SHIKHA JAIN presents key observations from the roundtable discussion ‘Farewell 2018, Hello 2019: The new buzz in entertainment’ organised by The Free Press Journal, powered by Indian Oil
2018 has been a very interesting year in terms of quality of content, but it’s important to look at it with the backdrop of 2017 which was a bad year for the film industry save for Baahubali 2. Like Thugs of Hindostan, and Zero of 2018, 2017’s films like Jab Harry Met Sejal and Tubelight, didn’t do well at all. They had superstars but no great scripts and that’s something that came back a lot stronger in 2018.
Sonu ke Titu Ki Sweety, which is as different as Stree which is very different from Badhaai Ho showed us the importance of script. We are only building on what we have done in 2018. If you look at the slate of 2019 we are coming to a point where the blend of stardom, which is something that works in a big way at the box office, is coming together with great scripts and great stories, hence there will be more Sanjus.
Race 3 did what it did because of the starpower and Stree did what it did, courtesy the script. Be it BMW or Maruti, what’s going to run it is the fuel. What’s going to run the cinema is the script because that’s what is going to get the people. With OTTs people can watch it as per their convenience so the consumption habit has changed over time.
