S.S. Rajamouli has made India proud once again after winning the Best Original Song and Best Foreign Language Film at the 28th Critics’ Choice Awards. He dedicated the honour to all the women in his life and said ‘Mera Bharat Mahan’ during his acceptance speech.

The Critics’ Choice Award win comes right after creating headlines at the 80th Golden Globes. His film ‘RRR’ was Best Foreign Language Film and its track ‘Naatu Naatu’ once again clinched the Best Original Song honour.

While accepting the honour, Rajamouli said: “To all the women in my life. My mother Raja Nandini thought school education was overrated and she encouraged me to read comics and story books and encouraged my creativity.”

“My sister-in-law Srivalli who became like a mother to me always encourages me to be the best version of me.”

He also spoke about his wife Rama, who is a costume designer for Rajamouli’s films.

“My wife Rama… she’s the costume designer of my films but more than that she is the designer of my life. If she’s not here I am not here today. To my daughters, their smiles are enough to light my life up.”

Before signing out, he gave a shout out to his motherland.

“And finally to my motherland India, Mera Bharat Mahan – Jai hind.”

‘RRR’ stars NTR Jr., Ram Charan, Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt and Shriya Saran and tells the fictional story of two real-life Indian revolutionaries, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem and their fight against the British Raj.

Set in the 1920s, the plot explores the undocumented period in their lives when both the revolutionaries chose to go into obscurity before they began the fight for their country.

S.S. Rajamouli, the maker of the latest international hit, ‘RRR’, says that costs charged by stars and directors caused this sorry state of affairs where the Hindi film industry is in the doldrums. The stars took the credit when a film succeeded and went on to increase their remuneration.

It is a myth that a star makes a film work. At best, a star, if popular, can only help bring in the initial footfalls. The rest depends totally on other factors, notably the content, which counts the most.

It is a fact that content makes a star out of any actor. Rajesh Khanna, for example, was created post-‘Aradhana’. As for Amitabh Bachchan, he struggled from 1969 onwards when his debut film, ‘Saat Hindustani’, was released. It was only in 1973 that ‘Zanjeer’ turned into a superstar. Earlier, a producer would go for the talent of an actor. Otherwise, actors such as Sanjeev Kumar, Rishi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Govinda, Amol Palekar, and other such performers would not have carried their films to silver or golden jubilees.

Rajamouli should know that star prices follow the same economic formula: the demand. It is not limited to Hindi movies. Star prices, along with cinema admission rates, have also been a big concern in the South Indian film industries and to address the issue, the trade bodies there had also passed certain resolutions to convince the stars to be more reasonable.

It is illogical but when it comes to big-time, successful filmmakers, stars are more reasonable, but they fleece an aspiring producer till he bleeds.

How did filmmaking turn into a multi-crore investment business suddenly? It was thanks to big corporate houses that suddenly saw the film industry as a mint! Or, did they think they knew the business better than the freelance filmmakers did?

Sadly, these corporate houses knew nothing about filmmaking. All they had was money. Traditionally, a star’s remuneration would be equal to the price of one major circuit (Bombay and Delhi-UP being counted as the major circuits), but no such formula was followed when corporate houses came into the picture.

The big companies never asked who the writer was or found out about the main technicians involved in a film. They backed what the film trade calls ‘proposals’. Only the stars mattered, so even as the stars made money, the corporate moneybags lost money big time. And while these moneybags deserted the scene, the stars stuck to their impractical demands.

Rajamouli is right about star prices, but he also prefers to work only with stars. Would he have risked working with newcomers in ‘RRR’ instead of NTR Jr and Ram Charan? He had a great subject, after all, and he is also proficient at executing his projects. So why not new faces? Simple, stars draw the initial audience and with big budgets and widespread releases, the first few days matter the most.

Maybe, the two heroes of ‘RRR’ were more reasonable with Rajamouli, considering his track record, but some other producer is certainly going to pay big money to them after the super success of ‘RRR’.

Mr Know All!

Social media has nurtured many attention seekers, and those who have not amounted to much in their chosen field, swarm social media platforms. Those who vent their frustrations here are either those who have gained unexpected success, or, mainly, those who are rejected, failures.

They do it to stay relevant, to stay in the news. All they have been able to do is make social media anti-social.

They are identified with the film industry and are not known to be proficient in other fields. But they know what the government should do, what the prime minister should do, and what the other filmmakers should do. Imagine, this coming from the industry rejects!

The problem is not with social media, they also serve the purpose of those who have no agenda or frustration to vent. The problem lies with the media. Any comment by these irrelevant people becomes newsworthy to them.

This know-all nonentity has aired his observation that when one emulates a South Indian dubbed film such as ‘KGF 2’, which succeeded all over India, you are heading towards a disaster.

Now, why would a Hindi filmmaker want to emulate a certain film? Hindi filmmakers don’t emulate, they simply copy. Copying officially is called a remake. They have copied a lot many foreign films. When a successful film starts a trend, others do try to follow it.

A trend does work for a time. Till another trend is set.

A lot many Hindi films were big hits. Has anybody tried to emulate ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ or ‘Mother India’? Nobody tried to emulate ‘Sholay’, ‘Deewaar’ or ‘Zanjeer’! Yes, it became a to cast Rajesh Khanna in mainly romantic films, even as Amitabh Bachchan carried on with his angry hero image. That is called following a trend.

The same man also has a grouse against Vivek Agnihotri, claiming that the maker’s research for ‘The Kashmir Files’ was not complete! Fine, but while you are at it, are you capable of pointing out what exactly was missing or, what more was needed in the film’s research?

‘The Kashmir Files’ was not an entertainer as genres go, Yet, the film was a huge hit and the best Hindi film of the year, collections-wise. One thing every filmmaker knows is that you can’t prove your audience wrong. ‘The Kashmir Files’ was lapped up by cinegoers and Rs 245 crore that the film managed to collect at the box office vouches for that.

If your films had an audience, you would know that. You tried to emulate your ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’ with a sequel, did it work? It did not and that’s why makers don’t emulate a successful film, they follow a trend.

When it comes to ‘The Tashkent Files’ or ‘The Kashmir Files’, neither you, nor any other maker can emulate it. And the same goes for the South Indian blockbusters.

This guy posts his unasked-for comments, observations and advice, and opinions just to gain some publicity. So, I have decided not to name him.

What trend have you been able to set?

Comment on politics and other social issues, but it is not ethical to pass judgments on other makers and their films. Especially when one of them made a huge hit that you need to emulate!

RRR happened to be the biggest motion picture that released this year. The makers made huge profits despite of the delay in the release and the heaped-up budget. RRR has been streaming on Netflix for the international audience and the South Indian version is available on Zee5. All the digital streaming platforms competed for the digital rights of the film. The initial deals are sealed for Netflix and Zee5. The makers also sold off the South Indian digital rights for Disney Plus Hotstar.

RRR is now streaming on Disney Plus Hotstar from today in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam languages. After the digital platform approached SS Rajamouli, he sealed the deal for a later date. The digital platform also paid a big amount for the streaming. RRR is the first Indian film that is available on three digital streaming platforms. Considering the craze, SS Rajamouli closed multiple deals and pocketed big money by selling off the rights for three streaming platforms. RRR is also the first Indian film that is available in various international languages on Netflix.

Two developments have caught my attention. One is the decision by the Multiplex Association of India (MAI) that, starting on August 1, all films should adhere to at least an eight-week gap between their theatrical and OTT releases. Presently, the gap between the two releases of a film is four weeks. If the industry, as in filmmakers as well as the exhibitors, think this will help film’s to perform better at the box office, it is debatable.

The other development that said a lot about the way the Hindi film industry functions and makes films, was the statement by S.S. Rajamouli, whose recent Telugu release, ‘RRR’, has proved to be among the biggest blockbusters in recent times. Its dubbed Hindi release has been a big hit too. Rajamouli pinned the decline of the Hindi industry on the failure of the Hindi filmmakers to make films for the masses.

The issue is, will delaying the OTT release create some miracle and help films run at cinemas? Will that prove Rajamouli wrong? Most of all, will it prove the masses, who refuse to turn up in hordes at the cinemas, wrong? And what makes the industry believe that people don’t come to the cinemas because they watch films on OTT!

The fact is, people don’t watch bad films, even on OTT. To confirm that, all one needs to do is check their preferences on social media. Bad films are not watched and, hence, not even discussed. People discuss what they watch, obviously.

If you go by Rajamouli’s observations, this has nothing to do with OTT. It is just that the films made nowadays don’t interest and, hence, attract people to the cinemas. If a film fails to draw crowds on Day One, the opening weekend or otherwise, you cannot blame it on OTT.

Whose decision is it to release a film on OTT eight weeks after its theatrical release, instead of the present gap of four weeks? If it is being advocated by the exhibition sector, they seem to forget that they were in such a desperate situation that during the Covid-19 tapering phase, cinemas in the West were even game to release films simultaneously with OTT platforms, or vice versa.

The purpose of OTT platforms is served if a film is released in cinemas and, as such, gets its promotion and public awareness. An eight-week gap is hardly of any relevance to them. And, finally, do the filmmakers want it that way? I don’t think so. They stopped making films that held their own for eight weeks at the cinema. Sooner it goes to an OTT platform, and a film gets committed to, sooner the encashment of the rights happens.

During the 1980s, when video piracy was a big menace for the box office, films still did very well in cinemas, celebrated jubilees. The reason was that the films had what the masses wanted. In fact, often, after watching a pirated video, people would want to watch it on the big screen. And, all this when the pirated video copies were released simultaneously with films hitting the big screens on a Friday.

The problem is not OTT, or that the people don’t come to the cinemas because they would rather wait it out for a month. Lately, most films are poor in content and do not have the ingredients that bring the audience to the cinema. Even the big-star films have been failing one after the other. They lose traction by the Monday after the weekend in which they are released.

Come to think of it, which recent film has continued to play in cinemas in its eighth week? Just one comes to mind, and that is ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’, which is still running at a few cinemas, though it was released on an OTT platform after a four-week run.

The way a film is released now, in hundreds of cinemas with multiple screenings per day, if it has to do well, it will show the indications from Day One and generate a few hundred crores within three to four weeks. All big films have proved that. The South dubbed films continue to do so even as Hindi films fall short.

The problem is that the big stars are all delivering one flop after another. But they continue to stick around, instead of taking a break, like a lot many other stars did before coming back to play varied and sometimes big roles. Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty, Jackie Shroff, Anil Kapoor, the late Rishi Kapoor — they all took a break when age went against their image.

When was the last hit from Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan or Akshay Kumar? Not one in the last few years at least and that is a long time. The recovery target for their films is extremely high. The difference between a hit and a flop is its recovery in relation to its outlay. And the films of these stars over the past few years have been falling far short of recovery.

Hindi historical dramas such as ‘Padmavat’, ‘Bajirao Mastani’, ‘Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior’, ‘Samrat Prithviraj’ and ‘Panipat’ were all made on known historical figures, but could not create the required magic at the box office. Compared to these films, Rajamouli’s ‘RRR’ is based on the lives of local freedom fighters about whom we knew nothing in the Hindi belt. The film, however, ruled the box office here as well as in the South.

It is all about the complete package a maker presents — an idea with which the Hindi makers seem to have become estranged.

From what one gathers, if a film does not make its mark at the box office, not many people are keen to watch it on OTT either, even after four weeks. By the ninth week, it will be out of people’s memory. And so much else would have happened in the meanwhile. This way, both stand to lose: the cinemas and the OTT investor.

It is all about making good films. That alone will interest people. We can’t expect a film to do well just because it stars so and so and has cost a lot of money. If you are complaining about South Indian films doing well, collecting crores in the Hindi belt, it is because you have created a vacuum and somebody has to fill it.

The irony of it is that even you know South Indian films are good and that is why you choose to remake them, instead of working on original ideas on your own. The thing is, success does not come on a platter!

Coming back to Rajamouli’s observation that the Hindi industry has stopped making films for masses, let me point out that we don’t have masses coming to the cinemas anymore. Not with the exorbitant admission rates and certainly not since the single screens started vanishing one by one. The South has retained its mass base and, when their films come to Hindi belt in the dubbed version, they come with the endorsement of the masses of the South.

Does Rajamouli have the right to comment on the Hindi film industry? If a man who has been instrumental in making some of the biggest blockbusters in the South, he certainly qualifies to do so.