Vikramaditya Motwane says ‘indie is dead’, but feels Vasan Bala’s Jigra with Alia Bhatt hits ‘right note’: ‘A-list star marries edgy storytelling’

“Indie is dead. The revival of it is going to be a long haul. The next indie generation, if at all, that comes out is going to be a very genre bent one, kind of how the Koreans did it. We don’t have the support for making of art cinema. Europe has a lot of foundational support, government support, multi-country co-productions and a lot of other stuff.

“On top of this, they have a very robust theatrical system for indie cinema. We don’t have any of these. So you are dependent on an audience coming to watch it in a normal theatre, where, if a film doesn’t perform on that Friday, it is out of the theatre by Sunday. You are up against it. To fight it, you need to have excitement in your audience to go and watch something,” the filmmaker tells Indianexpress.com.

According to Vikramaditya Motwane, while big ticket films of superstars like Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan will–and should–generate euphoria, indie makers need to think of ways to draw audiences to cinema halls. It is not impossible, Motwane says, as he mentions Alia Bhatt starrer Jigra.

The film, bankrolled by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, is directed by Vasan Bala, known for films like Netflix’s comedy thriller Monica, O My Darling and the action-comedy Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota.

 

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“The audience is excited to watch Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and the big-ticket films, as they should be, that’s the life blood of the movies. But to create that same level of excitement to be able to go and watch, let’s say, Everything Everywhere All At Once… Where are those films here? These films are cool, exciting, get fabulous word of mouth and gives the chance to cast some amazing people.

“We are not doing those. I think that’s the next target. which is why Vasan’s next film Jigra is hitting that note– it has got an A-list star but it has also got this edginess and this very anime kind of feel and seems to be this cool action film. That’s not going to be that big ticket film yet it is going to be exciting enough to draw an audience into movie theatres.”

Motwane, who is himself writing a film for the big screen, says that’s also what he is personally aiming for today, as are other filmmakers. “Now you can tell some amazingly cool stories. There is an entire new generation of movie goers who are not as yet tuned to the idea of going to cinema halls, as we were. What’s going to drive them, really push them into cinema halls? That’s exciting and that’s where the next challenge is,” he adds.

The filmmaker was speaking at The Himalayan Film Festival, where two episodes of his loved Amazon Prime Video Series Jubliee were screened. On the work front, he is currently gearing up to shoot his new series based in Tihar jail and also has Ananya Panday starrer thriller Control lined up for release.