Talent Hunt
Boy Meets Girl Part III

I want to particularly answer Siddharth's query on Bollywood chasing the Tamil directors such as Cheran and Selvaragavan to do Hindi movies. This, Siddharth sees as a lack of talent in Bollywood and hence a weakness. He uses this argument to state that Tamil film industry is better.

I still disagree. Prima facie, I don't see that trend as a weakness but as a strength of the industry. We keep cribbing about Bollywood not having recognised 'great' actors such as Kamal Hassan. But how many times have we recognised Hindi actors in Tamil films? We use them either as villains or glamour dolls. On the contrary, Bollywood has recognized the directors from Tamil and Telugu. Ramgopal Varma is a reigning maverick there. Cheran and Selvaraghavan are sought after because they made successful yet off beat movies in Tamil.

Secondly, Bollywood not only uses talents from Tamil, they seek everywhere. Rituparno from Bengal, Varma from Andhra, Priyadarshan from Kerala and Mani Ratnam from Tamil. I can go on and on.

And well, I can't resist quoting Hollywood. Directors from Italy, Japan and South America have made Hollywood films. Even our own master Satyajit Ray received offers to work in Hollywood which he sensibly declined. Just because a Hong Kong director has made a few Hollywood films doesn't mean Hollywood lack talent. They take the best talents from the world over to enrich their industry. Michael Westmoore's work in Tamil industry saw movies like Indian (Hindustani) and Avvai Shanmugi (Chachi 420). Kannada film industry does not entertain outsiders as they feel insecure. Where's that industry today?

Let's not compare ourselves with some wrong examples and feel safe or think that we're making great films. Even the momentum given by the post-modernist directors such as Bharatiraja, Mahendran and Bhagyaraj seems to have been lost. As of now, sadly, we have hit the rock bottom.

Or have we yet?