Filmmaker Zoya Akhtar strongly believes in Bollywood’s star system and feels it has helped the industry build an identity within the map of global cinema.
“Star system is very important. In case you see worldwide, India, Hollywood and China — a lot of these three (film) industries have a celeb system. Remainder of( the film) industries like Europe and other countries don’t have stars and their (film) industries are dying,” Zoya told IANS in an interview.
Having directed film stars Hrithik Roshan and Abhay Deol and her younger brother Farhan Akhtar, Zoya said India has survived Hollywood because “we now have our language; we have our own style, so our audience would wish to peer a Shah Rukh Khan and never Tom Cruise”.
“Our star system has made our industry grow. So I definitely have numerous respect for that and that i understand that,” the 40-year-old said.
Then, who consistent with her is a movie star?
“They are called stars because it doesn't matter what the film is, they get a gap. Stars pull people. But having said that, stars need to cater to their audience by doing what has worked before. So that you can’t make too many films with them because they (stars) don’t wish to experiment. They would like that safety and that's the problem,” said Zoya.
“In this case, Aamir Khan is somewhat different,” she said, on her experience of working with him in “Talaash”, which released Nov 30.
Zoya co-wrote the film with director Reema Kagti, experimenting for the primary time with the suspense genre.
“My challenges were to maintain the tale engaging, give depth to the characters and in addition do something about their emotional chord. Our audience relate to emotional quotient. So, if you happen to don’t connect them emotionally, they won't watch (a film),” she said.
Zoya, the daughter of poet-lyricist Javed Akhtar and script writer Honey Irani, has written and directed “Luck By Chance” (2009) and “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara” (2011).
She said she would really like a balance of commercially viable and critically acclaimed projects.
“I feel both are important. Commercial success is very important. But when I make a movie and it makes money, but when the audience says they didn’t find it irresistible at all, I'LL BE disappointed. I NEED everybody to look at my films and prefer it,” she said. – IANS
