Interview Director - Karan Johar HindiSong.com

Movie interview: Karan Johar

”We have to win back our audiences”

I think films fail, bad films fail. There are no success formulas. A love triangle may have worked in a 100 films and may not have worked in a 100 films. For every given formula there have been successful and non-successful films.

I have a very simple theory that a good film works whether it’s exceptional or universal but a bad film doesn’t work anyway. If a film has failed the people who’ve made it have to look deep into their creativity and realize that there must be something wrong within the framework of the film.

It’s very rare in cinema that a good film has ever not worked. A brilliant film always works, it may not be all over India but that a good film has failed is very rare. Whoever you cast in the film however popular the star is - if the films are not up to the mark the directors have to look within themselves.

We are not giving the audiences anything that’s really up to the mark-it is our failure not the audiences’ therefore this is how they’re reacting. They’re reacting by not turning up and by dismissing the cinema that is churned out week after week. That should set the alarm bell ringing in the industry that watch out, something is wrong, let’s do something new, something which has quality. That the scripts must be worked upon much more.

Raaz opened this year and it was an unusual different film. There was something new-a horror film after a long time. I remember I watched it and got quite scared while watching it. It moved me –I reacted to it, But after that there hasn’t been anything up to the mark. I just feel the whole system has to change, there has to be some kind of discipline people have to come on time, scripts have to be worked upon much more. Till today artistes are not given narration, they’re not given full bound scripts.

All this goes back to core level of working in our fraternity. I don’t think audiences are outgrowing Bollywood- cricket and films will remain popular here. Audiences sense a good film, which is why a big film gets a big opening. A Raaz opened to full houses all over the country-why? It had nobody just newcomers. It had nothing, it was a small production but it opened to packed houses so how can we assume that people are outgrowing our films. They want to like our films but unfortunately we are not giving them anything that’s so great that they can enjoy it. Then they‘d rather sit and watch Tv-there are so many channels. Why should they come all the way spend so much money when we are giving them nothing interesting.

So we have to win back our audiences they know a good film and then they come in hordes. My film K3G-opened well because it had a big cast but it went on like that for three weeks showing that they want to be entertained. They want to enjoy themselves. All the films that were good last year were given a lot of respect by the audiences. But we are not giving respect to our audiences. Look at what we churn out week after week.

How can we sit back and say oh the industry is going through a crisis –how sad! But the crisis has been created by us. We are the reason for this crisis. As a body of filmmakers we have to sit and look within ourselves what are we giving them for them to turn up in large numbers-nothing. Four to five good films a year is not enough. And we’ve stopped bothering about people like exhibitors, distributors-peoples homes.

There are cinemas that have shut down exhibitors who have been completely been destroyed because of the substandard work that we churn out. So we really have to get our act together. Otherwise we have no right to complain that audiences are not showing up for our films. Right now we are just not giving them anything great and we have to get our act together. And I believe that the audiences are all there raring to come in, to watch films but we have to give them films which make them say thank you for giving us a good film. Thank you for entertaining us. But we haven’t done that. Audiences connect with good films and the film connects with them. Sure everyone feels he has made a good film but we have to be honest with ourselves.

My father has made some unsuccessful films-even my two films have lots of errors in them it’s just that the entertainment in them was much more-the pros were more than the cons. You have to own up to them. If a film hasn’t worked you cannot blame the scenario –the lackof publicity or whatever. I think if a film has not worked I’d say it’s a bad film.

A successful film is a commercially good film and a flop film is a commercially bad film. I use the word commercial because there are certain aesthetic films, which are made for niche audiences-like Chandni Bar. It’s a very good film; it worked in certain places tremendously. It was termed a successful film because it was made in a certain budget and it worked. You cannot expect a film like Chandni Bar to be enjoyed by the whole mass of the country. But it was a lovely film –I loved it. Even if you make smaller films, which are good they will work. Who says they will not work. But I think a film a commercial mainstream film that doesn’t work-then it definitely has something wrong with it. That is a guarantee.

I don’t think the audience can ever be wrong. It is the consumers’ philosophy that the consumer is always right so if a film hasn’t worked the filmmaker has to analyze more effectively what it was that didn’t work. In the recent past I don’t think it has happened that a film hasn’t worked if it is good. Sometimes the average film does better than expected because the audiences are willing to see anything even slightly good. That goes to show how keen they are for a good film that they might sometimes support an average film.

Audiences are so eager for good films. They have outgrown everything that is dated now if you suddenly have a song with a 100 dancers there for no rhyme or reason-audiences reject it, it irks them. There is something called cinema education and good films have educated even the hardcore masses.

Therefore now if you churn out stuff that makes no sense to an audience they are going to object and retaliate because they have been educated, every year there are these 4/5 films which have been made with a certain passion hard work and labor and they appreciate those films to such an extent that if anything is given to them that doesn’t match those standards they are not liking it. Unless you are seeing a film for fun. Audiences are certainly not taking nonsense. The eighties was the death of the cinema where we had some random things happening and audiences are not taking that any longer. Today audiences can spot anything that has no stamp of quality.