Safe to say, Bollywood’s dry spell has been splendidly broken by the success of some notable films at the box office this year. After Pathaan, the ticket window saw a definite lull which was revived by films like Sunny Deol‘s Gadar 2, Akshay Kumar’s OMG 2, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, and Shah Rukh Khan‘s recent release Jawan. However, eminent director Sanjay Gupta believes this celebration is short-lived.
Sanjay Gupta on Jawan and Gadar 2’s success
In an interview with ETimes, Sanjay Gupta said that until medium or low-budget films don’t work, one cannot say that audiences are going to theatres. He said, “Gadar 2 and Jawan are big-budget films and they have taken 2-3 years to be made. Theatres will be empty again after a couple of weeks, waiting for the next big film to arrive.” He further said that all the big stars do only one film a year. “It can’t be the case that only these top 5-6 stars’ films work. When people go to the theatres to back a combination of films then I’d say that the audiences are back,” he added.
Sanjay Gupta says audiences prefer to watch content at home
The Kaante director said that people are only watching big films with big stars in the theatres. But if the film is not big or doesn’t have big names, people are ready to watch it on OTT. As it is Indians like free ka maal (freebies). We pay for OTT subscriptions, but in a sense these things are free only. 95% of the movies are skipped by the general audience in theatres. They prefer to watch it at home.
Meanwhile, Jawan is directed by Atlee Kumar and produced by Gauri Khan. It stars Shah Rukh Khan, Nayanthara, Vijay Sethupathi, Sanya Malhotra, Priyamani, Sunil Grover, Eijaz Khan and Deepika Padukone (in a special appearance). The film was released on September 7 and received the biggest opening for any Bollywood film in history. After that, SRK will be seen in Rajkumar Hirani’s comedy-drama Dunki.
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