Koti’ by first-time film maker Mahuya Bandyopadhya is a halfhour documentary that explores what it means to be a ‘gender variant’. The film celebrates the lives of a group of Kotis, a sexual minority, who are biologically men but through mannerism and emotions conduct themselves with an enhanced degree of feminism. The film has been shot in Kolkata with Pratyay, a rights-based support group. The documentary is just one of 52 made every year with funds from the Public ServiceBroadcasting Trust (PSBT), a group that gives film makers a chance to produce thoughtful films on contemporary India.“I had done years of research but never trained to be a film maker. While shooting did not take long, what was difficult was to translate written words into notions of identity on a visual medium. PSBT trusted an individual like me and let me put across a point of view without overt policing,” says Mahuya Bandopadhyaya, a teacher of sociology at Miranda House, Delhi. Four years ago when PSBT was established by Rajiv Mehrotra, well-known television host and Adoor Gopalakrishnan, veteran film maker, in partnership with Doordarshan, the intention was to start, “an embryonic institute to further the agenda of public broadcasting in India,” recalls Mehrotra. PSBT’s group of trustees include Adoor Gopalkrishnan (chairman), celebrated film makers Shyam Bengal, Mrinal Sen,NASSCOM president Kiran Karnik, Sharmila Tagore, environmentalist Sunita Narain, and noted film critic Aruna Vasudev. Rajiv Mehrotra is managing trustee. Many noted exponents of art and music are on the advisory board.

PSBT’s objective is to ‘set standards of neutrality, objectivity, good taste, and become a repository of the community’s culture and heritage, very much like what the BBC and Public Broadcasting in America aspire to do,’ says Mehrotra. Film proposals are circulated among the trustees and 52 film makers are chosen. Each film costs between Rs 4-5 lakh. “About 50 per cent of our film makers have made films before. We try and ensure representation not from just Delhi and Mumbai but also from the northeast and the south. About 15-20 per cent of our film makers have never made a film. For them we try and mentor and do some hand holding. Occasionally, if a film has a problem, a senior trustee, which means someone like Shyam Benegal or Adoor will spend time with the film maker,” says Mehrotra. The PSBT-Doordarshan tie-up ensures that Doordarshan gives roughly 50 per cent of themoney and PSBT raises the balance 50 per cent from various foundations, UN agencies, and from the sale of films. This tie-up makes it certain that 52 films are produced every year as 30-minute documentaries and aired on Doordarshan, which gives free airtime.

PSBT also has a tie-up with the US Library of Congress which picks up 60 per cent of their films. A recent tie-up with Star TV has started web streaming, whereby anyone can go on to the Internet, punch in their credit card details and for $1.99 download a PSBT film for a one-time viewing. For multiple viewing the rate is $5. PSBT also organises screenings every month at the Habitat Center. It gives 25 per cent royalty to film makers: 10 per cent royalty is as per a formal agreement and 15 per cent if the film gets sold. The rest of the money is shared between Doordarshan and PSBT which uses it to fund more films. Film makers are also encouraged to use the film non-commercially. For example, a film made on Cansupport, a Delhi-based organisation that works with people suffering from cancer, uses the film for advocacy and to raise funds. Film makers travel with the films and conduct discussions. Films supported by PSBT have won several awards. “Almost 25 per cent of our films are very good and compare with the best anywhere in the world. About 50 per cent are okay while there is 25 per cent we are embarrassed about and would like to destroy, but can’t because we have invested so much money. Also, as an organisation we feel it is important for us to take risks,” says Mehrotra. PSBT believes that all this helps make the media more democratic. Its efforts are validated by the fact that it receives roughly 50 per cent funding from Doordarshan. The Doordarshan-PSBT tie-up ensures that the money goes back into public broadcasting.

Mehrotra says, “In the US, presidential debates are aired not on the commercial but the public broadcaster because that is seen as a neutral space. In India, unfortunately, senior ministers and government officials prefer private commercial channels to the public broadcaster, thereby endorsing a particular channel. That is contrary to the spirit of what democratic principles of public broadcasting should be.” Towards this end, PSBT has begun media literacy programmes to show people how to understand a TV programme through The Open Frame on Doordarshan, where a reader explains the issue the film portrays. Arun Chadha’s documentary Swayam won critical acclaim. The film examines how women’s self-help groups and micro credit benefits women socially and economically. The film was shot in Madurai, Mehboobnagar, Pondicherry and other locations in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and took six months to complete. Says Chadha, “PSBT provides you with a platform and audience to raise public voices of concern. It is the only organisation in India doing this.

However, the budget of Rs 4.75 lakh which I got for Swayam was restrictive. There have to be bigger budgets as we are working in distant rural areas and travel can be expensive. If we compare it with foreign films, how much do we get for the film, just $10,000. It is difficult to run your kitchen and also produce a film.” Mehrotra admits that no major television company in the developed world makes a film for less than $1,00,000. “Our films, when they go out to the world, are $10,000 films and have to compete with inputs that are ten times more. Yet last year we won a green Oscar and other awards at major festivals. Still, it is frustrating that we can only afford $10,000. We haven’t been able to create a business model that makes it possible to empower creativity.” Mehrotra says that PSBT is wedged in a struggle to grow as an organisation or to keep itself small and exclusive. He admits, “Success breeds its own kind of logic. Some believe we must get a channel of our own, that we should have serious discussions with the government and expand and become watchdogs for the electronic media. The fear is once you grow you have to worry about paying rent, your infrastructure, how glossy your annual report is and everything that opens up in implicit compromises that you might make.”