Government should have supported parallel cinema, says Abhay Deol
Mumbai: Abhay Deol has often been called the poster boy of independent cinema and the actor feels the parallel film movement can flourish only when government supports it.
The actor says working in off-beat films requires artists to make a lot of sacrifices and hence a support is necessary.
"You have to live through it, make your own sacrifices. You can't keep doing that when there is no support whatsoever. Even if not the industry, if there was government support like they did with the NFDC from the 70s to the 80s. Even if that much was there, it would support a parallel movement, but no (that did not happen)," Abhay was reported to have said in an interview.
According to the actor, the government support would've at least given independent filmmakers some surety of their film release.
"When the government supported NFDC (National Film Development Corporation of India), there was this little spark because there was some security, some guarantee of film release. Now that's taken away from them. While it would be ideal for the mainstream industry to give that support, they don't have to (give it necessarily)."
"They (mainstream industry) are perfectly fine where they are. There is an audience for them too. But if a government support came in, with the thought that let's have a variety of representations across communities and ideas...that is something our governing body needed to do," he was quoted as saying.
Post his debut in Imtiaz Ali's "Socha Na Tha", Abhay worked in off-beat films like "Dev D", "Manorama Six Feet Under", "Road, Movie" and "Ek Chalis Ki Last Local".
The 40-year-old star said that with time it got extremely difficult for him to do the kind of films he believed in.
"People accepted me for taking risks, so, then I didn't want to stop taking risks because I would disappoint the very base that I have. I didn't know how to tell people that 'Hey it's not as if I don't want to take a risk, but it's damn hard to do it.
"It's difficult to stick to the programme I started with.It's difficult to stick to really going against formula when formula has always been around and here to stay. My desire was to put something parallel to the formula," Abhay had concluded.
