Why make Commercial Movies Only When most of Them Fail?
A Blog Post
Almost 95% Indian films are decadent, completely detached from reality, and
meant to titillate the senses and stir our emotions rather than appeal to our
intelligence and values. It is painful to watch them for two or three hours at a
stretch and the characters which are created to represent specific stereotypes.
You cannot miss the undertones of racism, regionalism, double meanings, ideological bias and
gender discrimination in their themes, dialogues and story lines.
Some do argue, and justifiably so, that Indian films are made with commercial
interest because the film producers, distributors and theater owners need to
recover their investments. Besides most film goers who take the pain to go to
theaters to watch movies are such that they have neither time nor money to enjoy
films purely for their artistic values. They need relaxation and an escape, and
the commercial films provide them with that. Therefore, no one should entertain
the illusion of transforming society or people’s personal tastes through movie
making.
It is true that film making is a commercial effort and the livelihood of many
people depend upon it. A senior actor recently commented that Indian film making
has become a money-making effort. However, this argument does not make sense,
when you consider that almost 90% of the commercial movies that are made in
India do not make any profit. Out of the thousands of movies made in different
languages, only a few become box-office hits. The rest retired from theatres
within a few days and sold to television channels for a loss.
Therefore, it makes no sense why people keep making hundreds of films with
trite themes and profit motive when their fate is almost predictable. Rationally
speaking, going by the success rate, commercial films have almost the same
chance of succeeding as art films or films which are made with good story lines
and artistic values. Hence, it is a mystery that most film makers fall into the
same trap and keep making low quality commercial movies.
The industry would be better off if instead of focusing upon formula films,
they focus upon making quality movies with limited budget and good story lines,
keeping the educated middle-class audience in mind. Good movies can be made with
limited budget as in the west with local actors since there is no dearth of
acting talent in the country.
The success and failure ratio may be the same, but there will be the
satisfaction that a good film has been made and artistic values have not been
compromised. Besides, it may gradually bring a positive change in the perception
and preferences of the audience and pave way for better films and a better
future for the industry.