‘There will be the occasional no-brainer’

In the last few years, a wave of fresh ideas by a new crop of directors has taken Bollywood by storm. And amongst these directors, four seem to have carved their own niche.

So while Siddharth Anand and Tarun Mansukhani have masala films on their CV, Sriram Raghavan and Raj Kumar Gupta boast of coming up with more experimental cinema. Together, they make for a heady mix and not surprisingly, the quartet eagerly gets down to discussing the current state of the industry and its transformation. 

Raj, who made the critically acclaimed Aamir, feels that the idea is to stay patient as change takes its own time. “Change can’t be brought about in one day or a year. But the process has started and the last one year’s films spoke volumes about the forthcoming change,” he says.

Tarun, who made Dostana for the mainstream, can’t help but agree. “It’s very evident from films such as A Wednesday, Rock On or Dev D as all are examples of how the Indian audience’s mentality is changing,” he says, adding that he did his own bit to be a part of this change.

“I dealt with a topic which everyone told me to stay away from. I am not claiming that it’s a Brokeback (Mountain), but it’s definitely a step forward in the right direction,” he points out.

Siddharth, who has three star studded films to his credit (Salaam Namaste, Ta Ra Rum Pum and Bachna Ae Haseeno), is of the opinion that the 80s saw some of the most regressive films hit the big screen. “During the 80s, ideas were repeated and there was no original thought or story. It’s only Sooraj Barjatya’s Maine Pyaar Kiya and Mansoor Khan’s Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak which gave the industry a breath of fresh air.”

And as far as commercial potboilers go, he says, “I don’t think people should only make serious cinema for even these commercial movies have their own space and there is a section that will lap them up. I don’t want to put them down either,” avers Siddharth.

Sriram, who is working on the Agent Vinod after films like Ek Haseena Thi and Johnny Gaddar however is quick to point out that “while we have a wide variety of films being made, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we have arrived. We still have a long way to go before we can sit as equals with the best in world cinema.”

In fact, as a director, he wants both stars and audiences to recognise and acknowledge the power of the script and the writer. “There will be the occasional no-brainer that breaks all box-office records. But soon that’ll be the exception rather than the rule.” We sure hope so!