While curating and programming films for various festivals over the years, including the Berlin Film Festival, I am accustomed to dealing with diverse cinemas within the subcontinent. For instance, in Bollywood, it is quite normal for the more grandiose films to have a budget of '100cr – '200cr, hundreds of cast and crew on the set, and productions that drag on for months, sometimes, a year. Contrast this with Dr Bijukumar Damodaran ("Dr Biju"), a highly awarded maker of Malayalam films. He would tell me, "I will start shooting the film in September, so I can send you a cut of the film by November." In other words, he will finish the shoot and much of the post-production of his film in about two months. My festival colleagues would do an eye-roll in disbelief when I told them, but I knew Dr Biju would keep his word, and he did. Or he would say in self-reproach, "I was supposed to finish the shoot of the film in 16 days, but I took 18 days. Oh God." Only in regional cinema can you finish the entire shoot of a feature film in just over two weeks, with the leanest of budgets, ranging from a few lakhs to about R1 cr. The crew is small and efficient, and the lean budgets also allow them to take greater risks in the subjects and narrative treatment, than mainstream Bollywood. Of course both cinemas share common elements, but more regional indie films are realistic, on socio-political issues; earthy, with traditional/folk music and dance that is practically erased from Bollywood.

Yet, many Indian regional filmmakers have been showcased at film festivals worldwide. Dr Biju's own films have been shown at Cannes, Telluride, Montreal World Film Festival, Shanghai, Fajr (Tehran), Tallinn Black Nights (Estonia), Cairo and elsewhere. One of his closest creative collaborators on this journey was the brilliant cinematographer MJ Radhakrishnan, a pillar of Malayalam cinema, who passed away last week.