CBFC Chief Prasoon Joshi says Bollywood needs to stop playing the victim and step out of the 'self-congratulatory' bubble

Bollywood is stuck in a rut post the pandemic with hardly any films making the audience curious enough to rush to the theatres. The slow sales at the ticket windows have been a major alarm for many filmmakers who are now treading cautiously with the finished projects and has also become a big reason for collaborators to sit back and introspect on the kind of cinema that is bringing people to the theatres.

Amidst Bollywood struggling to get the audience back to cinemas despite some big ticket releases, Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) Chairman Prasoon Joshi during an event said that the industry has lost touch with its roots. Speaking at an event organised by Aaj Tak, Prasoon Joshi said that the film industry used to take inspiration from literature and mythology but has now cut off and gone into a bubble.

“At some point, Bollywood became self-congratulatory and went into a bubble. There are mainly only people from Mumbai here. Many have never seen a farmer in real life. But then they try to show farmers in films. They are cut off from their roots. There is a need to do some introspection. It needs to do away with the victim mindset", the lyricist said at the event.

While 2022 has seen some ground breaking cinema that exceeded expectations at the box office in India, Bollywood has been sitting in the side-lines and watching these mega hits like RRR, K.G.F Chapter 2, Kantara shake the world.

The year has been disastrous for big ticket Bollywood films like Laal Singh Chaddha, Shamshera, Samrat Prithviraj, Liger among several others.

Recently at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2022, Akshay Kumar after seeing a string of flops this year, also echoed similar sentiments as he spoke about Bollywood’s need to reinvent by paying closer attention to the preferences of the audience.

At the event, Akshay said, “Things have changed. The audience wants something different. It is our fault that they’re not coming to the theatres. We have to give them something they want. We have to dismantle and rebuild, reinvent everything. We have to start all over again.”

The actor had also added that everyone from exhibitors, filmmakers to actors needs to introspect and make the cinema going experience wholesome again for the audience.