The War, Pathaan, and Fighter director on why big-budget franchises won’t work in India with character actors unlike in Hollywood, why stars need to maintain their enigma, and more…
Edited excerpts:
SRK was away from the screen for a long time before Pathaan. Do you think that giving audiences a chance to miss them is something that stars can do in the future to make audiences anticipate their films a little more?
What has happened today is with the advent of social media penetrating every house and everyone who has a smartphone, you’re seeing them a lot anyway and free of cost. The idea is that you should not see them do what they do on-screen on your phone every day. The novelty will wear off. So what we need to do is cut the social media chatter more than anything else. Just try and come to the screen. I don’t think Tom Cruise does any advertisements or endorsements. The only way to see someone is by paying money. You can see them twice or thrice a year, not see them free doing appearances or dance videos or reels. You retain the sanctity of being a star.
Is a big star necessary for a franchise? Because all the franchises made in India so far have big stars. But when you take something like Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. was an actor who did films like Chaplin and Zodiac. He was not a mainstream hero. But Iron Man turned him into a huge star. Do you think that approach would work here?
Herein lies the difference between Hollywood and our film industry. We can’t put out tentpole films without a big star because primarily the audience comes to see the star first and then the film he is in. We have to accept that first. But in Hollywood, we can make a Jurassic Park with a Sam Neill. You don’t need a Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks in a Jurassic Park which is directed by Steven Spielberg. The hero is the dinosaur or the creature. You can make Jaws with a relatively unknown mainstream actor because the creature is the hero. The environment is. The drama is. We can’t do that. For us, to support the budget of Jurassic Park, we’ll need Aamir, SRK, and Salman to come together.
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