Filmmaker Hansal Mehta, who has been in the industry for over three decades, feels that Bollywood is currently going through a transition phase where it is fighting virtual hate, but there is nothing he can do to come out stronger. The Hindi film industry with films by big stars, from Aamir Khan, Ranbir Kapoor to Akshay Kumar, has been a constant target of hate on social media, thanks to the “Boycott Bollywood” trend.
Concern among industry insiders is that the anti-Bollywood wave will spill over from the screen and eventually stop filmmakers from telling the stories they want. Commenting on the anti-Bollywood sentiment, Hansal Mehta in a conversation with indianexpress.com said, “It’s disturbing to say the least. The kind of stuff that gets written on social media, some of it is written on the sly.” with the support of some of our own colleagues. It’s disturbing, but I also think a lot of it is also social media, which is very much made up.
The filmmaker, who has been outspoken about the impact of the country’s politics on the Hindi film industry, says there is no denying that a good film will attract attention. As he has witnessed this year, Brahmastra, which launched amid mass protests on social media, was a hit.
He says that hate is not a big problem for the industry. He said that from the 1990s to the 2000s, the industry has often been the target of hate. Gulshan Kumar was shot dead in the 1990s, followed by the 2000s when film financier Bharat Shah was arrested for his alleged underworld ties.
Hansal said: “What’s going on in this fun, this madness, our fear is that we can tell our stories the way we want, make movies the way we want. This is a transit period; We’ll get out of this. It is a flexible industry.
He said: “The important thing is not to lose sight of our main job: telling stories, regardless of the contrary point of view. Whether your film is pure propaganda, or you are completely against that propaganda, which we are.” being fed. I think in our quest to meet a certain agenda, we’ve forgotten that we’re actually making movies for the audience.”
Expanding on his mention of the word “agenda,” Mehta says, “Sociocultural agenda… I hear people say that movies that are deeply rooted in our social and cultural identity… in every way We should make movies with roots , we should make films that reflect us socially and culturally and are not afraid.