SHIKHA JAIN reports as industry insiders share views at the Free Press Journal roundtable discussion
New year, new thoughts!
On that note, Free Press Journal organised a roundtable discussion — ‘Farewell 2018, Hello 2019 The New Buzz in Entertainment’ with revered members of the film fraternity.
Maintaining 2017 as a backdrop, the entertainment sector not only discovered fun facts about the world where audiences have morphed into analysts but are also willing to watch unusual and experimental movies rather than the same old. And even though, OTT has been a game-changer, people are still going to be glued to televisions because even after realising that our population is an asset, we still don’t have sufficient number of cinema halls to make it accessible to everyone.
Experts’ views
Amit Shama, Director of Badhaai Ho, pointed out, “Content-driven film is something the audience looks for and it is a whole package that includes good storyline, public reviews, narration and performance.” Apart from good script, star-power is important too, because that’s what doubles the success of the film and Ramesh Taurani, Producer, Managing Director, Tips Industries Ltd vouched for the same.
Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, director of Bareilly Ki Barfi and Karan Anshuman, Creative Director of Inside Edge are on the same page. They maintained that the joy of working with the younger generation is very different and calling them lazy is a millennial myth. Actress, Raveena Tandon declared, “OTT is a very uninhibited platform and that’s how it gets all the rage and craze.” Rajkumar Gupta, director of Raid stated, “I always believe in my content and the output is a collective effort.”
Akshaye Rathi, film exhibitor and distributor shared that 2017 has taught them a lot and that’s why 2018 went well. “Quality of content matters the most, besides that, now stars are also willing to play around with characters and go beyond their comfort zone.” That’s where actor, Saqib Saleem pointed out, “Rangbaaz was a total different experience because I played a role of a gangster and I never thought people would see me like that.”
“Hence, there will be more Sanjus and 2019 will see a blend of stardom,” concluded Akshaye, on a buoyant note of hope.
(Full report coming soon)
