Veteran Filmmaker Sooraj Barjatya – who is known for popular Bollywood films like Maine Pyar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!, while promoting his film Uunchai– featuring Amitabh Bachchan, Boman Irani, and Anupam Kher, the director spoke about filmmakers Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra.
NRI Culture in Bollywood films
While speaking to ETimes, filmmaker Sooraj Barjatya spoke about the different phases in the Bollywood film industry and South Indian films being more rooted in Indian culture.
The filmmaker thinks that currently the films made in southern India are more ‘rooted in Indian culture.’ The ‘Hum Saath – Saath Hain’ maker said, “It’s a phase, but I think people want to see Indian stories. Indians will be Indians at the end of the day. And I am very happy that Indian stories are being told.”
Talking about the other phases he’s seen in the Bollywood film industry, Sooraj Barjatya said, “I clearly remember when I made Maine Pyaar Kiya there was a phase of love stories. With Hum Aapke Hain Koun the whole family culture came in. Then Adi and Karan (filmmakers Aditya Chopra and Karan Johar) brought in the NRI phase. What I think is that the audiences are also traveling everywhere. People are able to afford travel. I feel maybe the people also want to show their children their roots. So, now films have also come back to Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, etc…”
For the unversed, Aditya Chopra showed the life of NRIs in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) and Karan Johar in Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna among many others. Many of their films, based on and catering to NRI audiences, became big box office hits.
Deeply rooted south films
The movie Kantara became the talk of the town even in the Hindi belts. The Kannada-language action thriller evolved into a sensation due to 4 main reasons: a strong product, an epic climax, storytelling that shows people’s real-life struggles, and popularity among the regional population that caught up with the rest of the nation through word-of-mouth publicity. The main reason behind the success is that the filmmakers in the south stuck to Indian culture and displayed the true essence of our tradition.
Now, Hindi cinema and its self-styled experts need to take note of the sheer rejection that they have received from audiences. This rejection can be related to the fact that most involved in the re-interpret history project lack credibility. There is either no research or not enough research. Drumming up pro-Hindu sentiments can serve the publicity purpose of drawing a few into theatres. To hold them inside is a more difficult task.
