You can make indie big

Have you noticed it The independent arts and music industry mdash a seed that was planted before this century and then watered in the noughties mdash has started sprouting green saplings in this country Granted itrsquos nowhere close to being a fully grown tree yet but the shoots are visible be it in the form of the exploding hiphop music scene or the graffiti that adorns the walls of the city Yet mdash and here lies the sad part mdash it still hasnrsquot got its rightful place under the sun Independent artistes in India still live under the shadow of the mainstream industryAn exhibition of street artist Tylerrsquos works at a city galleryA new documentary series called From the Bay explores why that is and what can be done to redeem the situation Mumbaibased advertising professional Ashwin Dutt Ponamgi whorsquos also a writer and musician has directed it Hersquos divided the three episodes into different segments mdashart extreme sports and films But donrsquot confuse lsquoartrsquo here as a traditional idea you would find at a fancy auction fetching crores of rupees or lsquofilmsrsquo as something on the lines of Golmaal 3 Instead think of someone like Tyler ndash the street artist who regularly exposes the authorities as emperors with new clothes mdash or Devashish Makhija the filmmaker who turned his back on a Bollywood career to make independent films on a shoestring budgetThese are the people whose voices are growing louder as we hurtle deeper into the digital age but who remain constricted to the margins while the mainstream hogs the limelight read fame and money Ponamgi tells us that there are essentially three contributing factors behind this situation mdash an apathetic government selfserving brands and an audience base whose tastes are still so commercial that they are unwilling to go that extra mile to bring about real changeThe government is the smallest problem in this mdashshould we say mdash unholy triumvirate ldquoItrsquos stupid to blame themrdquo Ponamgi feels though he adds that the powers that be could at least ensure that a megacity like Mumbai has the requisite infrastructure to accommodate more than merely three skateboarding parks The bigger issue lies with brands because they are reluctant to give the alternative arts a fair slice of the pie even as they extract their own pound of flesh ldquoThey donrsquot do enough to include these art forms in their marketing mix The way brands work is that if there isnrsquot enough return on investment they wonrsquot pump money inrdquo Ponamgi explainsThat being said and this might not be easy for some to digest the biggest culprit the chief perpetrator in ensuring that the alternative arts continue to exist largely in the shadows is the audience base that is reluctant to grab the bull by the horns and turn things around If they took matters into their own hands if they turned out in droves for a small independent gig in the manner of the farmers who hit the streets of Delhi the brands would be forced to sit up and take notice ldquoItrsquos a vicious cyclerdquo Ponamgi laments ldquoThe brands will say lsquoAudience nahin hairsquo And the audience isnrsquot there because brands donrsquot pump in enough moneyrdquoYet everything said and done he sees hope for the future He says that if we can build an ecosystem where a skateboarder can become the sort of icon that Sunil Gavaskar was in the 1970s and rsquo80s and Sachin Tendulkar was in the rsquo90s then whorsquos to say that extreme sports wonrsquot one day become a viable career option in this country like cricket today is That of course is still a pipe dream Dilli abhi bhi door hai But metaphorically speaking if we all play the role of a gardener the government brands and us audience members mdash then there is a chance that sometime in the future the sapling that is the independent arts in India will grow into a leafy plant and eventually a fully grown treeLog on toyoutubecom