Rakesh Roshan on Bollywood films failure: People make movies that appeal to minuscule section of audience

Actor-filmmaker Rakesh Roshan expressed his thoughts on recent failure of big-budget films at the box office. Besides criticising the directors for their choice of subjects, Roshan deplored how songs have taken a backseat in films. Over the last few days, some experts have felt that the ongoing cancel culture has a significant impact on a film’s success, but Rakesh believes that if a film is well made, it will work.

Rakesh Roshan on why Bollywood films are not performing well

In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Rakesh said that filmmakers are choosing subjects that appeal to a very minuscule section of the audience. He talked about the importance of songs in a film and opined songs are now either relegated to the background or just when the intro is played. The filmmaker said, ‘Aap puraane gaano se hero ko yaad rakhte hai (You remember actors because of old songs). Whenever you listen to old classics, you remember the heroes who were featured in those songs. Nowadays, since there are no songs, toh hero yaad nahi aate hai (no one remembers the hero). As a result, becoming a superstar is very difficult at present.’

Rakesh Roshan also talked about the success of South films such as ‘Pushpa’ and ‘RRR’. He said that ‘they are still sticking to rooted stories and they are presenting them in a very upgraded way, keeping in mind the commercial sensibilities.’

Why South films are doing well at the box office

‘If you see films like RRR and Baahubali, they have beaten-to-death stories. Baahubali is very similar to Karan Arjun. But it was presented on a bigger scale. Even the songs were larger-than-life and hence people were enticed. Aur hamare Bollywood filmmakers ko pata nahin kya ho gaya hai. They have drifted away from the roots of Indianness. They try to make so-called ‘modern cinema’ but it works with only 1% of the population. It does not cater to B and C centres. So if you pick subjects that cater to the C, B and A centres and present them in a very novel way, it’ll appeal to everyone,’ he told Bollywood Hungama.

Rakesh Roshan is currently working on his next project, ‘Krrish 4’, featuring son Hrithik Roshan.

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