Year-ender 2022 EXCLUSIVE with Madhur Bhandarkar: ‘Bollywood needs to stop copy pasting and work on original scripts'

From Chandni Bar to India Lockdown which released recently, filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar has been known for doing films with original content and most importantly all his films have a message. In conversation with Firstpost, Madhur says that he still fails to understand the entertainment industry’s craze for big stars.  He believes in making films in controlled budget and that has been his USP ever since Chandni Bar days.

Excerpts from the interview:

How is cinema changing over the period of time and what has 2022 taught you?

Cinema has been changing almost every five years. There is a major revamp in the film industry.  I know 2022 has not been a great year for Bollywood, with cinema not doing well at the box office. I believe 2023 will be huge and the audience definitely has been coming back to the theatres. As for the entertainment industry changing, definitely there has been a revamp because OTT has been huge for the audience. Pandemic people have been dependent on the OTT for entertainment when the theatres were shut. OTT changed the audience viewership pattern. They were watching movies, series, documentaries, world cinema and they got exposure to cinema like never before.

Who is more important for you – the star or the story?

Both are parallel. I have made cinema from the very beginning with the stories that I believed in from Chandni Bar to India Lockdown which released recently. I am very happy with the kind of movies I have been able to do. But saying that there are certain budget films, where you have to have the actors who are big names because the production house, the funders will not give you the desirable budget if you want a big star. People do tell me that why do you not take big stars. Take the example of India Lockdown, it did fabulously well on the digital platform and it got great reviews too. People did tell me and there were certain producers who have called me to say that you have made a very good film, but why is it that you didn’t take big stars?

Now, I don’t understand the logic behind taking big stars for my projects. All my actors in India Lockdown have performed very well. I still fail to understand the obsession for big stars. I have heard from producers who have told me, your script is good, but why don’t you get some big stars. And this is not just the present scenario, this has been happening very much during my Page 3 days. Because of the commercial aspect this whole idea of getting big stars for projects will always be there. So, this will be there because production houses believe that if I invest a certain amount of money, the outcome has to be commercially viable. But I believe in making films on a controlled budget. I don’t waste time during shoots. But this differs from person to person. Some need big stars to mount a film. If I am sitting with a common person, I say that a certain film is coming, they instantly want to know who is the hero or the heroine. If they are new names, their interests go down. To encourage people to come to the theatres, I think it has become very essential to have big stars. For big production houses, film is business. So, their calculation goes with the stars.

But for independent directors like me, for the last 21 years, I also had to depend on stars. I remember when I was making Trishakti, which is a message oriented cinema, so I told the producer that the film has a message. I remember the producer telling me, ‘Tumahara kiya message hai hama bata do, for that I don’t need to make a film’(You tell us the message, for that we don’t need to make  a film). He said that very sarcastically like why do I need to make a film for it even if the film has a message.

You have been able to strike a balance between commerce and creativity; how do you do that?

India Lockdown budget was a costume budget of a big budget film or lesser than that. But I always do that and there have been friends saying, ‘Madhur you make middle of the road cinema. Your films are neither arty or commercial. They are something in between.’ I don’t mind watching commercial cinema and I have been watching Prakash Mehra, Subash Ghai’s cinema ever since my childhood days. I am a big fan of Rajnikath too. But at the same time I am a big admirer of Govid Nihalani, Shyam Benegal or Satyajit Ray. For me cinema is either a good cinema or a bad cinema. But yes, I maintain a balance in films which gives the audience engaging films and I keep the pace fast also. I edit my films and I don’t keep it too long because in today’s time, the viewer’s attention span has gone down. I maintain a balance by making a commercial film with a message. Like for Babli Bouncer for Hotstar, it was an engaging and humorous film and at the same time there was humour too. People also ask me how I am able to make a film in a small budget. Like I made India Lockdown in 25 days. I work more on the script and my home work is very strong. I never over-budget my films and this is my USP since Chandni Bar days.

What is going to be the trends of 2023 when it comes to cinema making?

The South cinema has been a great support for pan Indian cinema viewers. It started last year with Pushpa, RRR, KGF, Kantara – all these films have done brilliantly at the box office. KGF has been huge. I was mesmerised with Kantara, the way it was made. I feel it’s time to concentrate on the writing, the script. It needs to be strong. We need to work on original scripts and give writers the kind of freedom he wants and do less copy pasting. Cinema has to change for the better and we have it in us. We have the talent and writers also. But happens we give a link to an English film and ask him to make a few changes and keep the subject of the film exactly the same, then what will the writers do? He also has to survive.

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