Pritish Nandy and his films Pritish Nandy and his films

The first time I heard Pritish Nandy’s name, I was 10 and I was in a theatre watching Sanjay Gupta’s Kaante (2002). My father recognised the name, and read it aloud off the screen with reverence. He’d read his editorials/columns and was aware of Nandy as a public intellectual of the time. Three hours later, Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC) was a name I would carry home from that theatre. And it was a name that appeared more frequently during the 2000s, producing a kind of an urban-centric Hindi film, which some would dub as the ‘multiplex’ film.

They would navigate most shades of a city life: from boyish naivete (in Jhankaar Beats), social apathy (in Chameli, 2003), complex relationships (in Shabd, 2004), political idealism (in Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi, 2005) to adultery (in Ankahee, 2005). Hindi cinema had been reinvented around 2001 with Farhan Akhtar’s Dil Chahta Hai, and one could see that the archaic tropes of the 1980s and 1990s were being rejected, in favour of more progressive, sophisticated and inward-looking films. These would tackle more nuanced subject matters, staying away coding their characters in binaries: good/bad, hero/villain. These films were more ‘realistic’, and they strived to achieve a certain degree of authenticity – which mainstream Bollywood usually didn’t.

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Pritish Nandy Photo: Instagram Pritish Nandy Photo: Instagram

Nandy’s company was one of the major proponents of this cinema – alongside UTV Spotboy (spearheaded by Ronnie Screwvala and Siddharth Roy Kapur), which had films like Shyam Benegal’s Welcome to Sajjanpur (2008), Dibakar Banerjee’s Oye Lucky Lucky Oye! (2008), Nishikant Kamat’s Mumbai Meri Jaan (2009) and Anurag Kashyap’s DevD (2009) under their belt. The winds were changing, and it was clear that Bollywood was not something to be just run with age-old family wisdom. There was scope for intellectual curiosity, corporate structure and an overall push for riskier films to be put out – which could coexist alongside the star-led films.

As Pritish Nandy found out (like Screwvala and Roy Kapur) – the corporate set-up only works  when you’re delivering successes. But given that both PNC and UTV were batting for riskier films, and as a result their failures were significantly more than their successes. It didn’t last for long, but that glorious run of the multiplex film, resulted in filmmakers like Homi Adajania, Sujoy Ghosh, Dibakar Banerjee, Rajat Kapoor finding a foothold within the industry. In a way, OTT platforms owe a huge debt to PNC’s roster of filmmakers considering how most of them have gone on to work with them directly.

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Eventually, Nandy’s producing career tapered off – and it was only fitting he would make a comeback through a streaming platform. Producing Four More Shots Please! on Amazon Prime Video, Nandy made a case for how much he still held onto the urban pulse by centering his show around empowered women. Whatever one might think of the genre, it became one of the most successful shows in the realm – with his daughter Rangita Nandy at the show’s helm for three seasons.

Passing on at the age of 73, Pritish Nandy leaves behind a considerable legacy of shaping an entire generation of journalists (from his stints at Times of India, Illustrated Weekly) – most of whom are in decision-making positions in the journalism industry today. He also leaves behind a path for the middle-of-the-road cinema, which can be ‘entertaining’, but also strives to be high-brow. One that can hope to be risque, frothy and also socially/politically conscious.

As Hindi cinema battles its identity crisis (whether it’s for the classes or masses? It can be both) – one can hope that Nandy’s film’s work can provide some necessary inspiration. Go well7bet gaming or sevenbet, good sir!