Eminent Bollywood director and ad-film maker, R Balki, on Saturday expressed deep concerns over the declining quality of cinema and the increasing threats to the industry. The director who was here in the city to deliver the Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture at the ongoing 30th Kolkata International Film Festival, said that many recent blockbusters, despite their commercial success, lack substance and fail to inspire genuine love for cinema.

“To me the biggest danger for cinema are the films that do well ~ the blockbusters. Some of the hits we see in the last few years, apart from a few, some of the real blockbusters, most of them are garbage. The audience come in due to the marketing hype and the amount of pumping to bring people into the theatres, and then they (audiences) go out having watched a film, but do move out with more love for cinema. They are not eager to watch another film.

There are four or five films that are making a lot of money but they are not making much sense in terms of bringing people to the theatres,” said the director. Elaborating on the subject, the maker of the film Cheeni Kum, said: “Reels are the biggest competition to cinema. Mobiles, what is called distraction, is the biggest threat to cinema. Today because the mediums have changed and there is so much content, it is difficult to decide which one to watch.” The director pointed out, even though there is surplus of content, there is no great enthusiasm for watching in the millions of things hitting the platforms. He added: “The marketing myth is another thing that is a disease created by the industry that’s not even aware that its product is dying ~ which is cinema.

There is a subconscious feeling in most filmmakers that cinema is in danger. It’s almost like survival of the fittest and lets make the buck really fast. In the process everything has been corrupted. From the media, to the publicity to the persona, everything is being bartered.” The director also regretted that today’s films are not improving the climate of cinema. “People in cinema are killing it by falsifying hopes and by lying about things. Whether it’s good or bad, it’s kind of popped into the sky.

It’s just money talking in the cinema. Today we all talk of climate change. When we talk of any business today in the country, whether it is making soap or anything else, every company’s CEO is responsible for climate change. You have to be sustainable. Why is cinema any different? Isn’t cinema also responsible for the climate of cinema and it needs to be preserved? Our climate is cinema.

But our cinema is not improving our climate. So the cinema is suffocating.” The director also felt that the onset of AI as another threat to cinema, pointing out that the efforts put into the process of filmmaking which is now appreciated by people would be lost. “The awe of cinema would be lost and those kinds of movies would be taken for granted with people thinking how easily such content could be created using AI.

“There are so many things that will have to be addressed by industry bodies to see how we can safeguard our dreams (cinema) as much as we can. If that shatters tomorrow, I think we would need one therapist for every two people in the country. So, a tough time is coming,” he said.