Shoojit Sircar Says Male Actors Not Ready To Work With Other Heroes: 'Do It In Order To Survive'
'I am appealing to all the actors; if you have to make this industry float, come together,' Shoojit Sircar on what ails Bollywood.
In the current slump of the Hindi film industry, where fewer films are going into production, star fees and entourage costs have shot up, and writers continue to be severely underpaid, can a Piku—which seamlessly brought three stars together for an intimate comedy drama—be made today? Shoojit Sircar says it is "more necessary" to make films like his beloved 2015 feature—provided, actors leave their insecurities and band together.
"I feel it is very important that you make films like Piku; actors will have to come and work together... which isn't happening today," Sircar tells THR India in an interview days before speculation surfaced that the filmmaker is mounting a two-hero film, and has signed Rajkummar Rao for the same, but is searching for the other co-star.
Sircar looks at Hollywood to pluck out an example of casting; beyond the tentpole populist films, he notes how actors in the west also star in independent films. These are big stars who "just think of their roles" and sign up for a movie, even if it's a two-to-four-page role.
"In our industry, some heroes are not ready to work with another hero. I am appealing to all the actors... if you have to survive and make this industry float, we all have to come together. If I need three actors, they should come together, thinking, 'Okay, let's work for this film.' That environment is needed," Sircar adds.
It is not that multistarrers are not happening, Sircar is quick to note. Hindi film stars will assemble for franchise films, but some actors are not ready to do the same when it comes to putting their might behind "out of the box" independent movies.
"Some actors are doing it. For (Sajid) Nadiawala films or Welcome, they all come together, and it's great. But that needs to happen in independent films also, which are out of the box. It has to be constant for the chain to move; only then will this industry come back," he adds.
And of course, the costs. Sircar, who has mounted mid-budget films earlier, says that Bollywood has made a "huge blunder" with budgets, which is what needs to be revised soon. "That is a blunder that we have already made and now we need to correct it," he concludes.