Meet Guneet Monga: The Cannes Veteran

Brut India

How did Karan Johar help in making the Irrfan Khan starrer The Lunchbox a commercial success?  Oscar winner & producer Guneet Monga Kapoor tells Brut at #Cannes2023.

Transcript

00:00Everybody said ek bhi gaana nahi hai, kaise karoge, yeh kya love story hai, isme koi chiffon sareya nahi odh rahi.

00:05And Karan on the other side was like, this is so beautiful, everybody needs to watch it.

00:09So we actually did not have distribution in India. We sold the whole world minus India.

00:13There's so much of cinema made and consumed in India.

00:16What is lacking in terms of, you know, the international markets for India?

00:20Whether at Cannes, whether at Oscars, why have we won such few Academy Awards?

00:25What is your take on it?

00:26It really comes down to the business of Indian cinema.

00:29And for many years, it's been selling all India rights.

00:34For many years, it's been selling the whole world rights in India.

00:38I think getting out of that, getting into international distribution,

00:40that's what Lunchbox was able to do, I can tell you with my experiences.

00:44And the Oscars especially, it's really important to get a U.S. distributor.

00:47I cannot emphasize this enough.

00:50It was amazing to have Netflix on period, end of sentence.

00:52It was amazing for Netflix to be on Elephant Whispers.

00:56And that was the, you know, the push that is needed.

01:01And now that Netflix is in India, and now that

01:05there is Netflix and platforms like that in India,

01:09those lines are merging of global distribution.

01:11And I feel like now more films in travel, like Discovery of a Gangubai or an RRR

01:16is happening now globally because it's easy to access.

01:20Here is a platform which is in 190 plus countries,

01:23230 million viewers around the world.

01:27And that is the power of global distribution.

01:30So while we went country to country in Lunchbox,

01:35now it's the whole spectrum and so easy to access.

01:40And we had a blast working with them in both period, end of sentence

01:44and in Elephant Whispers.

01:47The power of and the knowledge of American distribution,

01:50because those awards are held in U.S.

01:53and they have years of experience of doing the campaign, running the campaign.

01:58And that is not something that you can construct going there for six weeks.

02:02You can participate in it, but there is a lot of work that is to be done

02:06that comes with U.S. distribution.

02:08So it's really at the key of it.

02:09You're so passionate about films.

02:11You've made all kinds from mini documentaries to Bollywood.

02:16And of course, you've tied up now with Dharma Productions

02:19to get something exciting on the silver screen as well.

02:22I would really like to pick your brains on how does this work?

02:27This combination of, you know, we otherwise usually

02:29when we think of critically acclaimed films,

02:31we think of documentaries, we think of it as,

02:33oh, this is something that the common man is not going to understand.

02:36It's something, you know, you require sort of

02:40more knowledge about films for.

02:42But you've done both.

02:45Tell us how this works and what can we expect with,

02:48you know, with the Dharma Productions collaboration coming up?

02:50I think my association with Dharma started with Lunchbox,

02:53which is also critically acclaimed, beautiful film.

02:57We won an award here in 2013.

03:01And 2012 was Peddlers in Gangs of Asipur and 2013 was Lunchbox.

03:06And it was amazing.

03:09So we actually did not have distribution in India.

03:11We sold the whole world minus India.

03:13And that's where I met Karan here.

03:15And he was here with Bombay Doggies.

03:18He directed one of the four films on 100 Years of Indian Cinema.

03:22And that's what brought him to Cannes.

03:24And I met him at a dinner and I was like,

03:25we've made a beautiful film.

03:27Do you think you can present it, release it?

03:29It's a love story and it's beautiful.

03:31And he's like, OK, show it to me when you get back home.

03:33And that's what we did.

03:34We went back.

03:34We did a screening for him and he said, I love it.

03:36And I'll be on board.

03:37And, you know, it really worked in India because of him and his marketing.

03:41And I learned so much from Karan and working closely with the entire team and Dharma.

03:47And to actually put a film out there,

03:48which otherwise everybody said,

03:55And Karan on the other side was like, this is so beautiful.

03:58Everybody needs to watch it.

03:59And that confidence, you know, when you meet your tribe,

04:02when you meet people who love it, you know,

04:04you're just like, yes, let's double it down.

04:06And that's the magic I saw with Karan.

04:08And over the years, we've discussed working together on something.

04:11And now is the time we have actually a big announcement coming up in three days.

04:17And I'm heading back for that.

04:18So we are doing a lot of fun stuff, cool stuff, where I enjoy, you know,

04:26leading it, finding the story, leading it, packaging it.

04:29And I enjoy the support of Dharma in terms of packaging it and marketing it and making it

04:34in India.

04:35So increasing the footprint is at the key of it.

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