“We’re looking at a mutation between the two industries in London and Mumbai. We expect them to work in each other’s territory,” says Lieberson at the event where London Mayor Ken Livingstone and actor Amitabh Bachchan were also present.
“We realised the reach of British cinema in Mumbai is very low. If there is a framework of co-operation, where British actors could act in an Indian film, it will appeal to a wider audience,” says Lieberson. One way, he says, this can be made possible is by fostering a kinship among producers.
Lieberson, along with Adrian Wootton, Chief Executive of Film London, a three-year-old organisation that offers a one-stop shop for film-making related solutions (databases of locations, permissions and such). They also offer support to independent filmmakers by backing film festivals and screening their movies on small screens.
Lieberson began his career as an agent in the most filmic ways possible. Returning to his hometown Los Angeles after a stint in the navy, Lieberson watched an old school friend drive a Cadillac with a blonde in tow. “I asked him what he did for a living. He said he was an agent and I decided to become one too,” he says. Starting as a publicist and working his way up to being a producer (he started with a job in the mail room of a production house), Lieberson’s story can be seen as either the fulfillment of the American dream or a Bollywood script come true.
“There can be a new way of looking or working within Bollywood if you have producers who know how to get things done. There is so much mobility among Indian producers, unlike British and Americans, who are so inward looking and sometimes arrogant,” he says, pointing out how Hindi films get shot across the globe. “We want the productions to be risks, where maybe British producers or directors come down to Mumbai and shoot films. It should result into a new kind of cinema.”