I was watching an interview with Mr. Arshad Warsi on TV. He said that despite Indian cinema doing the hard work it is not getting the recognition it deserves.
Indian cinema has operations of a global scale. More movies are made even in regional languages than perhaps in Hollywood. Yet Indian cinema has not become a global powerhouse. Why ? The answer to this came recently when I watched a movie of Arshad Warsi.
The reviews of the movie and the feedback of the fans on Arshad Warsi's twitter handle made me think I am living in two different planets. The fans loved it, the theatre was in splits but the reviews said something else. The review measured how good an idli was a cup of filter coffee. The movie was reviewed as though it was from some other genre. If you review a comedy as a method film, what would one expect ?
Who is the villain of the piece here ? Payola - (see FCC website) i.e, paying journalists to get a good review of their product. Payola is not a violation anymore. It is the business model of the big stars and business houses.
Further more, there is a dharma in indulging in unfair practices too. The big houses can get a good review for themselves and let an honest review be done for other films. I found that is not possible, The big houses insist on good review for themselves and trashing other films.
So small well made movies have very low real chance of making it unless
The domestic market is rigged and hence not competitive. So innovation and creativity is being stifled. Few production houses, stars and TV and print journalists are holding the future of lakhs of cinema industry workers to ransom.
So I say, Payola is the leading villain of the Indian Cinema industry.
Are there any solutions ? Yes. We have reached the climax scene and in this movie you the movie-goer and movie loving Aam fan is the hero. If you indeed find that the hype of the leading houses and actors too much and the reviews of movies do not match with your assessments, please consciously stop using these sources of information.
Use other sources of information such as Twitter handle of the stars, hashtags of the movies, friends who have watched the movie and whose taste matches yours.
If we fix this problem, there is an opportunity to create multi-billion dollar export industry from this.
I request the Competition Commission of India to treat this as a little birds whisper and take this matter up suo-moto.
Indian cinema has operations of a global scale. More movies are made even in regional languages than perhaps in Hollywood. Yet Indian cinema has not become a global powerhouse. Why ? The answer to this came recently when I watched a movie of Arshad Warsi.
The reviews of the movie and the feedback of the fans on Arshad Warsi's twitter handle made me think I am living in two different planets. The fans loved it, the theatre was in splits but the reviews said something else. The review measured how good an idli was a cup of filter coffee. The movie was reviewed as though it was from some other genre. If you review a comedy as a method film, what would one expect ?
Who is the villain of the piece here ? Payola - (see FCC website) i.e, paying journalists to get a good review of their product. Payola is not a violation anymore. It is the business model of the big stars and business houses.
Further more, there is a dharma in indulging in unfair practices too. The big houses can get a good review for themselves and let an honest review be done for other films. I found that is not possible, The big houses insist on good review for themselves and trashing other films.
So small well made movies have very low real chance of making it unless
The domestic market is rigged and hence not competitive. So innovation and creativity is being stifled. Few production houses, stars and TV and print journalists are holding the future of lakhs of cinema industry workers to ransom.
So I say, Payola is the leading villain of the Indian Cinema industry.
Are there any solutions ? Yes. We have reached the climax scene and in this movie you the movie-goer and movie loving Aam fan is the hero. If you indeed find that the hype of the leading houses and actors too much and the reviews of movies do not match with your assessments, please consciously stop using these sources of information.
Use other sources of information such as Twitter handle of the stars, hashtags of the movies, friends who have watched the movie and whose taste matches yours.
If we fix this problem, there is an opportunity to create multi-billion dollar export industry from this.
I request the Competition Commission of India to treat this as a little birds whisper and take this matter up suo-moto.
I am not qualified to comment. I have rediscovered Hindi and English films just during the last few months as I was preoccupied from 2001 to 2012 with care giving responsibilities. I am catching up buying old films on DVD and also going to new ones in theaters. Arshad Varsi is a good actor and I have seen him in a few the latest for me being Ishqiya. I have no opinion on the Payola phenomenon and in any case I don't read reviews.
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