The writer-director on handling film criticism and his interesting way of cutting trailers in a roundtable discussion held by Galatta Plus
Edited excerpts:
Sandeep, you divide people right down the middle. People either love your films or you find people on the other side of the spectrum. How do you deal with this polarization?
Most of the time, I read the negative comments too, and then switch back to the positive comments and feel good about myself. For Kabir Singh, it was very attacking. I didn’t expect that. Arjun Reddy was never criticized the way Kabir Singh was. Now I’m used to it. I’m happy that now more people are loving it. Even though I see it as a very small percentage, the number has increased now, compared to Kabir Singh. How do I deal with the negative comments? I ignore. I try to forget, and I see the good side of it. If it’s constructive criticism, I take it seriously. If it’s in a mocking tone, then I know why.
This may sound like a strange question, but does the huge box office success help offset some of the criticism? Or are those separate things?
They’re totally different. I think I should ignore the wrong criticism. E.g., misogyny. There’s no misogyny in Kabir Singh or Animal. I mean, the Abrar Haque character in Animal is misogynistic; nobody talks about him. People talk about Ranvijay Singh as a misogynistic and hypermasculine character. I feel that has to go with Bobby Deol’s character. But he isn’t mentioned. I find it funny. I don’t take those people seriously.
I want to ask you about the trailers of your films. They are very unique. Most trailers try to tell a story; they put snapshots from the movie. I think you try to see an emotion. You actually put scenes. Can you take us through the process of putting together the Animal trailer?
I always wanted to do a trailer that gives one side of the story, not the entire story. And I never liked giving those small intercuts. I thought opening the trailer with a conflict would be interesting. When I started opening the topic of the father and son, I figured out it was holding my attention. So I left that particular opening for 40 seconds, the scene was still running and it was still interesting. Then, I tried to think of the next shot. I didn’t have a template. Eventually, I built it up. Even in Arjun Reddy, I used ‘After a few years’. It is very compelling when you see it like an outsider.
