R Balki, the National Award-winning director behind films like ‘Paa’, ‘Pad Man’, and ‘Cheeni Kum’, recently shared his unfiltered thoughts on the state of Indian cinema during a fireside chat at MIT World Peace University in Pune.
The session, titled ‘What on Earth Is Wrong with Advertising and Cinema’, saw the filmmaker delve into what he feels has gone wrong with recent blockbuster films.
R Balki didn’t mince words, describing many of the biggest hits of the past few years as not only lacking intellectual depth but also failing to deliver the classic “masala” entertainment that once defined Indian cinema.
“Few blockbusters that have happened in the last four or five years, or whatever, have actually been the worst films,” he said. “Not only from an intellectual or artistic point of view but also from the old entertainment, ‘masala, paisa vasool’ kind of a feel. Also, they’re damn boring.”
Reflecting on the golden era of Manmohan Desai, Balki drew a stark contrast between today’s big-budget films and classics like ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ and ‘Naseeb’. He fondly recalled the sheer joy of watching Desai’s movies during a retrospective of Amitabh Bachchan’s work.
“There was so much fun! The fun has completely gone from our blockbusters,” he lamented, emphasizing how the sense of enjoyment in storytelling seems to have faded over time.
The filmmaker attributed this shift partly to the commercialized nature of filmmaking today. He explained how movies have turned into “projects,” where marketing often overshadows content.
“It’s become like a project. There’s an economics associated with that stuff. They want to recover this, they’re putting this money, they’re pumping the marketing out. It’s marketing, basically. It’s just driving people towards believing something is good. By the time people believe it’s bad, the film has made its money.”
R Balki also delved into audience psychology, observing how viewers often hesitate to criticize films they’ve paid to watch. “Sometimes people don’t want to believe it’s bad. People don’t want to go to a film and curse it. They want to find one or two good things to like about the movie. If they like one or two good things about a star, they’ll say, ‘Time pass.’ Because you will never pay 500 bucks and curse yourself. You will want to say, ‘I was not that foolish. Oh, it was… it was fun. It was a little bit fun.’”
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He further explored why cinema itself seems to be losing its hold on audiences. According to him, the abundance of content available today has diluted the once-special experience of watching films.
“The interest that there was in cinema is not there anymore. It’s not the same kind of interest. Just because you find one or two films that are kind of working, or people are going to them during festival time, doesn’t mean things are the same. There’s just too much content, and people have so much more to devour.”
Balki observed that even the act of watching a movie has shifted. With platforms like Netflix, many people spend more time browsing than actually watching. “Most people’s entertainment is actually not watching a film. They go to Netflix or something just to scan, just to kind of surf and see what’s available. The movie itself has become an experience, not so much about actually watching the film. If you don’t like it within ten minutes, you switch off. You’re not committed to a film or somebody’s work—you just move on.”
As the session drew to a close, Balki turned to aspiring filmmakers in the audience with a piece of advice. He encouraged them to keep experimenting and surprising themselves. “Keep writing and thinking of ideas you feel have not been explored before. Craft stories that surprise you,” he said.