Decorated Indian Film Producer, Siddharth Roy Kapur recently gave his insights on streaming platforms and their impact on filmmaking as such. Kapur who has a plethora of critically acclaimed titles under his name, including the likes of ‘Dangal’ and ‘The Sky is Pink’, set to the stage of Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival’s Industry Connect Symposium on Monday and was given the pleasure of delivering a keynote address in which he did not disappoint.
The former Disney India head began his address by lauding the numerous positives brought in the industry since the introduction of streaming platforms, however, he was quick to shift to the downfalls as well. Speaking about films made for theatrical release, Kapur said that while the recoupment for them in the government funded European industries might be a ‘Cannes slot’, in India it is monetary as well. He pointed out that cinema is an expression of art and hence whatever you’re creating should not be done under the pressure of earning and it should be a free expression of art, however in the real world we have an investor who’ll be investing in the project, expecting returns in the form of profits and not as an act of patronage. This creates a powerful blend between Art and Commerce under which the truly talented thrive while the others run away from it terming it as pressure, highlighting the universal validity of diamond coming into existence only when it is exposed to high amounts of pressure.
Kapur was of the opinion that irrespective of the amounts of positives brought in by the streaming services, the lack of a ‘report card’ to look at by the end of the day, one which is a place where you must perform in the case of theatric releases, results into allowing you to wander off into whichever direction you want to creatively which sometimes leads to lazier filmmaking, which might be less fraught with tension as people won’t be imposing their wills on one’s head nearly as much which in the words of Roy “probably leads to less compelling and less interesting and less watchable cinema at times”.
Despite the thunders summoned by movies like ‘Jawaan’, ‘Pathaan’, and ‘Gadar 2,’ Kapoor pointed out that films which possess stars but not superstars like SRK are doing quite good as well, quoting the examples of Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan’s social drama “Zara Hatke Zara Bachke,” and Bollywood’s new chocolate boy, Kartik Aaryan’s “Satyaprem Ki Katha,” which also featured Kiara Advani as the lead actress with attributing their success less to the stars and more to the themes of these films.
Roy reached the conclusion of his address with a small letter of all the young, independent filmmakers saying that it isn’t the stars that will always sell and guarantee you a success in the world of cinema, and if somehow, they believe his statement to be false which will make them feel that their future lies only in streaming platforms and not in theatrics, the discussions of who the star is and of what scale the project is going to be is starting to seep into the streaming world as well. This is why he feels that it is necessary that despite one railing against the pleasures of the box office they must still have that rigor of looking at the movies in a way where if it had to work in the box office, what would be the elements they had to be infuse in it for the project to be both, a commercial and a theatrical success.
Roy had recently made the headlines for his series, “Rocket Boys” getting nominated for the prestigious International Emmys. He has several more movies lined up such as war epic “Pippa” and comedy “Woh Ladki Hai Kahaan?” along with 8 more series for various streaming platforms. The insights given by him on his Mumbai Keynote certainly share a portion of his success Mantra and is sure to help experienced players and the newly budding flowers in the industry alike.
