By Anant Mathur (November 10, 2010)
In today's times when star power is king, filmmakers don't seem to be thinking about the audience. As a filmmaker you cannot make films which cater to your own taste, you need to think of what the audience wants.
Take for example a DJ in a dance club, now if he only plays the music he likes, chances are there won’t be many people left on the dance floor. He has to be able to judge the crowd and figure out their taste and play accordingly; maybe even sample a couple of songs in order to get their reaction.
Similarly, it is the job of every filmmaker to make a film to the taste of today’s audience. The audience today is a lot smarter than even 5 years ago. Due to the barrage of western TV shows and Hollywood films, the Bollywood audience has grown mentally in leaps and bounds. But it seems that the Bollywood filmmakers are too self-centered to realize this. Filmmakers like Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Vipul Amrutlal Shah, Aditya Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Anurag Basu, Vikram Bhatt, Ram Gopal Varma, Gurinder Chadha and Karan Johar need to learn from the likes of Rajkumar Hirani, Abhinav Kashyap and Rohit Shetty who clearly know what the audience wants.
The audience is hungry for entertainment, today they have more money to spend than ever before, but no one is going to waste their money on films that are not entertaining. Give us entertainers like Dabangg, Golmaal or 3 Idiots any day over mind numbing films like Blue, Kites, Saawariya, Aladin, My Name is Khan, RGV Ki Aag, Karthik Calling Karthik or Action Replayy.
Contrary to what most filmmakers believe, it is the audience who is king at the box office, for if they don’t show, it doesn’t really matter if you made the best film or the worst film ever. How you get the audience into the theatres is the key. As Dabangg has proved recently, give the audience great music, great talent and a good story and they will keep coming back. Keep giving them bad product and every Friday the cinemas will be empty as they have been for most of this year. If the writers you rely on are unable to carve gripping stories, don’t settle for their crap – get new writers!
In today's times when star power is king, filmmakers don't seem to be thinking about the audience. As a filmmaker you cannot make films which cater to your own taste, you need to think of what the audience wants.
Take for example a DJ in a dance club, now if he only plays the music he likes, chances are there won’t be many people left on the dance floor. He has to be able to judge the crowd and figure out their taste and play accordingly; maybe even sample a couple of songs in order to get their reaction.
Similarly, it is the job of every filmmaker to make a film to the taste of today’s audience. The audience today is a lot smarter than even 5 years ago. Due to the barrage of western TV shows and Hollywood films, the Bollywood audience has grown mentally in leaps and bounds. But it seems that the Bollywood filmmakers are too self-centered to realize this. Filmmakers like Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Vipul Amrutlal Shah, Aditya Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Anurag Basu, Vikram Bhatt, Ram Gopal Varma, Gurinder Chadha and Karan Johar need to learn from the likes of Rajkumar Hirani, Abhinav Kashyap and Rohit Shetty who clearly know what the audience wants.
The audience is hungry for entertainment, today they have more money to spend than ever before, but no one is going to waste their money on films that are not entertaining. Give us entertainers like Dabangg, Golmaal or 3 Idiots any day over mind numbing films like Blue, Kites, Saawariya, Aladin, My Name is Khan, RGV Ki Aag, Karthik Calling Karthik or Action Replayy.
Contrary to what most filmmakers believe, it is the audience who is king at the box office, for if they don’t show, it doesn’t really matter if you made the best film or the worst film ever. How you get the audience into the theatres is the key. As Dabangg has proved recently, give the audience great music, great talent and a good story and they will keep coming back. Keep giving them bad product and every Friday the cinemas will be empty as they have been for most of this year. If the writers you rely on are unable to carve gripping stories, don’t settle for their crap – get new writers!
© Anant Mathur. All Rights Reserved.
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