By: W Rorrkychand Singh
Ningthouja Lancha on Manipuri Film Industry
Sometimes, you might heard such words from Manipuri film audiences-
“I don’t want to watch Manipuri films, slow dialogue and hackneyed acting…..”.
Apparently, it’s one of the malady in the industry. However, filmmaker Ningthouja Lancha seems to have the answer on this specific matter.
ON ACTING AND TECHNOLOGY:
Earlier, in an interaction with the filmmaker in Bangalore’s Indian Institute of Science, Lancha said that when an actor stand before a camera suddenly his/her attitude changes. “The irony is that at the moment an actor act before a camera their normal personal attitude and speaking style got suddenly changes.”
“Perhaps, generally almost all the actors have a stereotypical idea of their own to act in a particular manner like- if I am an actor I should speak in such a way and I should act in such a way in front of the camera,” he added.
While asked about the technology and facilities available in the industry, the director responded, “We are trying to find out certain possibilities with latest technology available in the market and to maintain par with other industries.”
Expressing the need to train Manipuri film actors to match with other film industries, Lancha, who trained under Earnest Gusella and Tomiyo Sasaki of Full Bright Academy in the U.S. said,
“In the industry when one actor became super-star and came to know the art of acting, his/her career seems to ends there. Moreover audiences also want to see new faces and their interest was no more with the old actors (super-stars).”
ON DIGITAL CINEMA:
Since the inception of digital era in the late 90s, the Manipuri film industry has been in a rapid growth and the production of movies in the industry.
For Lancha, who consider the advent of digital cinema is a “boon“, said that,
“it enables us to produce films at a shoestring budget within a span of few months.”
The industry produces about 60 films in a year and in 2007, a record 200 films were produced.
