Media Musings

It’s been a terrible week for Bollywood, one whose long-term implications that can be terrible for the industry. On Sunday, 12 days before the film’s slated December 1 release, Padmavati’s producers announced an indefinite postponement. They didn’t have a choice. Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) rejected the film’s application on technical grounds, because the film was submitted without a due disclaimer.

In normal circumstances, this should not have been an issue. The film was apparently submitted to CBFC three weeks before its release, much before many films are submitted. Usually, CBFC is known to prioritise films that are due for release, and finish the process, especially if there are no major cuts suggested, within a week. Here, they took almost a week to even reject the application.

This slowdown, evidently influenced by political interests, was justified through a CBFC “rule” that no one in the industry or the media even knew of till then. Curiously enough, details of the said 68-day rule are now firmly placed on the CBFC website homepage (here). Continue reading →

It started off a meaningless fringe protest. But over the last two weeks, opposition to Padmavati’s release has acquired the status of a full-blown controversy. The protests, led by an organisation by the name of Shri Rajput Karni Sena, have acquired political overtones, with support, ranging from tacit to explicit, from governments of several BJP-ruled states, as well as some senior members of the Central Government.

I visited the Wikipedia page of Karni Sena to understand their purpose of existence. The organisation was formed in 2006. There are only five specific activities that define their “work” over the last 11 years. In 2008, they protested against the release of the film Jodhaa Akbar. In 2009, they were involved in a Jat-Rajput issue that erupted in the University of Rajasthan. In 2010, their plans to disrupt a Sonia Gandhi event were thwarted by the police. In 2013, they opposed the TV serial Jodhaa Akbar. And now, in 2017, it’s Padmavati. Continue reading →

The year 2017 is turning out to be Bollywood’s toughest in a long time. In the eight complete months of the year (Jan-Aug), the domestic box-office of Hindi films (not counting the dubbed Bahubali 2), has dropped by 16.9% vis-à-vis the same period in 2016. While there are some big films lined up for the rest of the year, 2016’s biggest success (Dangal) was a December release. Hence, the gap could only widen by the time the year ends.

Content not being able to deliver to the audience’s rising expectations is the primary reason for this declining trend, as covered in this column after the debacle of Jab Harry Met Sejal (read here). But there’s another important reason that has been building up over the last decade, and now beginning to have a major impact: Lack of young superstars. Continue reading →