Anil Sharma on Jawan impacting Gadar 2’s box office business: ‘The public will enjoy both the films equally’

Sharma said, “If you see the way Gadar 2 has performed, 65% of its revenue has come from single-screen theatres, from the rural areas, and now Jawan is going to do the same. It is a 100% seeti-taaliyaan (whistles and claps) wali film.”

The Jawan clash

When asked if he thinks the arrival of the Shah Rukh Khan starrer will hamper the business of Gadar 2, the filmmaker said, “Both the films will work. The public will enjoy both the movies equally. Even when I had seen Pathaan… See, I am a Shah Rukh Khan fan… When the trailer of the film had released bohot buraai huiee. When I had seen Pathaan’s trailer, I had said that the film is a superhit. People had said, ‘Bohot kharaab trailer hai.’ I loved Pathaan’s trailer and then enjoyed the movie even more, and now I have loved Jawan trailers as well and I am now looking forward to catching the film as well. I don’t know what the industry will say about the film, but it is going to be such a mass entertainer. The music, dance and dialogue baazi especially is looking good, very likable. I am an SRK fan, and I am going to watch the movie. Badi acchhi lag rahi hai film (the film is looking very good). I’ll watch it on the first day itself.”

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“The public wants these kinds of movies. Just like how Gadar 2 got audience’s love, Jawan is set to receive the same amount of love and more. People are going to have a great cinema watching experience. They‘ll whistle, dance and clap. The public wants to see extravagant films, tamasha dekhna hai. Otherwise they are anyway sitting home alone and watching films. People are craving community experience and these films are the answer. With Jawan, the industry will only benefit. Such films are important,” he added.

Pathaan, Gadar 2 and Jawan offer community viewing experience

Pathaan and Gadar 2 are two of the biggest Bollywood films to release post the Covid-19 pandemic. Sharma says it is the time for big, massy entertainers to rule cinema halls. He explained, “There was a time people thought only some kind of films that are content-driven will work in theatres, but it’s not true anymore. People want good stories for sure, but they want an experience as well. They want to dance on good songs, say dialogues and just have fun when they step out of their homes to watch films. Lots of industry experts and insiders had predicted what kind of films will work and what kind of films won’t work. Film marketing people do their research and come up with strategies, but they don’t always succeed in catching the on-ground pulse because their database is limited. These things don’t define cinema. Cinema is a different ballgame altogether. It is about telling a story and how you tell that story. There is no mathematics behind it. How you build a bridge with your story to reach the audience’s heart is the final thing. The story and emotions should be right. If you have that, then you are on the right path.”

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‘Gadar was called gutter’

While Sharma confesses he has had hits and misses in his career, he recalls how even when Gadar: Ek Prem Katha was a box office success, people dismissed it as “gutter”. He said, “I used to be very worried when I didn’t have a story for Gadar 2. I was trying to make the sequel for the last 10-12 years. I only knew one thing that in Gadar 2, Tara, Sakina and Jeete’s story has to go forward but nothing more. People had already seen Tara and Sakina’s story. Jeete was a growing boy, so we thought it would be great to show the story of the father-son duo and figure how we’ll go back to Pakistan. So many writers came with stories, but it just wasn’t working out. So then when we finally got the right story, we locked it, and our stress was over. And we started making the film.”

On why massy films are now working well again, Sharma shared, “80% of the Indian population is the masses. Why do we underestimate them? There are some makers who do that, but we shouldn’t be underestimating the masses. When Gadar 1 had come, people had called it gutter. Some English-language film reviewers didn’t even review the film. They thought it wasn’t worth their time. Now when Gadar 2 came, suddenly Gadar 1 is being called ‘class’. But it is nobody’s fault. The new generation of filmmakers today, the kids today have not seen the real Bharat. For them, it all starts and ends between Bandra and Andheri and in South Bombay. They are all English-speaking people, and most of them have studied abroad in the US and UK. They don’t know what the real Bharat is like. They’ve been brought up watching English films. So we can’t expect all of them to be able to make films that can strike a chord unanimously across country. But when people stay true to their roots, they become successful.”