I just read two interviews with Bollywood filmmakers Nagesh Kukunoor and Anurag Kashyap, and what struck me was how much both these critically acclaimed directors have always yearned for commercial success.
Nagesh’s Akshay Kumar starrer 8 X 10 Tasveer released a couple of weeks ago. Here’s what he had to say in the interview: “The box office definitely matters more than critical acclaim. When you get critical acclaim you feel nice about the appreciation, but box office success helps you make more films. My main motive is to keep making films; if because of any reason I’m denied that, I will feel horrible.”
Anurag Kashyap, I thought, was more honest, brutally so, in his self-analysis. Before Dev D happened, Anurag had made Paanch which never got released but which achieved a sort of minor cult status because everyone who saw the film raved about it. Then he made Black Friday, which, fortunately, did get released and received outstanding reviews but didn’t have much luck at the box office. After that came No Smoking, which was too surreal for both critics and audiences (I tried to watch it and gave up after 15 minutes). But despite the flak Anurag got for No Smoking, the fact is that he had two highly praised films to his credit. The only problem was – the two released films hadn’t worked with audiences.
So what happened? According to Anurag, he sank into depression, alcohol and random partying. He would spend aimless evenings alone in clubs and restaurants or constantly surf the Net, looking “for God only knows what.”
One day, he suddenly realized that his life was going nowhere. He wrote the script of Dev D and made the film. It turned out to be a big success – audiences loved it and songs like Emosanal atyachaar became big hits.
Post the success of Dev D, life has changed completely for Anurag. (It also helps that he fell in love during the making of the film). He says he’s happy, and he’s learning to be a better man (he’s even apologizing to people he had slammed in the past — like Karan Johar).
In Nagesh’s case, he had made many highly rated films — like Hyderabad Blues, Dor and Iqbaal, to name just three — before Tasveer. And since he’s quite prolific, I don’t think the lack of commercial success hampered his ability to get projects. But yes, what must have rankled was being branded as a small, arthouse kind of director. The desire to get into the big league, to direct big stars, to taste big box office success seems to have been there all along. Otherwise, why direct an A-list commercial star like Akshay Kumar?
The truth is that most directors and actors crave for the kind of 70mm success that can only come with the audience’s love and appreciation.
No one’s life ever got into a crisis because critics didn’t like his film and audiences loved it. But when audiences reject a film, the filmmaker’s world can spin out of control. After the failure of Mera Naam Joker, Raj Kapoor was almost finished. Only the mega success of Bobby saved him.
It isn’t only about money. Of course, if you’re a producer and your film flops, you will be hit financially. If you’re an actor and your film flops, it’s likely to affect your market price. Ditto for a director.
But more than the monetary loss, it’s the loss of confidence and the feelings of rejection and failure that are the hardest to take.
Yes, there are some filmmakers who say they don’t care about the box office. They are happy to make films they believe in, send them off to various film festivals where they will (hopefully) win awards. And I think it’s a good thing that they’re around because you need all kinds of voices in the creative space. But when their films release in theatres, they’re as excited as their more commercial brethren if the films do well.
Show me one filmmaker/actor/director who says he or she doesn’t care about how his or her film does at the box office and I’ll show you a liar.
0 comments:
Post a Comment