Getting a job in bollywood

Indian film industry is a giant industry. Regardless of your skills and interest, there is a job waiting for you. All you need is right connections.

As a film enthusiast, I wanted to start my career somewhere and my first failure was spending too much time trying to find a place on the net that listed all the entry level jobs available in Bollywood. There are absolutely no job sites like hollywood has. So forget about it.

There are mainly five major career options in film production: acting, direction, cinematography, sound engineering and film editing. Acting is the intensely competitive profession to enter in and unless you have the right talent, right connections and luck working together for you, it may be the last thing to try out in film business.

It helps to get some specialization in the profession you are trying out. Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, is the most popular place for film direction, motion picture photography, sound recording and sound engineering. Cinematography is also offered as a diploma course in Film and Television Institute of Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Satyajit Ray Film Institute, Kolkata, and Film and Television Institute, Orissa. The Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University at Masab Tank, Hyderabad, offers a course in professional photography.

I did not have any of these certifications and yet wanted to try out with lighting and camera as my passion is cinematography. I have spent last 1 year in Mumbai working shifts in studios at the lowest level possible, some times as a grip, sometimes as boom operator or just a generic assistant. I thought with the flair of connecting with people and talent will help me rise up to a DP level but that remains a distant dream.

The creative profession of show business remains a very tight network that is tough to break into. So my advice to others who are trying out a career in Cine-mumbai is that they better dig their connections first before jumping in cold.