Kiran Rao says it bothers her when movies with ‘regressive messaging’ make hundreds of crores

Filmmaker Kiran Rao, whose film ‘Laapataa Ladies’ was screened at TIFF 2023 recently, spoke about the success some ‘regressive’ movies have seen at the box office. In an interview with Film Companion, Kiran talked about the responsibility of a filmmaker to 'push the needle'.

Kiran Rao didn’t name any movies but said that it ‘hurts’ when bad movies make hundreds of crores at the box office. She said that it’s not like all big movies are regressive, but it would be preferable if more of them had ‘better messaging’.

She said, ‘So much has changed in terms of the market; the audience has so many options, and you’re reaching for all kinds of attention when you’re making a film. I suppose when it’s really regressive sort of messaging, and it makes hundreds of crores, it hurts. Because you had the opportunity to push the needle in some direction and you didn’t. Those are the things that sometimes bother me. Having said that, every filmmaker has their goals.’

‘It would be really nice if the big films that do so well at the box office, were also doing ‘the important work’ of spreading progressive messages’, Kiran said.

She described this as, ‘Building our society in a more positive way, not stereotyping people, in fact, breaking some of those regressive ideas down and in some way opening up conversations. Or at least, (offer) more sensitive portrayals.’

A few days back, in an interview with the Free Press Journal, Naseeruddin Shah condemned movies like ‘The Kerala Story’, ‘The Kashmir Files’, and ‘Gadar 2’ for their ‘jingoism’, and said that their success could cause harm.

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