“Internationally it is believed that the biggest meal of the day should be the breakfast. But we’re not really international. As Indians, we think that all meals should be big.”

Kamal Haasan’s opening lines on the individuality of the Indian viewpoint set the tone for the inaugural edition of Breakfast with BusinessLine on Sunday morning.

The event, at Sheraton Park Hotel and Towers in Chennai, is conceived as a regular platform for exchange of ideas between the city’s business and diplomatic elite, and also people of eminence from various fields. The aim is to foster dialogue that will synergise these sectors to reap greater rewards, both financially and creatively.

Haasan was the guest of honour at the discussion that was moderated by acclaimed pianist Anil Srinivasan. He was joined on the panel by Mukund Padmanabhan, editor, BusinessLine, and Krishnan N, general manager of the hotel.

The questions came fast and furious as the attendees probed the multi-faceted actor on issues concerning the accountability factor in film production, why the industry appeared to be nascent in its training and developmental aspects, and how piracy fuelled terrorism too.

Addressing the audience, the actor spoke about how the Tamil film industry was a thirsty entity longing for intellectual and technical finesse.

“We need corporate investors who are bold by nature. Only 30 per cent of the films made in a year succeed. But the remaining 70 per cent films are still required to keep the cinematic machinery functioning.”

The perpetual trendsetter spoke about the time when he tried releasing his film Vishwaroopam on DTH (direct to home), which would have made it the first film in India to be released in that format.

“With 40 million DTH connections in India, we could have easily earned ₹200 crore in a day. Unfortunately, the distributors panicked. So the plan didn’t take off,” he said.

Calling for a vertical integration of the various teams involved in the making of a film, namely the exhibitors, distributors and producers, Haasan stressed for a formal standardisation of the film industry.

comment COMMENT NOW