Janhvi Kapoor and Varun Dhawan accept that it is difficult to get a read on audiences amid Bollywood’s patchy record in 2023. Bawaal stars hold forth on what have been their learnings from this phase.
The last year and a half has been merciless on the Hindi film industry as audiences rejected films and massive titles fell by the wayside. Amid a few hits and many flops, the industry is picking up the pieces, recalibrating and rethinking its approach. Is scaling up the solution? Will the audiences pay good money only for tent poles? Or do the film industry need to understand that the paying public wants nothing but the best, with little margin for error?
Ahead of Bawaal’s release, its actors Janhvi Kapoor and Varun Dhawan, and director Nitesh Tiwari, opened up what the film industry’s stand is on these difficult, but very important questions. Tiwari, who had earlier delivered hits such as Dangal and Chhichhore, believes it’s a good pressure to have as the audiences have perhaps shaped up faster than the people creating content for them. “The audience are aware about the finer points of filmmaking after being exposed to content from across the world. Earlier, no one would comment on technical aspects such as VFX, BGM, production design and grading like people are doing now. It is a good pressure to have, you cannot take your audience for granted,” Nitesh says, adding the days to wing it are over. “I have also seen that they have become a bit more unforgiving to content that doesn’t live up to their expectations,” the director adds.
Janhvi, meanwhile, believes that filmmakers have also seen the response and assimilated it in their work. “There’s a shift in attitudes of makers, directors and writers as there is slight tentativeness about the sort of films the audiences are consuming. There is a recalibration in terms of what the audience will accept as well as what kind of films makers are ready to put their money on. As an actor, I am trying to gauge the path as well,” she says.
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Varun sees it as a deeper shift, which is evident in industries across the world. “Not only Bollywood, film industries across the world are hit including Hollywood. If you look at their top 10 films, they are all sequels and franchises.” His solution is to leverage the strengths and explore the options technology and time have opened up. “With OTT, a good film can have a massive reach. Bawaal, for instance, has a global theme and Prime Video is releasing the film in 200 countries. We are dubbing it in many languages so that it can reach many countries and new audiences. If it gets the sort of reach, it will be the first,” the actor says.
He believes that people will come to theatres for a film that promises them a moment, a spectacle. “For me, it is the bigger event film and the summer blockbuster which is also a very good film. It has to be a little bigger, has to be an experience now. On your phone, you can see the reels kids are coming out with! So, if we have to bring people to theatres or even on OTT, the content has to be big, inviting, cutting-edge. Escapist and aspirational have always worked. I have seen my dad’s (filmmaker David Dhawan) films since childhood and people just want to go and laugh. It is about these moments and how well you can create those moments. Bawaal has many such moments.”
However, despite everything, the actors have faced setbacks of late. For Varun, it was the creature comedy Bhediya. “You pick yourself up and move on. You have to hit back, you can’t sulk. Take a few days and get back to work. With Bhediya, my expectations were huge but we came in that period… However, the film found its audience on OTT and three months after the release, the studio surprised me with the news that there will be a sequel. I love that character and am really looking forward to playing it again.”
Janhvi is more philosophical, and wants to look at the bigger picture. “We are in this phase of recalibration, and I don’t think you can be that hard on yourself when films don’t work. The point of a film is to reach as many people as possible. So, you have to introspect what was the reason a film didn’t do well. Earlier, I was of the belief that as long as you make a good film with honesty, it will work. However, I am not sure if that’s true anymore, as there are many variables involved. I think that was the naive approach to take.”
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First published on: 16-07-2023 at 08:34 IST