Rakesh Roshan On Hindi Films Failing At Box Office: Our Filmmakers Have Drifted Away From The Roots Of Indianness

In the year 2022, several big films with A-list stars and under bigger banners, failed to impress the audience and crash-landed at the box office. They included the likes of Ranbir Kapoor’s ‘Shamshera’, Aamir Khan’s ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’, and Akshay Kumar’s ‘Samrat Prithviraj’. Several B-town celebs have reasoned why Hindi films are crash-landing at the box-office, and the latest addition to the list is none other than Rakesh Roshan.

The former actor, who is now a filmmaker, talked about the wrong choice of issues chosen by directors to make films now. He told Bollywood Hungama. “People are making films that they and their friends like to watch. They are picking subjects that appeal to a very minuscule section of the audience. A big chunk of the audience cannot relate to it.”

He also mentioned that becoming a superstar is very difficult at present. “Aap puraane gaano se hero ko yaad rakhte hai (You remember actors because of old songs). Whenever you listen to old classics, you remember the heroes who were featured in those songs. Nowadays, since there are no songs, toh hero yaad nahi aate hai (no one remembers the hero),” Roshan said.

When asked about the success of South films like ‘Pushpa’ and ‘RRR’, he reasoned that South filmmakers are still sticking to rooted stories and they are presenting them in a very upgraded way, while keeping commercial sensibilities in mind. 

“If you see films like RRR and Baahubali, they have beaten-to-death stories. Baahubali is very similar to Karan Arjun. But it was presented on a bigger scale. Even the songs were larger-than-life and hence people were enticed. Aur hamare Bollywood filmmakers ko pata nahin kya ho gaya hai. They have drifted away from the roots of Indianness. They try to make so-called ‘modern cinema’ but it works with only 1% of the population. It does not cater to B and C centres. So if you pick subjects that cater to the C, B and A centres and present them in a very novel way, it’ll appeal to everyone,” he said.

The filmmaker is currently working on ‘Krrish 4’ featuring Hrithik Roshan.