New Delhi: The third post-lunch session at the ABP News Ideas of India was a conversation under topic: "NEW RULES OF THE GAME" - The Rise of the South: Lessons for Bollywood. To share ideas on the same was filmmaker Karan Johar who openly talked about the shortcomings of the Hindi film industry, the emergence and popularity of film industries from South India and the need for an inclusive digital OTT platforms and theatres for storytelling.


‘Indian Film Industry’ Instead Of Bollywood


In conversation with columnist Mayank Shekahr, acknowledging the prominence of regional cinema, Karan Johar said that “we have to call it the Indian film industry and not Bollywood.”


“At one point, Bollywood was and is globally known as a brand but the origin was Hindi film industry but it's no longer that,” Karan said. Referring to movies like RRR, Pushpa and Allu Arjun which registered huge success across the country, the filmmaker said that “it can not be Bollywood or Tollywood” anymore. 


He agreed to the fact that Mumbai lacks filmmakers who have the finesse to reach such a large audience as south Indian movies do. He said that the filmmakers from Hindi film industry, including himself, fall prey to “herd mentality.” 


“All of us in Hindi cinema fall prey to the “herd mentality”. Sometimes we shift the focus from the eye on the ball and tend to see what’s happening around. If you see biopics doing well, suddenly everyone will start making bopics. If small town movies with social message are doing well, everyone starts doing that. I did it myself. I did not create many paths but followed trends,” he said. 


“From the south, they know what they are doing and follow their path. They do not see what Hollywood or we are doing, they are doing their thing. We have a lot to catch up with,” he added. 


Another factor that he talked about Telugu doing better than films from Hindi film industry is that Telugu films did not change their syntax as Hindi films did. 


In the 70's Amitabh Bacchan was positioned as the “hero” but the narrative changed in the 1990’s with Shah Rukh Khan doing romance on screen, which again changed with movies like Lagaan and Dil Chahta hai in early 2000s. 


“But Telugu movies held on to their hero and that is why it is celebrated in the way it is,” Karan said.


On OTT And Theatrical Release 


Mayank Shekahr asked an interesting question to the filmmaker during the discussion that some of the biggest producers in the city really turned into vendors for OTT platforms to which Karan Johar did not agree. 


He said that theatrical releases are still being made and that release of films like Shershaah on the OTT platform  was made because of the pandemic and theatre were not available in full capacity. “There are expenses, budgets and restraints. Shershaah is better for it was  watched by a massive number of audience,” he said. 


He also said that his production house had released 7-8 content pieces since the release of the film, Gunjan Saxena and said that OTT gives a platform to exhibit an enormous amount of content. 


“I dont have the bandwidth to create my own platform,” the filmmaker confessed.


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ABP Network’s two-day 'Wild Stone presents Ideas of India' Summit brings thought leaders from various fields — culture, sports and cinema to technology, business and politics — talk about the journey of India so far.