Entice agri workers to urban conclaves by building factories: Moily

By Utpal Boprujari

In a potentially-controversial diagnosis to treat the problems of the farming community, Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily has suggested that India needs to build factories that would “entice” a “very large part” of its agricultural workers to urban enclaves.

The idea has been propagated in Moily’s latest book, “Unleashing India : A Roadmap for Agrarian Wealth Creation”, which will be launched in the capital on Friday.

The proposal might raise the heckles of pro-agriculture policy makers, for whom migration from rural to urban areas at the cost of the farming sector has already become a substantial headache.

According to Moily, this is the only way by which India can aspire to become a major global economic player.

“For India to become the major player in the international arena that it aspires to be, it will need to build factories that entice a very large part of its agricultural workers to urban enclaves to produce labour-intensive exports, the time-honoured path of the successful Asian Tigers and China,” he says at the beginning of the book.

Stressing that India has great potential, he says that while Indian democracy is the largest in the world, its economy, despite important reforms since 1991, remains “heavily bureaucratic”.

“Indeed, India’s per capita GDP four decades ago was equal to that of China, but is now half of China’s and still losing ground. It is conceivable that India can undergo as radical a reform as China and become world-prominent,” reads the preface of the book, an advance copy of which has been sent to Deccan Herald by publishers Rupa & Co.

His suggestion to build factories to lure agricultural workers to urban areas comes riding on the comment that “progress is not automatic, however, it will demand future adaptations as yet unimaginable”.

In an analysis that could be seen as a critic of the governments at the Centre, including that of his own party Congress, Moily points out that still 250 million Indians live on less than one dollar a day and half of Indian homes have no electricity.

Non-farm areas produce only one-fourth of their capacity, rice yields are half that of Vietnam and one-third that of China, India’s cotton comparative yields are even worse, and wheat yields, despite benefiting from the Green Revolution of the 1970s, are still three-fourths of China’s, he points out.

Moily says in the book, which is aimed primarily at policy makers and researchers in the sector, that India confronts a crisis of confidence that “started at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will”.

“This erosion of confidence threatens to destroy the social and political fabric of India,” he goes on to say. 

(Published in Deccan Herald, www.deccanherald.com, www.deccanheraldepaper.com, 05-06-2009)

 

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The film will bring alive Buddha’s philosophy: Bhuvan Lall

By Utpal Borpujari in Cannes

Ashutosh Gowariker of Lagaan, Swades and Jodhaa Akbar fame will direct industrialist B K Modi-led Spice Infotainment-produced magnum opus Buddha. This brings to a halt years of uncertainty regarding the project, which at various stages of development had involved the names of internatioanally-acclaimed directors Bernardo Bertolucci, Mira Nair and Shekhar Kapoor, new-age guru Deepak Chopra and Hollywood star Richard Gere. The English-language film has been in gestation since last two decades and was announced in a big way last at the 2006 Cannes film festival. Sitting at the India Pavillion at the Market Section of the recent 62^nd Cannes Film Festival, the project’s executive producer Bhuvan Lall spoke with Deccan Herald’s Utpal Borpujari about the latest developments about it:

So, finally Ashutosh Gowariker will direct this magnum opus, and that’s final, right?

Yes, and there cannot be a better director than Ashutosh to helm this project. He is not only a filmmaker with great sensibilities but also has the ability to look at cinema from an international perspective because of his exposure to world cinema as a film festival freak in his earlier days. More importantly, most people have forgotten that he had himself played the Buddha in Shyam Benegal’s epic television series “Bharat Ek Khoj”.

What will be scale of the project?

The scale will be truly international. There will be nothing low cost about it. It will be the most-expensive film ever to come out of India, and will tale a story from our region in a global way.

What will the budget of the film? Various speculations have quoted figures like $120 million and Rs 300 crore.

We haven’t yet put a number on it. All I can say is that the film will be big even by Hollywood standards.

Will the film, because of its subject, be targeted more at specific regions of the world?

Buddha’s philosophy is something the whole world knows about. Hence, this film will be targeted at the whole world. Of course, there will be more than usual interest about it in large parts of Asia, where Buddhism is the leading religion. The film will bring alive Buddha’s philosophy.

But why a film on Buddha?

Gautam Buddha was the first global Indian figure. No matter where in the world you go today, you will find his followers. His amazing life story is waiting to be put on the big screen.

Who are the international talents that are involved with the project?

The film has been written by David S Ward, Oscar-winning script
writer of The Sting, Major League, Milagro Beanfield War and Sleepless in Seattle. This is the first time ever that an Oscar-winning screenwriter has been attached to an Indian film. We are confident of coming up with a film of unmatched sweep and scale. Gowariker is one of India’s finest directors and we have given him a global playing field. Michel Shane of Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can fame, Anthony Romano and I will executive produce the project. It will shot across countries, including in India. We have just roped in International Creative Management, one of the leading companies representing topmost talent in Hollywood, to package and market the film for us. It has indeed taken a long while for us to get the right mix, but now we are finally ready to roll.

Will the book be based on Old Path White Clouds, a novel written by Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh, in which Buddha’s life is seen through the eyes of a young buffalo boy?

 The rights of the book has been taken. But Buddha’s life goes much beyond one perspective. That’s what we can say at this moment.

 What is the schedule for the film’s shooting and release?

 It will go to the floors in 2010 and get released in 2011. The shooting and post-production details are being finalised right now. The location hunt is  starting with Himalayas in North India, and it will be shot in several countries.

Any decision on the cast yet? There are reports in a section of media that Hollywood star Will Smith’s son Jaden Smith, 11, is being sounded out for a major role.

Nothing has been finalised as yet. And till the time formal announcements are made, there will be as usual lots of rumours! A hunt is now on for an actor who can play the title role. It could be anybody – a Hollywood actor, an established Bollywood name or an outright newcomer.        

(Published in Deccan Herald, www.deccanherald.com, www.deccanheraldepaper.com, 04-06-2009)

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