Nikkhil Advani says having star no longer guarantees film’s success

Nikkhil Advani says having a star no longer guarantees a film’s success: 'Filmmaking has become like the share market'

Director Nikkhil Advani, who has worked with some of Bollywood’s biggest names, including Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, believes that the presence of a major star is no longer enough to guarantee a film’s success.

According to the filmmaker, audiences today are more interested in feeling a genuine connection with an actor or a story than simply following star power.In a recent interview with Hindustan Times, Advani also reflected on how audiences have become more independent in their choices and how that shift has changed the way films are marketed and evaluated.

Nikkhil Advani on how audiences are changing film marketing

Advani believes today’s audiences, particularly younger viewers, do not want filmmakers or marketing teams to dictate how they should perceive a film.

Instead, they want the freedom to discover a project for themselves.“The audiences of today, or the kids of today, I think what they’re shouting loudly is that, ‘You can’t handle us.’ You can’t. So even marketing has changed in the sense, don’t tell us whether it’s good or bad, or it’s mind-blowing or whatever. We will discover. Let us discover this. Tell us the story of how it was made,” he said.

Nikkhil Advani questions the growing focus on box office numbers

Having spent more than two decades in the industry, Advani also looked back at why he entered filmmaking in the first place.

He recalled wanting to use cinema as a means of artistic expression rather than viewing it primarily through the lens of commercial success.“When I joined filmmaking and knocked on the door of (veteran screenwriter) Saeed Mirza, I wanted to express myself through art and not through box office,” he said.Advani then referred to veteran filmmaker Subhash Ghai’s observation that filmmaking has increasingly begun to resemble the financial markets.“I think what Subhash Ghai said, I was reading somewhere, he said that filmmaking has become like the share market. When did it become that?” he asked.‘It’s supposed to be art’For Advani, the concern is not that cinema needs to be commercially successful, but that commercial considerations may have increasingly begun to influence how artistic work itself is perceived.He cited A R Rahman’s music in ‘Taal’ as an example of how the appreciation of art can sometimes become intertwined with commercial calculations.“When did the appreciation of a great piece of music by A R Rahman in a film called ‘Taal’ become about… how did that change? How did it become a business?” he said.He added, “It’s supposed to be art.”

Nikkhil Advani’s work front

On the professional front, Advani recently directed ‘The Revolutionaries’, a period drama series featuring a young ensemble cast and set against the backdrop of India’s freedom struggle.