Watch Pathaan or don’t watch it. Respect and cherish the hard work of your fellow citizens

Those who stir controversies, and make what PM Modi called “unnecessary remarks”, should sit and read the names in the credit roll of Pathaan this time — and perhaps they will know that entertainment is serious work.

Shah Rukh Khan fans stand in a queue outside a theatre to watch the Bollywood movie Pathaan. (PTI)

6 min readJan 26, 2023 05:08 PM IST First published on: Jan 26, 2023 at 05:08 PM IST

Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi advised BJP members against making “unnecessary remarks” on films. The PM, in his address to party workers at the BJP National Executive meet, said, “No one should make unnecessary comments that would overshadow the hard work we do.” The Prime minister’s comments made me wonder about the work it takes to actually make a film — any film. But for the sake of staying current, let’s say we’re talking about Pathaan, which opened yesterday after much controversy, its release coinciding with Republic Day.

Indeed, Sushma Swaraj, the Union Cabinet Minister for Information and Broadcasting under the second Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had recognised this labour, hard work and contribution of the film industry when she gave it the much-needed “industry” status, often hailed as one of the most significant decisions of her career.

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For the uninitiated, much like the running of a government involves many ministries, a film is made with the sweat and blood (read, hopes and dreams) of hundreds of film workers, working together day and night in long shifts in various departments. Making a film is a highly collaborative endeavour, which needs years of thinking, planning and budgeting. A movie like Yash Raj Film’s Rs 250-crore Pathaan could be in script development for many years before it was “greenlit”. A screenplay is the blueprint of a film, and once a script is ready, a producer decides to invest money in this blueprint and what was once just on paper starts to take shape and become concrete.

The actors are brought on board, that is, the casting department takes charge. Shanoo Sharma, the casting director of Pathaan would have struggled for countless hours to finalise the “stars” for the film. Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone were cast in the film in 2020, almost three years ago. Slowly and steadily after years of creative striving, a project like Pathaan comes together and becomes the film you get to watch in a movie theatre. The average time to finish a big budget Hindi film, from the script stage to the actual release, is about five years — if you are lucky.

For the last few years, it has seemed like every other Bollywood film is being pushed into a controversy just before its release. The controversy reaches its climax with urgent calls to boycott the film. In short, it urges people to boycott the passion, labour and work of hundreds of who have toiled on the film.

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The word controversy comes from the Latin controversus — “turned in the opposite direction”. This turning in the opposite direction seems to be an apt description of the popular discourse around Hindi films today. These spiralling controversies colour the work of so many into distorted hues; debates which have nothing to do with the actual film trend day and night on social media. It is no more about the achievement of those who have created something together. The joy of many is stolen as they nervously hope and pray for their film to be released. If the film is not released or people don’t go to watch it due to fear of attacks, their work of many years would amount to nothing.

Amongst the many workers who have created Pathaan, there will be at least one who got his first big break on this one. This person must have told everyone about this career-changing opportunity and will be hoping to watch the film with family and friends, waiting for their name to appear on the big screen. They’ll point at the screen in the theatre when their little luminous name scrolls up on the big screen. Their parents will read the floating little name with moist eyes and a full heart. Their child worked on a film with Shah Rukh Khan, they will tell their neighbour with pride that evening, as they Whatsapp the screenshot of the credit to the whole family.

Apart from those who work directly in the film there are many who earn their daily bread through the indirect economy of film production, be it the chai stall outside PVR or the poster shop right opposite the single screen in Kanpur.

Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone might be the faces of the film, the big stars, but there are many twinkling stars that make the sky of a Pathaan glitter.

Those who stir these controversies with their “unnecessary comments” should indeed sit and read the names in the credit roll of Pathaan this time — each and every name under each and every department — and perhaps they will know that entertainment is serious work.

In short, no one should make unnecessary comments that overshadow the hard work of thousands who work on a film. Watch Pathaan or don’t watch it. Respect and cherish the hard work of your fellow citizens. Happy Republic Day!

The author is a writer-academic-filmmaker, who teaches at Kamala Nehru College, DU