By PTI,
Itanagar, India : Sahitya Academy award winning Arunachal state writer Y D Thongchi feels film-makers should turn to tribal areas in the Northeast to experiment with new story lines as audiences have got bored with the same plots being repeated over and over again.
“They (film-makers) seem to have exhausted of ideas. They should now turn to stories from tribal belts of the Northeast based on unique customs and practices that go beyond the imagination of people of the plains,” Thongchi said.
Thongchi, a Monpa Buddhist from Bomdila in West Kameng district, Arunachal state has seven popular novels and two collections of short stories on the lives of different tribes in Arunachal to his credit.
He collected material for his stories while working as a state government employee in different districts.
Thongchi, now tourism secretary of the hilly state, said he does not find people willing to take produce films based on his stories or turn them in to drama performances.
However, he has given his entire work for translation in Bengali and Hindi to Kolkata and Delhi publishers because of demands from mainland readers.
He said he had been approached by some Indian directors and producers for film rights of the novel but he did not agree.
In 2006, a Arunachalee feature film based on his story “Sonam” was released and was reasonably successful, he said, adding that he was not satisfied with the way the film deviated from his original story.