Movie mogul Karan Johar expressed his belief that South Indian filmmakers have ‘ample conviction’ and ‘do not seek validation’, unlike their Bollywood peers. And, that’s the secret behind their stupendous success seen of late.
In a recent interaction with Film Companion’s Anupama Chopra, Johar attempted to break down why South Indian films were doing better at the box office than Bollywood movies. Both are often made on big budgets and mega stars, but South Indian films are enjoying a golden phase right now.
“I think we are victims of everything we should be running away from, whether it’s paid PR or media blitz, projections, perceptions all of that. That is plaguing. Also, I think we don’t have the conviction. We are victims of herd mentality,” explained Johar.
In comparison, Malayalam and Tamil films aren’t constantly seeking validation and are setting their own rules.
“Tamil cinema and Malayalam cinema have always been story-heavy. They have also been commercial and aesthetic. What happened with Kannada cinema and now Kannada cinema with ‘KGF’ is that they have a lot of conviction. They don’t listen to other things and follow their conviction,” he added.
Bollywood films have been going through a slump phase at the box office, while films such as South Indian stars-led ‘RRR’ and ‘KGF: Chapter 2’ have taken the box office by storm.
“They are so confident in their skin and convinced with what they are doing. That’s what we all lack. We don’t have that conviction. Suddenly, if biopics are doing well, everyone will make a biopic. Suddenly everyone has woken up to the syntax of southern cinema and now we want to start doing that. We are all so idiotically un-convinced about our strengths and weaknesses that we just tend to be all over the place,” he added.
Johar is awaiting the release of ‘Jug Jugg Jeeyo’, starring Anil Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Varun Dhawan, and Kiaran Advani next week.
