A Movie Story

Amrit Punjabi, Head of Production at Multivision Plus, tells Mariel Grazella why making movies in Indonesia is both a challenge and a rewarding venture at the same time 36

mrit punjabi, head of Production at Multivision Plus (MVP), has his work cut out for him. MVP, a large movie production house founded by Amrit’s father, is slated to release at least three movies this year.

“One of the movies will be romance and the other will be horror,” Amrit says, adding that big-time movie directors Rizal Mantovani and Hanung Bramantyo will work on the projects. “We are also working with a Indian director, known as the godfather of horror, on a movie called Shadows,” he notes.

According to Amrit, MVP has decided to embark on romance and horror movies after observing, through news and social media, that Indonesian audiences gravitate to such stories. “The thing about movies is that there is no certain formula for success. This is why we have to look around us to know what is happening and to find topics that are relatable to the audience,” says Amrit.

He adds that deciding on the genre of a movie was simpler than honing a particular topic that the movie would rest on. Here is where the creative process and business skills come into play.

Amrit, the movie director, and a creative team will throw around an idea, which a scriptwriter then uses to develop drafts of the script. Amrit would then look at the drafts to see if the ideas are workable. “We have to find a way to create good-quality content without having to set a crazy budget. We must also think of the returns,” he notes.

He further says that producing movies in Indonesia required him to let go of the idealism, such as having guilds for workers on movie sets, that he learned while studying filmmaking in the US.

Movie producers in Indonesia, he points out, work on a far shorter and intense timeline given budgetary constraints. “Here, I believe that people work harder and time is more valuable,” he says.

He adds that he has learned much about filmmaking as an art and as a business from his father, renowned film producer Raam Punjabi who has been in the film industry since the late 1960s.

“I learned a lot about negotiation styles and social skills from my father. He tells these jokes that can make anyone laugh and that helps create a strong bond with clients and partners,” he says. “I have become more social thanks to my dad.”

“He tells these jokes that can make anyone laugh and that helps create a strong bond with clients and partners”