Scrambling the Rubik’s Cube

Forrás: MTI

A cliché of globalisation: western firm outsources to a cheap but skilled workforce in Bangalore or Mumbai. But it can work the other way round, as Mumbai-based film producer Shahzad Bhagwagar has deftly shown.

“We had to build a military post close to the glacier”

Shahzad wanted the kind of Hollywood production values for his latest commercial for an Indian insulated food container you’d associate with James Bond. The spectacular backdrop of a colossal glacier comes to mind. The Himalayas?  Too expensive. How about Austria? Feasible, as it turns out.

Shahzad needed to get a substantial crew to the Kaunertal glacier. Not far in fact from where the icy action scenes in the latest Bond film Spectre were recently shot. 

“Travelling out of Mumbai to other parts of India, when I need to carry the entire crew, results in my travel and boarding costs getting very expensive,” he told MTI in an interview by email. “It makes sense for me to come to Hungary.”

Instead of lugging a big crew and equipment from Mumbai, Shahzad got in touch with Csanád Darvas, a Hungarian producer who specializes in squeezing a lavish-looking film out of an eye-wateringly thin budget. 

Shahzad’s latest project is his fourth collaboration with Darvas, who runs a neat outfit called lowbudgetfilmshooting. com. 

For his first project with Csanád, Shahzad needed something familiar but a bit different. “I pitched a couple of projects and I found his costs extremely viable.” 

“The locations and houses available in Mumbai have been used time and time again over the last 15 to 20 years and hardly any new shooting locations pop up, and as a result a lot of films look alike. We figured that Hungary has a lot of live houses where I could shoot in, and it is more financially viable in coming there with minimal people from Mumbai and shooting in a live house in Budapest vs creating a set in Mumbai.”

But could Csanád rise to something altogether more challenging than minimal set-dressing in a private home or restaurant, say? 

“I was always on the lookout for a young company that was hungry for work and would work out solutions to costs,” Shahzad, who flew out his own small team and several actors, said.

Csanád, who has produced an entire full-length feature film (a noir thriller) for 20 million forints (EUR 65,000), told MTI that his side of the production (camera, art department and extras) for a two-day shoot with a crew of 30 on the Austrian Kaunertal glacier cost substantially less than 80,000 euros. He took over a large Hungarian crew and collaborated with a local Austrian production company who provided location, lights and additional services, from a separate budget.

A similar production in the UK or Germany, say, may cost at least double.

“We had to build a military post out of the nothing close to the glacier,” he told MTI in an interview. “We were laying plywood on the snow, because you could easily sink to your hips taking 20-50 kg pieces of military tents up to the hill.”

“We were about 2,500 meters (8000ft) above sea level: you would lose breath so we worked in slow-motion.”   

When it comes to the crew, Csanád refuses to skimp on costs. “We pay the same, or sometimes better wages to crew members than others do, so we never save on wages.” Good pay but Hungarian levels of pay nonetheless.

Savings come elsewhere. “What you definitely see is that we have much fewer assistants around us, and the production crew takes multiple tasks,” he told me over a cuppa tea in the kitchen of his modest apartment in the Buda hills which often doubles up as his office. “What we don't have is a fancy office, a high marketing budget or extreme wrap parties.” 

Is there a Hungarian knack of doing high quality for little cost?

“We are also eager to find alternative solutions for many issues, from art department to catering; we just connect a few dots a bit differently. We also make use of financial solutions so we don't need to charge our clients VAT,” he said.

“The long-living traditions in the Hungarian filmmaking are still alive. Skilled professionals such as gaffers or the camera team. Working for foreign feature films and for foreign commercials are the tops for film professionals here:  this means we can choose from the best crew members.” 

Shahzad battled with a blizzard on the way home to do post-production in Mumbai. Csanád's team had to leave the props and wait till the blizzard had died down.

“The authorities closed the little mountain road that was near our location. It went on for two days. Luckily we managed to recover all the props from the snow.” 

Look carefully and you’ll see small tell-tale signs of the collaboration: props such as a Hungarian army medical box.

Csanád says the skill in getting a good result for relatively small cost is a matter of having the basics in place but knowing how to use resources wisely.  

“It's reversing a Rubik's cube: you start with all sides ready – people, props, cameras etc. Then there are lots of variations how you mix it: you make your own mix for each and every production.”