ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a general appraisal of the new Indies, touching on attempts to define and classify them, mechanisms of funding, distribution and exhibition and the content that distinguishes them from the mainstream. Whilst exploring the various modes of defining and categorising the new Indies, it constructs a template to chart the course of the Indies in their attempt to create a new cinematic space. The chapter discusses new funding and distribution strategies adopted by the Indies. Former India Today journalist Nirmala Ravindran states in an interview that the new films appeal more to younger people, particularly in the 2030 age group. The advent of globalisation and the states ratification of industry status for cinema production in 1998 hastened the decentralisation of the state-supported National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), formerly the main recourse to film funding for Indian art cinema. The emergence of hybrid cultural forms is largely attributable to the erosion of notion of self-contained nation-states by the glocal.
