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Showman prepares for the next innings
Subhash Ghai has roped in industry stalwarts for his upcoming film training school. Diganta Guha probes more.
What’s keeping showman Subhash Ghai busy? Not films but his training school Whistling Woods International, which is coming up in Film City, Mumbai, and will open in July.
As the chairman of the school, the maker of films such as Karz, Vidhaata, Ram Lakhan, Hero and Saudagar wants the institution “to achieve academic excellence and groom young talents into world-class professionals to meet the fast-growing needs of the entertainment industry as in the IT industry”.
Ghai, who is aiming at professional training, has roped in the best names of the industry for the faculty and the advisory board, including Shekhar Kapur, Ashutosh Gowariker, Hema Malini and Naseeruddin Shah. The two-year course includes acting, direction, cinematography, editing, business of film and television and screenplay writing.
The filmmaker dreams of giving the industry accomplished craftsmen in the days to come. “You will see the culture of professionalism and a higher standard of craftsmanship from the lowest to the top-most post in every field by 2010,” says the man who set an example by taking the initiative of getting his films insured.
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| Subhash Ghai has roped in industry stalwarts for his upcoming film training school |
Ghai has big plans for the school. “I want to demolish the wrong perception in people’s minds regarding the industry and show them the right direction to develop a think tank for Indian software and content,” he says.
On a more practical level, Ghai emphasises on job experience, but says that “you can grow in your job much faster only by having the fundamental training and grooming by institutes like Whistling”.
The director in Ghai has taken a backseat with his last two films, Yaadein and Kisna, not doing well at the box-office. “Wait and watch is my answer, but it has to be the best of my career, that much I can tell you now,” he says on his directorial plans.
As a producer, Ghai came up with a winner in Iqbal last year, but this year he hasn’t got off to a flying start with
Shaadi Se Pehle
flopping.
However,
36 China Town
has done reasonable business. “When a film brings good profit to the company, I have a reason to smile and work more for many hits to come,” he says.
The producer in him is looking forward to Sangeeth Sivan’s Apna Sapna Money Money and Ashwini Chaudhary’s
Good Boy Bad Boy
. Ghai has changed and is now roping in young blood to produce movies. “That’s why I am here… I want to be ahead of time,” says the filmmaker.
“Education is needed for the new generation, which dreams of becoming famous overnight and takes media exposure so seriously that they stop growing and fade out faster,” he says.
