Jio Studios and Mahaveer Jain launched a unique initiative, NEWCOMERS at FICCI FRAMES fast track event in Mumbai. 23 prominent directors in the industry like Nitesh Tiwari, Ram Madhwani, Raj Nidhimoru, Krishna DK, Amit Sharma, Abhishek Sharma, Mrigdeep Singh Lamba, Imtiaz Ali and Anees Bazmee and many more have come together to launch the initiative.
“It’s our attempt to create a bigger pool of talent and to give back to the industry. We will provide a platform to new actors, writers, directors, music talent and a wide range of technicians through this initiative. Together, we will work to build our tomorrow”, said producer Mahaveer Jain, who conceived this idea along with Jyoti Deshpande, Chairperson of FICCI Media and Entertainment Committee and CEO of Viacom 18.
“We need to make more films and dates of actors are only limited. Also, we need fresh talent.” said Amit Sharma.
“We were new and naive when we started our journey. We were making ‘Shor in the city’ (noise in the city) with all newcomers but it was fantastic. Our posters even now are never about the faces but the content of the film.” said Krishna DK.
“If a film doesn’t do well, it’s labelled flop and goes out of theatres in no time. There has to be a system for films to have a sustained phase so that directors can make content with newcomers”, added Raj Nidimuro.
“After sometime, I personally stopped looking at stars as stars. I evaluate them as performers. I never create content keeping stars in mind. Casting comes later, after the script is ready”, said Nitesh Tiwary.
“Creating good content with new talent is better than making a bad film with a star. Also even stars want good stories. No one says I am okay to do a film without knowing the story”, said Anees Bazmee.
“All the people present here have come with a belief that this idea is good for us. We all are believers, we are very happy to work with people who are not known for the audiences. But the commerce is important too. We would always love to create good stories with everyone and we are looking forward to see how this gets monetised”, said Imtiaz Ali.
Other directors part of the initiative include Rajkumar Hirani, Rohit Shetty, Sukumar, Ashutosh Gowariker, Kabir Khan, Gauri Shinde, R Balki, Aanand L. Rai, A.R.Murugadoss, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwary, Ali Abbas Zafar, Siddharth Anand, Jagan Shakti and Vishnuvardhan.
