Filmmaker Shakun Batra has spoken about why Indian romantic films are not connecting with young viewers these days. While international shows like ‘Off Campus’ and ‘Sterling Point’ have built a strong fan base among Indian youth, Bollywood love stories still struggle to win them over.
Telling a story from the heart
Shakun Batra, who recently showed a complicated romance between two people in their 20s in ‘Lust Stories 3’, spoke to HT City. He said, “I believe that you can’t put yourself into somebody else’s head and think about how they will look at it. If I have a point to say, I’ll put it out, and if I have done my job right, if not today, in a year or two, they will understand and accept it, and that’s what happened to me when I grew up watching movies.”
Why he avoids a work-for-hire approach
The director said filmmakers should present their honest selves. “As directors and storytellers, what you’re doing is putting your most authentic self out, and not figuring out what that person needs to watch. If you’re doing it that way, then you are doing a work-for-hire kind of thing, where you feel that I need to make this person feel good,” he explained, adding why he cannot work that way.Shakun also said, “I need to portray what I am feeling and what I need to express and hope that I’ve done a job of simplifying it enough that somebody else can also receive it.”
Filmmakers must create from what they feel
Talking about why makers fail to reach the younger audience, Shakun said directors need to create from their own feelings. “I’ve been in many of those meetings where they’re like, ‘Ye chal raha hai (this is working).’ But mere se wo nahin ho raha hai (but I cannot do it), and that’s why I’ve had enough breaks in my career. If somebody’s flipping up and down and that’s working, I can’t do it. I’ll just do it so bad, and why put myself through it?” he said.
Bollywood romance far from reality
The filmmaker also feels the way Bollywood has shown romance over the years is another reason for this gap. “You meet this person who is your soulmate, and then life is amazing, but it never is,” he said.According to him, such love stories remain far from real life, which is why they fail to click with audiences, especially the younger generation.
