'Sugar Baby' wins a gold Remi at WorldFest

Kolkata-born Houston-bred Trisha Ray has won a gold Remi at Houston���������s WorldFest for ���������Sugar Baby���������
You���������ve won a Remi before. How special is this award for ���������Sugar Baby���������?
I won a Remi for ���������Federal Case��������� but the film did not get selected to be screened at the festival ��������� ���������Sugar Baby��������� was an official selection to be screened at the festival chosen among 3,500 entries this year.It was our real award to be able to get a platform like WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival to screen our film. To get an award for the film was cool, but it does not match the feeling of getting the letter of official selection.
What was the reaction to your film in Houston?
The most common phrase I heard was ���������beyond expectation���������. The audience cheered for the characters. Brian (Stewart) wrote a very uplifting story and San (Banarje) shot the film amazingly well. That helped to transport the audience to Kolkata. They stayed with the characters for the two hours, laughed and cried. A film magazine of Houston wrote it���������s a remarkable film and encouraged all its readers to get tickets for the second screening. I met a Chinese TV producer in Houston and he told me the film could take place in China and have the same effect. For half an hour, he spoke to me about the film, about Kolkata and how much he loved the film. Randal Kleiser, the director of ���������Grease���������, was present at the theatre. I saw him at the awards banquet though I didn���������t speak to him personally. He was at the WorldFest closing gala also but I could not make it as I was traveling to India at that time and had to finish a lot of pending work.
How difficult is it to make independent films in your part of the world now?
Nowadays, 5D camera is the in-thing for Indie film-makers. If you have a Canon 5D, you can make a film. That���������s the common notion. Although I will never trade anything for CineAlta. I shot ���������Sugar Baby��������� with it. It���������s expensive but the end result is incredible. However, in the States, independent films has always been a way of life. And there is a big support system for art in the US. People don���������t do it for fame and money. When we shoot shorts or indies, we really get a good group of passionate actors. Even when people work during days, at night they come together to film. In Houston, where I am from, we can walk into any restaurant, any caf������, any location with our camera and shoot a scene. People are very supportive. Plus our film commissions are very supportive. Even Sundance Film Festival accepts films shot on iPhone. Sidney Lumet, Michael Mann, Robert Rodriguez, Francis Ford Coppola, David Fincher, Tony Scott ��������� all the big guys shoot digital. So the whole concept of 35mm is getting obsolete and backdated. When you have great people to follow who promote independent art, then you have an easy way to shoot it.
Do you think India has understood the spirit of making independent cinema?
No. People still think that unless you shoot 35mm, you are not a film-maker. The Argentine film, ���������The Secret in Their Eyes��������� Juan Jos������ Campanella, which won the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2010, was shot on Red. So was ���������The Social Network��������� by David Fincher. But in India, whenever I speak to any cinematographer, they seem to always apologize for shooting on 16mm or CineAlta. I don���������t think a young film-maker can shoot a film on handycam and expect stars to work in it. Also casting is a big problem in India. Especially in Kolkata. Except Soumitra Chatterjee, I am yet to find one single actor who has an independent spirit. Even actors who have not done anything worth it, refuse to be a part of a film just for the sake of art. Cinema is the director���������s medium true but it���������s the actor whose face carries it. Unless we have an actor who is fiercely independent and extremely talented, the spirit of independent cinema will never be fully realized in India.