Call For Chapters-
Money in Movies:
Reflections on Currency, Culture
and Representation of Opulence in Indian Cinema

Call for Chapters

Money in Movies:
Reflections on Currency, Culture and Representation of Opulence in Indian Cinema

• Objective Statement for Knowledge Creation and Fair Remunerative Practices in Academic Publishing

At Connoisseurs.One, we attempt to challenge and overcome certain fault lines in academic publishing through cognizing how academic work is not just a knowledge producing exercise, but also a form of labour. By “Re-purposing, Re-packaging, and Re-evaluating” the monetary value chain in academic publishing, we aim to address the extractive and exploitative practices on account of the lack of revenue sharing prevalent in the enterprise of academia, whereby, the sharing of revenue is confined to the ‘publisher’ (i.e., large publishing enterprises such as Oxford, Taylor and Francis, Bloomsbury etc.) and ‘editors’ (who mostly happen to be authoritative figures from esteemed universities, holding high ranking positions therein),  whereas, the “contributors” (i.e., scholars, lecturers, teachers, professors and researchers varying across the institutional spectrum) are lured under the guise of garnering “prestige” or “copy” of the “Edited Volume”, which would act as a lucrative addition to their ‘Curriculum Vitae’ or their personal library (or in worse case scenarios expected to pay out their own pockets). 

This effort intends to monetarily remunerate the ‘contributions’ of everyone involved in the efforts of ‘knowledge-creation’ through the introduction of a ‘revenue-sharing model’, to counter the implicit ‘rentierism’ looming large amongst renowned academic publication enterprises. Through sharing resources, skills and social connections which further the goal of epistemic justice via rewarding authenticity and inquisitivity that forms the bed-rock of reliable knowledge. One of the key social technologies through which the dialects, dramatics and discursive dialogue between the ‘orchestrators’ and ‘orchestrated’ is conducted in the twenty first century has been ‘monetary capital’. Though the rhythms of knowledge production often require one to raise the questions upon the pre-existing fortification to further democratize reason, method, comprehension, analysis and findings with an integral vision towards inclusivity, which is not dedicated by the very mandates and metrics that set societies at odds with each other. While assessing credibility and axiological understandings, the scholastic community holds an obligation towards inclusivity through not mere tokenism by the mentions on print and digital media but instead through garnering the requisite reverence in the form of awards, funds and festivities of knowledge and craftsmanship sharing. This project aims to deploy the existing technologies of knowledge, data and revenue sharing not just merely between publishers and established authorities in a peculiar field of knowledge presented under the pseudonym of “Editors”, instead, this intiative attempts that all contributors ought to be proportionately remunerated. This initiative aims to exemplify how such a change in the patterns of creative and academic writings ought to be held at the helm of socio-economic and political change along with the development of social dialogue about the epistemological, ontological and moral underpinnings of how, why and what “creation of knowledge” means.

Hence, the key objectives of the proposed project entail:

• Reorienting the supply and demand of creative and intellectual labour through exploring various modes of artistic expressions by different epistemological, ontological and/or methodological ways to evaluate and redeliberate the existing measures of credibility.

• Redistributing proposed percentages of royalties on each sale/monetization for all of the contributors involved in edited volume.

• Revise the means of garnering better recognition for the scholastic, intellectual and creative pursuits of the people involved in various pedagogical practices through different ways of disseminating information, as well as, recalibrating the canon and curriculums.

• Encouraging reflexivity amongst authors and readers, along with, attempting to provide multi-media engagements for enhancing their ability to endorse one’s premonitions with due diligence and assurance of considerate constructive critical feedback.

• About the Proposed Edited Volume- Money in Movies: Reflections on Currency, Culture and Representation of Opulence in Indian Cinema

This book aims to interrogate and investigate the spectre and phenomena of money and the role it plays in the development, distribution, projection, procurement, validation and accreditation of art in the arena of popular culture, especially in the field of Indian Cinema. This volume invites scholastic contributions and collaborations by authors who intend to deploy creative and pathbreaking outlooks towards the deliberation upon the comprehension of two most vital components of socio-political orchestration, i.e., currency and culture. Considering the continuity of the carnivalesque in India that is staged, sustained, subverted and scrutinized, yet, never fails to stir a sense of celebration of ‘wonder, joy, humour and bafflement’ (amongst fellow sensations and social dialogues) that are often left seemingly amiss in the fast-paced diligence demanding hyperactive metropolitan life. As films are an explicitly phenomenological exercise, wherein, motion pictures can be plausibly perceived as a suppositionless immersion in a narrative which has been ‘(i) conceived, (ii) produced, (iii) distributed, and (iv) perceived’ for various intents and purposes that stem beyond mere entertainment through invigorating a dialogue concerning the psycho-social observations and the economic and political imperatives, as well as, inclinations of the human condition. One of the key social technologies that inadvertently plays a pivotal role in the process of orchestrating and being orchestrated by the dispositions and deployment of narrative, is money. This edited volume tries to investigate the role and influence of money to not just assess the role of class, status, and power in the process of conception, creation and consumption of motion pictures, but, also, how its supposed conceptualizations are inherently weaved into the plot and narration itself, whereby it plays an unsaid role of a character who might be oblivious to the whims of self-awareness but rest of the characters are always aware about it. This edited volume attempts to draw attention on (i) how “money” plays an instrumental role in ‘assigning, attesting, ascribing and acknowledging’ function in society, (ii) how it facilitates the carnivalesque feeling amongst the makers and consumers of motion pictures, and (iii) how it attempts to either mirror or mirage monumentality and masquerading momentousness in the process of projecting, procuring and promoting ideation through sequentially weaving images.

Contributors are encouraged to share their research outputs on following themes 

Theme 1: Money as an invisible character in Indian Cinema

Covertly or overtly, cinematic storytelling comprises an implicit characterization of ‘income, wealth and social status’ which is portrayed through the different equations between characters premised on how they ‘spend, chase or chastise’ money adjudicated through the relationship that they share with it. This theme incites the contributors to look past the theorization of money as a mere medium of exchange or transactions as is commonly projected in the literature surrounding political economy, rather engage with the underlying corporeality of money and how it is ascribed a personification  which rests upon the ideation and imagination of the characters’ association with it, as well as, with the world on account of this supposed association. This theme reflects on how money often plays an invisible role of an antagonist and protagonist, whereby, its chase is supported or chided on the basis of the transmutation of characters, their relationships with fellow characters (as well as, their reception amongst the audience), adjudicated by the expressions of thought, language and conduct they adopt towards themselves and others at different junctures of how they find themselves situated in the stochastic arena of socio-political economy. The tightrope of scarcity and abundance that the cinescapes embed characters into often defines the rhythm and melody towards the orchestration of their narratives, ranging from humor, tragedy and drama, that seers over the psychological, psychological and pathological dialectics between the orchestrators and the orchestrated. This theme invites contributors to share their insights regarding how Indian filmmakers across the decades and various forms of film production across mainstream, regional and alternative cinema have attempted to express a significant semblance to the voice and agency to this seeming invisible entity, along with re-examining and reevaluating the role of money in the intricacies of everyday life, as well as, the influence of social, economic and political conventions concerning the currents pertaining to money in sketching the self-understanding of the character, their relationships with society and the globe looming at large.

Theme 2 : Money Mechanics and Trend Production

This theme aims to address how the supposed calculations of monetary returns that feed into the process of movie making and create a rift between ‘art for art’s sake’ and ‘the production of art for financial gains’, whereby the aligning and misaligning of agendas that are premised on the notions of imagination of ‘what the audience would be willing to pay for’. Contributors are encouraged to engage with these notions of producing trends as a representative question, herein, the massive investments in the creation of motion pictures for mass distribution invites us to investigate ‘identity formation’ through iterative and reiterative practices. The economics of movie production pertaining to the abstract inclinations with which media produces and reproduces cultural stereotypes regarding ‘gender, class, ethnicity and nationality’, as well as, encourages or undermines creative fervour for the sake of creating trends that are repurposed and repackaged. This theme instigates inquisitivity regarding the causes behind the financial anxiety of production houses, corporate studios and streaming platforms towards forcing a reliance on safe, pre-tested intellectual property (IP), effectively turning Indian cinema into a factory of cinematic echoes in the form of tried and tested formula-based remakes and sequels. The persistent re-production and replication of art in the age of big screen cinema, along with the ease of distribution through over the top (OTT) platforms that aid and abet the process of reiterating the same cultural tropes through creation of meme-worthy advertisable “trends” that may guarantee the makers “views” for the intended cinema.

Theme 3 : Phenomenology of Money in Movies

This theme aims to address how money plays a pivotal role (despite the suppositions that the filmmakers and audience acknowledge regarding it) considering how money in Indian cinema espouses a highly sensory experience, from the crisp sound of counting new banknotes to the sweaty, anxious realities of debt and poverty. Hereby, the contributors are invited to ponder over unspoken, unaddressed sensations that the discourse concerning money arouses amongst those who conceive the idea of films (i.e., the scriptwriters), those who make films (i.e., directors, set-designers, actors etc.) and those who consume films (i.e., audience across different formats of how the film is distributed). Essentially, this theme attempts to question how the behavioral altercations in the medium of consumption also alters the subject-matter that gains prominence and prevalence considering how our changing habits of watching movies alter this experience, as well as, how shifting from the loud, shared space of an old single-screen theater to the isolated, quiet experience of watching a movie on a 6-inch smartphone changes how we physiologically and emotionally react to stories about wealth or deprivation, along with the shift in temporality, i.e., the shift from watching three-four hour long movies in single-screen theatres to watching movies that barely span 90 minutes in multiplexes and shorter (i.e., short films or even music videos) and longer formats (i.e., series) of motion pictures on OTT platforms on our devices at the comfort of our homes affect and mediate our understanding of the relationship between money and movies reflecting on the depictions of the characters, especially pertaining to the relationship that the conceivers, creators and consumers suppose towards the spending of time and money shape our understanding of the influence of money behind movie-making and our sensory and mental impressions related to the experience of movie consumption.

Theme 4 :  Economics of Movie-Making

This theme invites collaborators to examine the financial processes, labour structures and economic realities of the exercise of film making and the painstaking processes involved behind the scenes. Considering how making motion pictures in India involves a complex, yet often invisible web of capital comprising of peculiarly perplexing permutations and combinations of institutional, embodied and symbolic capital ranging across major corporate studio backing and international streaming rights through over the top platforms to independent crowdfunding and historical ties to informal and latent economies. The theme encourages the contributors to investigate the political economy of film production through various theoretical and analytical frameworks to assess who funds Indian cinema, how are budgets in film production allocated (i.e., regarding the sharing of remuneration and revenue amongst actors, directors, scriptwriters and fellow key crew members involved in the process), along with examining the financial precarity of independent filmmakers and how the rising costs of production and distribution dictate which stories get to be reflected against the screen and which stories fail to garner due distribution and recognition.

Theme 5 : Budgeting the Blockbuster

This theme encourages the contributors to interrogate the fascination of financial engineering and cultural impact of the spectacle that are premised and expected from an Indian “blockbuster”, (i.e., high budget films that are produced with the intent to economically outperform and overshadow fellow cinematic ventures, along with creating a hyper-sensational and pertinent influence on the aesthetic tastes of the audience and incite curiosity and questions in the popular culture). The contributors are urged to contemplate on the rise of the pan-India blockbusters and their potential of rewriting the rules of movie production, marketing, and distribution. We welcome chapters that critically appreciate and examine how these massive budgets are constructed and justified. This includes exploring the hyper-concentration of capital into portraying grandeur on the big screen through visual effects (VFX), intense action-packed sequences, fancy picturesque foreign locations and astronomical star fees, often at the expense of script development and mid-budget cinema. This theme invites collaborators to questions the logic of blockbuster economics concerning how the financial risk of a mega-budget movie forces studios to lean into seemingly safe, tried-and-tested formulas of hyper-masculine, hyper-nationalist or femme fatale formats along with nostalgic reiteration of erstwhile cinematic experiments that have proved to be financially rewarding, effectively allowing the budget itself to dictate the ideological narrative of mainstream cinema.

Theme 6 : Assuaging Alternative Cinema

This theme turns its attention to the resilience and survival of alternative, independent and art-house cinema in India. In an industry which is largely dominated by mega-budget blockbusters and corporate calculations, alternative cinema often persists despite the state of financial precarity and often praised for proving to be a beacon of hope in cinematic storytelling and narrative-building. We welcome chapters that examine how independent filmmakers "assuage" or navigate these harsh structural realities of film industries in the course of completion of the cinematic projects they undertake. This theme inquires and explores alternative funding models like crowdfunding, international co-productions, and film festival circuits, as well as, the complicated relationship with OTT/streaming platforms (that are often perceived to be a promised haven for indie parallel cinema). Then there is the emerging trend of mainstream cinema of big production houses appropriating small budget movies that gained a lot of popularity and money on the ticket counters.  

Theme 7 : Money- Fold and Mould

This theme explores the “fold” and “mould” characterization of money in Indian cinema concerning how it is structurally "folded" away and how it actively "moulds" human reality. While we look at the folding of money, the cinematic depiction of hidden wealth, black money, corruption and laundering, such developments and treatment of monetary resources also requires us to examine how money moulds the characters and the societies they inhabit. This theme invites chapters that investigate how money shapes, deforms or preserves human relationships, defines class identity and shapes the moral standpoints of the characters towards themselves and their surroundings.

Theme 8 : Monetary Hauntology upon Filmmakers

This theme turns the lens onto the creators themselves with the hope of exploring how the ghost of monetary capital haunts the psychology, choices, and artistic integrity of Indian filmmakers. Making a movie is a high-stakes financial gamble, hence, it is accompanied by the terrifying specter of financial ruin, unpaid debts, box-office failure or losing studio backing which looms large over every director, writer, and producer. We welcome chapters that investigate how this mental and economic weight shapes the creative process. This includes analyzing if, why and how filmmakers compromise their original visions to appease financiers, the psychological toll of creative precarity in a volatile industry, and how the historical "ghosts" of past financial failures continue to dictate what modern creators dare to write. Ultimately, this theme looks at the tragic reality of how the monetary system compromises the artist's subconscious, turning filmmaking into a negotiation with survival. 

Theme 9 : Investigating the Value-Chain in Movie-Making

This theme maps out and critically analyzes the literal lifecycle of a film as a commercial product, tracing how financial value is generated, extracted, and distributed from script to screen. The traditional cinematic value-chain of moving sequentially through pre-production, principal photography, post-production, theatrical distribution and secondary rights has been fundamentally disrupted by corporate studios and streaming monopolies, with digital streaming rights, marketing and talent agencies playing an increasingly pivotal role in the execution of movie-making in India. This theme invites contributors to pitch chapters that dissect these new emerging changes on where the money flows and who profits the most in contemporary movie-making. This theme seeks to investigate how the mechanics of the modern entertainment supply chain decide which participants in the creative processes are rewarded or exploited, and how value is calculated in contemporary Indian cinema. 

Theme 10 : Axiology, Ascription and Acknowledgement

This theme engages with the phenomenological, ethical, and cultural frameworks used to assign value within the world of Indian cinema. "Axiology" prompts us to ask what we consider good, beautiful, or worthy in film, while "Ascription" and "Acknowledgement" look at how that worth is assigned and who is left out of the record and denied due credit. This theme invites chapters that investigate the ethics of value creation on and off the screen. This includes analyzing whose stories are deemed worthy of big-budget investments on the screen, how cultural or social values are ascribed to certain narratives or genres over others in the cinema, while also considering the systemic erasure or acknowledgement of marginalized labor of stunt performers, junior artists, set-designers, spot-boys/girls, background dancers or visual effects technicians, whose invisible blood and sweat builds the grandeur of illusion of capital behind the screen.