R Balki who is known for films like ‘Paa’, ‘Cheeni Kum’ and ‘Pad Man’ has been in the headlines recently for a statement that he made. The National Award-winning director admitted to thinking that the recent Bollywood movies were absolutely worst and not so just from an intellectual perspective but also from an entertainment point of view.
Speaking at a fireside chat called ‘What on Earth Is Wrong with Advertising and Cinema’ at the MIT World Peace University, Pune, he said, “Few blockbusters that have happened in the last four, five years, or whatever, have actually been the worst films.”
He further added, “I’m just saying, not only from an intellectual or an artistic point of view but also from the old entertainment, ‘masala, paisa vasool’ kind of a feel. Also, they are damn boring. The fun has completely gone from our blockbusters”
Balki went on to draw comparisons between the films that are being made today with the ones that were made by stalwarts like Manmohan Desai around the 1970s. The director said, “If you take a Manmohan Desai film… I remember there was a retrospective of Amit Ji. There was one on Manmohan Desai, and I was watching Amar Akbar Anthony, Naseeb, all these films by Manmohan Desai. There was so much fun! The fun has completely gone from our blockbusters.”
Digging deeper into why such films are being in today’s day and age, Balki remarked, “It’s become like a project. There’s an economics associated with that stuff. They want to recover this, they’re putting this money, they’re pumping the marketing out. It’s marketing, basically. It’s just driving people towards believing something is good. By the time people believe it’s bad, the film has made its money.”
He spoke about how the kind of films that are being made have a lot to do with audience psychology.
Balki added that the interest people had pertaining to films is slowly fading; however, he noted that the boom of content that has occurred owing to OTT has given audiences a variety to choose from and “devour.”
In terms of work, Balki’s last film was ‘Ghoomer’ starring Saiyami Kher and Abhishek Bachchan. However, the film did not do well at the box office and the director addressed the issue, saying that it was because of the competition the film faced from Gadar 2, which went on to break quite a few records.
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