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
In the kind of cinema we saw, we are the storytellers and we think from the heart. We rarely think of an actor before we finish writing because the script is the hero. It took almost one year to finish writing Nil Battey Sannata and Bareilly Ki Barfi took one and a half year to write. One thing I learnt is that the film stories are the most important heroes.
If you have a good story and a good actor, you are going to make around Rs 70 crore. But if you are making the same film for a certain budget with a bigger actor then your numbers will increase and Dangal is a great example.
We are talking to the generation today who are the decision makers — those who know what they want and they are also the ones who influence their parents, friends and maybe outsiders too. Bareilly Ki Barfi was a good learning as you can have stars working together. Bareilly Ki Barfi was the dal chawal and that’s why people enjoyed it.
So it’s about how am I going to entertain the audience who has everything at the click of the button? It’s so important to understand their psychology as well. 2018 was also about being fearless and from all the aspects — from director, producers and distributors too. If everyone is on the same page then it means something is working.
In this era, a movie is not only about a hero and heroine but about the characters who make the film. We need to be creating more roles for actors. Cinema is not the only platform for actors now. You have OTT platforms and you need more actors because the options are many and everyone is busy. OTT is the most outstanding thing that has happened for older people too. I look at my mother now who is 67 and she binge watches web series till 12.30 in the night. The quality of work that we are shooting has to be on par with what we are going to see in 2020 and not in 2018.