Director Karan Johar admitted that the Hindi film industry is floundering like a headless chicken, learning all the wrong lessons from successful South Indian movies, and trying to pander to a male audience that is becoming ‘angry’. Karan also reflected on the evolution of Hindi film heroes, that went from raging against the system in the ’70s, to embracing misogyny some years later, to becoming more vulnerable at the turn of the century, and now becoming angry once again.
In an interview with Nikhil Taneja on the We Are Yuvaa YouTube channel, Karan was asked about the impact that films have on society, which tries to emulate the behaviour that they see on the big screen, usually displayed by male characters. Karan said that the idea of heroes itself is fading in Hindi cinema, and that stories are now being prioritised over all else, but later, he appeared to contradict himself by suggesting that Hindi films are following in the footsteps of male-dominated South Indian movies.
“Hindi cinema has no hero; the hero today is the film, and thank god for that. We don’t need a Vijay to save us or a Raj to rule our hearts. We need our content to be impressionable in a good way,” he said, and added moments later after being asked about the inherent violence that Hindi cinema sees in masculinity, “Hindi cinema has derived this from South cinema. This is not our core being, this is our derivation. Suddenly now we are deriving it because KGF and Pushpa are big hits. And we’re deriving it in an inauthentic manner. South (filmmakers) have their own conviction and how they can pull it off, and that’s their strength. We don’t have that strength. We don’t know what we’re doing, me included. We’re all walking around like headless chickens trying to find our feet.”
Hindi cinema, Karan said, suffers from ‘herd mentality’. “We don’t want to see soft characters any more, we don’t want to see vulnerability, we don’t want to see flawed men, because the men in this country, generally, have gone back to being angry. But Hindi cinema hasn’t even got the anger right. Kabir Singh is Arjun Reddy, it’s not even authentically Hindi.” Karan admitted that there is a ‘layer of misogyny’ that runs through heroes of the Angry Young Man era of Hindi cinema, dominated by characters played by Amitabh Bachchan. “That is not healthy for our society, because misogyny is not an answer for development.”
Karan appeared to address these concerns in his latest film, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, in which Ranveer Singh’s character was deliberately designed to be more vulnerable than the typical Bollywood hero. The film proved to be critically and commercially successful.
Click for more updates and latest Bollywood news along with Entertainment updates. Also get latest news and top headlines from India and around the world at The Indian Express.
Karan Johar says toxic masculinity isn’t at the core of Hindi movies: ‘We derived it from South cinema because KGF, Pushpa became big hits’ – The Indian Express
Leave a comment