Vicky Kaushal on Bollywood films failing at the box office: The audience has clearly told us ‘acchhi picture banao’

Vicky calls Govinda Naam Mera a fun concoction, a film that he wants the audiences to not take seriously and just laugh after all the pain and loss everyone has gone through throughout the pandemic.  He says, “I’m so grateful that I’ve entered into this concoction, because I still remember Shashank talking about the film for the first time, it was before the second phase of the Covid-19 pandemic. He said that we’re living in such terrified times where people are so scared and everything you’re watching (on OTT) is also so gritty and serious, let’s make people laugh, let’s try and give them a good time. I was sold to that thought in the first place.”

 

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Vicky himself wanted a break from the kind of serious cinema he was doing until last year. “Also, I was coming out of some serious cinema with Uri: The Surgical Strike, Bhoot and Sardar Udham. As an actor, even I was hungry to explore that side and have fun on set. I play a proper loser in life, his wife beats him, he’s got a girlfriend; his mother or even his baai doesn’t care about him. He has a best-friend and you think aisaa best friend kisiko na mile, dushman ho usse acchha. There is a don, there is a hip-hopper, there is a lawyer, sautela bhai, sauteli maa, there is all sorts of confusion happening at the same time and there is a murder mystery involved, all of this is served with humour on top of it. We just want the viewers to have a good time and not take us seriously,” says Vicky.

 

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Most of Vicky’s recent releases have been on streaming platforms, including Govinda Naam Mera. On being asked if he accepts Bollywood is experiencing stress at the box-office and what this phase means, Vicky says the audience has clearly stated that they want to watch only good films in cinemas, no matter what genre it is, or who the star or the language is.

“I think good films are working. People, in fact, have made it very simple. If you see the graph, they’ve made it so simple, that if the film resonates with them, no matter what the language, genre or scale is, they will give it a lot of love. The audience has made it very simple, that humein picture acchhi lagni chaahiye. You see a Bhool Bhulaiya (2), KGF (2) or RRR, Drishyam (2), none of them fall in the same box, they’re neither the same language, genre nor the scale, they didn’t even have the same marketing plan. Even three year ago it was directly proportional, app jitni marketing karoge, utni aapki film chalegi, but it’s not like that anymore. Today, if people like a film, they just take it up.”

“So, I think we’re living in times where they’re clearly and simply told us that acchhi picture banao, we’ll give it all our love,” Vicky emphasises.

 

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While Vicky has had only one film release this year, he’s quite looking forward to 2023 as he has four film releases. “I’m very exciting because all through Covid I was shooting films, there were three four films, out of which Govinda is first, then there is one with Lakshmain Utekar sir with me and Sara in it, then there’s one film with YRF, another one with Dharma which Anand Tiwari has directed and then Sam Bahadur which I’m shooting right now, all these films are releasing in 23. I’ve been very excited to bring out these stories and I’m very excited to know how people are going to respond to these characters.”

2023 will be yet another deciding factor in Vicky’s trajectory, just like 2018 was,  the year the actor was rediscovered. He says, “Last time I had a year like that was 2018, when I had Love Per Square Foot, Raazi, Sanju, Lust Stories and Manmarziyaan, all of them came in the same year. I get very excited when I have more films coming because you’ve been shooting back to back and playing different characters, so the thought that one day people are going to get to see this and I’m going to get through the test of them liking or not liking it is a very exciting.”