Filmmaker Zoya Akthar might have come up with a short movie “Bombay Talkies” but is not hopeful about its success. The 25 minute movie is a collection of four short movies and traces the history of Indian Cinema.
Zoya better known for her direction in Bollywood movies as “Luck by Chance” and “Zindagi na Milegi Dobara” has teamed up with Anurag Kashyap, Karan Johar and Dibanker Banerjee to bring a collection of four short stories. Zoya however is sceptical about the success of her movie commercially as Indian audience is averse to any concept of short movies and the director expects the movie to fall flat, even before it is released. However with the option of internet and film festivals available, Zoya is hopeful that she would be able to reach out to the learned audience which appreciates quality and has an understanding of Indian cinema.
She however expressed her happiness that the short movie has given her the opportunity to team up with best directors in Bollywood and she hopes that she will learn a lot from them. She admits that she is the least experienced director of the lot and will hopefully have to lot to grasp from the talented bunch of directors who are working alongside.
The movie has a budget of 1.5 crores and Zoya has even managed to rope in Katrina Kaif. Zoya was also thankful to her production house, Excel Entertainment which gave her the free hand to experiment, until the time she kept within the budget.
Zoya expressed her satisfaction that she had a great budget for a short movie. Katrina too did rope in and did not charge Zoya for the movie. Perhaps Zoya hints that this is Katrina’s way of contributing to her cause. Zoya Akthar, daughter of the gifted writer Javed Akthar finds solace in experimenting and trudging a different path. She said that she could not understand the obsession of the Indian Film industry with the Rs 100 crores mark that all of them wish to accomplish.
She said that perhaps it is amusing enough that when a movie makes 100 crores, this too makes news. Perhaps India is the only country in the world where the news of a movie making 100 crores too makes news. She pointed out that it was interesting as to how the film producers link this to the audience.
The press too has to play its part and should focus on the creative credentials of the movie not focusing too much on the financial aspects of the movie. Film critics too have a role in this regard. They also need to write on conventional topics and motivate the audience to watch creative cinema, instead of running after commercial movies only. Until the time, audience learns to appreciate the conventional cinema, the true worth of an actor cannot be realized and they will be motivated only to come up with commercial movies that have little worth in literary world.
