Bollywood needs audiences, not fans!

Indian Film Industry is one of the largest cinema industries in the world. However, many films which do not need the glory as their content is mediocre end up raking in crores at the box office due the blind fan following. And small movies with good narrative are getting killed in the process. It’s high time that we should watch content-driven movies rather than watching mediocre films

Sometimes the greatest enemy of a child is a doting parent. So blind in love and affection they ensure the child grows up wrong. Sometimes to the extent of being an individual who just cannot see his own faults and rectify himself. Bollywood, today, is facing the same problem. Our film stars have fans.

Now per se, there is nothing wrong with having fans. There is absolutely nothing wrong in being a fan either. But as a latest Bollywood movie, which tanked at the box office showed us; blindly obsessed fans bring damage to both the star and the art of movie making.

Let us first talk about the advantages that fans bring to the table. Sometimes they ensure that by their blind adulation the star grows as a capable performer. Akshay Kumar is the biggest example; look at his acting and presentation skills today to 1991. He would not have grown in confidence and calibre had not the fans stood by him. Fans also bring commercial viability to a movie project by ensuring an initial collection.

Today, however, the fans have started becoming a roadblock in the growth of real creative cinema. Absolute mediocre content movies which are raking in crores because a blind fan prefers to watch a total drag movie like ‘Fan’ over a much better creative product called ‘Nil Battey Sannatta’. The latter deserved much better box office numbers but blind fans of a reigning superstar ensured that both went down at the box office.

Try doing an opinion poll today on social media where you ask simple questions like which is a better movie in terms of content, which yours truly has done as these lines are being written, and the opinion poll gets hijacked by fan groups, who will blindly vote for their star’s movie.

Today, Bollywood needs audiences, not fans. Audiences, who will choose better movies over bigger stars. Those who prefer to clap and praise better performances and not established Khans or Kumars. Thankfully all is not lost.

There are two examples, one in the recent past, one unfolding right now, where a movie with better content is doing well suddenly. ‘Kaabil’, which started slow but ended up racing ahead purely on word of mouth from objective audiences.

The bigger example is ‘The Ghazi Attack’, a movie which has the most unbankable and unreliable star cast in terms of box office has been doubling its numbers every passing day purely on word of mouth adulation from the discerning audiences. This is what Bollywood needs. However, hard we try to convince ourselves the ‘Housefull 3s’ and the ‘Golmaal 2s’ do not really add much value to Bollywood.

When an audience supports a ‘Paan Singh Tomar’ or a ‘Bheja Fry’ that is when true creativity is actually winning. This is when we also get some of our more bankable actors like a Vinay Pathak or an Irrfan Khan.

Otherwise, ask yourself – how many new actors in recent past have a Yashraj Films or a Karan Johar movie delivered to us? These two banners and many others work on big movie engines, which again derive their success from blind fan support.

It needs to be repeated here that there is nothing wrong with being fans as fans bring stability, which the business of show like cinema needs. Yet, when movies bomb and themes of presentations bring boredom it is the audiences amongst the fans who rise to the rescue by ensuring that a ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ becomes a cult film.

Make no mistake but it was probably the small town theme of these movies, which made the bigger banners look into and create small town theme based movies like ‘Dabangg’ and ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ series. Kanpur was otherwise becoming a forgotten city.

Fans have also contributed to our award functions becoming more exhibitions and lesser institutions, whose awards are worth having in your cupboard. For example, in a recently concluded award function, two or three of our biggest 2016 hits were shut out.

The obsessed fans ensured the award function still got its TRP and eyeballs because their superstar was the anchor.

So it won the battle of TRP despite being one of the most boring drag awards of the year. That is why Bollywood needs balanced unbiased audiences, not fans.