<b>‘Breaking into Hollywood is difficult’</b>

With close to 100 international films in his kitty, Ashok Amritraj film producer and former tennis player, handles our volley of questions on his reality show, Chinese actors, the Academy awards’ voting system and making it big in Hollywood

What is your show, Gateway about?
It’s a reality show that provides a platform to a talented Indian kid who has no godfather in filmville and yet wants to make a film for an international audience. He or she comes to Los Angeles for eight weeks, undergoes training with my company Hyde Park Entertainment and gets to direct a cross-cultural Hollywood film in English. From 1,000 entries, some 18 candidates in the age group of 25-45 have been short-listed. We provide them with technicians and actors. Once the shoot is over, I, along with the show’s permanent jury, Anurag Basu and Rajat Kapoor, and an episodic juror analyse their work and then I take a final call on who will be eliminated.

You were first Indian to make it big in Hollywood. What challenges would a new Indian filmmaker face to break into Hollywood?
Hollywood is a small club and breaking into it is difficult. It took me 10 years to do so. For someone brand new going from here to there, you need to study their style of filmmaking as their audiences are different from ours. Hollywood is a bigger canvas. You can come up with a great story and show your talent in its execution.

Since you’ve voted for the Academy Award’s Foreign Language Film category, tell us about the selection process. Can lobbying and big spending nudge a nomination in favour of a biggie?
A group of around 500 people watch about 50-plus entries divided into three groups – red, blue and green. You can only watch the films in the Academy or an Academy approved theatre. You must watch at least two-thirds of the movie and a minimum of 75 per cent of the movies in your group to qualify to vote. So in the end, only 300 end up voting. And nobody ever knows who the voters or theatre people are so you can’t buy their votes. The Oscars have one of the fairest voting systems in the world. My only complaint, which we are already internally trying to change in the Academy, is that most of its members are over the age of 60. Can they comprehend terms such as digital use and visual effects?

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