We also prepared a manifesto and there are five signatories to that document. A. Dev Benegal, Anuradha Parikh-Benegal, Elahe Hiptoolah and Nagesh Kukunoor. Beside Bombay Boys we also have Dev's Split Wide Open and English, August , Nagesh's Hyderabad Blues and Rockford as some of Filmi Fundas films which were shown in the Sydney festival. The idea is to develop and produce films to create a new culture of cinema in India that is independent of the mainstream and parallel ideologies. A. Well, we want to promote films which are set in post-Independence India which means no features dealing with British Raj or history.
Docudramas are also out.
We also do not want the characters in our films to indulge in meaningless songs and dances at any stage of the narrative, as decided by producers' whims. A. Yes, but the emphasis is on the term 'gratuitous'. Its not that we are against song and dance sequences as we don't want to impose foreign standards on Indian cinema. But we also do not condone songs which are irrelevant to the progression of the script. On the other hand, we are also not going to associate ourselves with parallel cinema or art-house productions.