Vivek Agnihotri gives formula for ‘Bollywood’s resurrection’: Less arrogance, less wastage on PR and airport looks…

Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri has weighed in on what ails Bollywood. Over the last one year, the Hindi film industry has been in the doldrums with many big-ticket films failing to find viewers, and crash landing at the box office. Vivek’s own film The Kashmir Files was one of the biggest successes of the year though. On Friday, reacting to the successful National Cinema Day, the filmmaker tweeted about how Bollywood can turn things around. Also read: Vivek Agnihotri questions Aamir Khan’s ‘loyal audience’: Where are they?

The National Cinema Day was observed by theatre chains and cinema halls across India on Friday, September 23. Most theatres reduced the ticket price to flat ₹75. This led to a huge increase in footfalls on the day for all film, leading to Brahmastra earning ₹11 crore on its third Friday and both Chup and Dhoka registering healthy opening. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh shared a housefull board from outside a hall on Twitter.

“The tremendous response on #NationalCinemaDay2022 should act as an eye-opener for Studios / distributors / exhibitors and the film fraternity in general about the importance of *affordable ticket rates,” he wrote alongside. Reacting to this, Vivek gave his ‘simple solution for Bollywood’s resurrection’. He tweeted, “Less price. Less arrogance. Less star fees. Less wastage on PR & airport looks. More research. More content. More Bharat. Simple solution for Bollywood’s resurrection.”

In the past too, Vivek has spoken about where Bollywood has gone wrong. In an interview with Kushal Mehra, the filmmaker referred to Ranveer Singh’s Jayeshbhai Jordaar, which failed at the box office earlier this year. He had said, “Ranveer Singh, the so called number 1 star. People don’t get tired praising him. His film Jayeshbhai Jordaar, which was on female foeticide about how people should not kill girls. What a wonderful subject but then how were they promoting the film? Ranveer went shirtless and was dancing with 25 girls during the promotions. He was like just dancing with 25 sexy and glamourous girls. Nobody knew that the film was about female foeticide. It’s not a fashion show or some comedy film. Why would people go and see that?”

Vivek’s The Kashmir Files made over ₹350 crore globally despite the absence of any big star and made on a budget of only ₹15 crore. The film went on to break many box office records and was, for a while, the highest-grossing Hindi film of 2022. It was recently dethroned from that spot by Brahmastra.