Bollywood is having tough times as every film suffers at the box office. It has been more than 9 months since the industry has had any relevant hits. Theatres look sad with the drought of audience.
However, the theatre owners may share a different opinion. The box office reports too sing a different song. It is also the fact that some regional filmmakers are also baffled by the cold response they are getting from the once very enthusiastic audience. Bollywood and other regional filmmakers may be thinking about conducting a research on the brains of an average audience member. I thought of making the process a bit easier for them. I asked a regular auto rickshaw driver about what he thought about the new film on the verge of being released. He promptly replied, "Yeh sab toh aane ke pehle hi filop hain" meaning they are flops even before getting released. He continued, “Humko koi poochta toh hum pehle hi bata dete aisi film mat nikaalo" this means if they would have asked me I would have told them before hand that this film won’t work. I was curious to know why he felt so confident, so, I asked him to give an explanation. “Kabhi hero achcha hota hai, toh heroine bakwaas hoti hai aur jab dono achche hote hai toh eestory bakwaas hoti hain" he said in a very routine tone. To clear my doubts I asked the opinion of my school teacher and I was quite surprised when her opinion was also in agreement to that of the auto rickshaw driver. Then I asked a bunch of school going kids and some of my colleagues; to my amazement all the answers were on the similar lines. I can now conclude that the classes and masses, the elders and the younger ones all have the same point of view when it is about watching a bollywood film.
We can say that is the reason why only good entertaining films having a crowd pulling starcast such as Rang de Basanti, Koi mil Gaya, Dilwale Dulhaniya create records on the box office. Well, all said and done where does the problem actually persist? The problem persists with filmmakers like Ram Gopal Varma who declare that they don’t make films for the audience but for themselves. Unfortunately, the audience has to tolerate the release of the non acceptable movies made by such makers. The solution is simple when the democracy will rule Bollywood and other regional industries facing famines will see golden days again.