Hansal Mehta says anti-Bollywood sentiment ‘disturbing’, says fear is getting the better of filmmakers

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta has been a part of the film industry for three decades. In a recent interview, he addressed the relentless hate Bollywood has been receiving on social media and the boycott calls faced by big-ticket films and A-list stars like Aamir Khan and Ranbir Kapoor.

In a conversation with indianexpress.com, Hansal Mehta said the anti-Bollywood sentiment is disturbing, but also a lot of it is also ‘very manufactured’.

He said, ‘The kind of stuff that is written on social media, some of it even surreptitiously and otherwise, with the endorsement of some of our own colleagues. It is disturbing but I do also feel that a lot of it is also social media, very manufactured.’

Citing examples of music mogul Gulshan Kumar’s killing and film financer Bharat Shah’s arrest in a case of alleged nexus with the underworld, Hansal Mehta said that the industry is not new to setbacks and it has always bounced back.

He said that fear is getting the better of filmmakers in being able to tell their stories the way they want to, in making the films the way they want to. Hansal feels ‘it’s a transitory phase’ and Bollywood will emerge out of it as it is a resilient industry.

Hansal Mehta also said that in the quest to serve a certain agenda, filmmakers have forgotten that they are actually making films for the audience.

He elaborated on his mention of the term ‘agenda’ and stated that people say that films that are deeply rooted in our social and cultural identity and by all means films that reflect us socially and culturally should be made fearlessly. He concluded by saying that a rooted film can both laud and be critical of a society and its culture, but at least they should be well made.

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