2022 has not been a great year for Bollywood, which prides itself on being the largest moviemaking industry in India. A number of high-profile films featuring A-list actors fell flat at the box office, incurring unprecedented losses. Now, celebrated filmmaker Karan Johar has held Bollywood’s lack of spine and conviction for its failure to draw audiences to cinemas.
In a round table discussion hosted by Galatta Plus, the Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Gham (2001) director said, “I think the core issue is that we come from a mainstream industry in Hindi cinema, and that includes myself, which does not have one very strong quality that every other cinema on this panel has. That is conviction. We kind of always go with the flow.”
He further said, “We had such an original voice in Salim-Javed in the 70s. We created a certain character and the concept of that angsty, angry hero was derived in other cinemas. Then, in the 80s, suddenly something happened and there came a host of remakes. That’s where the conviction loss started. We started remaking every film popular in Tamil and Telugu.”
Naming some of the biggest blockbusters of Bollywood over the years, he added, “In the 90s, there was one love story that stormed the nation - Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994). Everyone, including myself, decided to jump on that bandwagon of love, and Shah Rukh Khan was created. But we let go of all our roots in the 70s. Then Lagaan (2001) was nominated for an Oscar in 2001 and everybody started making those kinds of films. In 2010, Dabangg did well and we again started those commercial films. That’s the problem. We actually lack - and I say this more for myself than anyone else - we lack the spine and conviction. That’s what we need to get from all the other industries.”
Meanwhile, Karan Johar is set to return to direction after a long gap of over five years with his upcoming film Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani. Headlined by Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan, and Shabana Azmi, the much-anticipated film is scheduled to hit the big screen on April 28, 2023.
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