Jim Sarbh On Obsession With Box Office Numbers: Should Celebrate Many Kinds Of Films - EXCLUSIVE

Bollywood’s

obsession with big-budget films, commercial entertainers, and box office success has been widely discussed and debated in recent times. This has also triggered conversations around how creativity may be impacted due to fixed metrics that now define what works and what doesn’t. In a recent interview, Jim Sarbh was asked about the same and shared some interesting insights. He clarified that he was not an expert on the matter but urged producers to make and support all kinds of films and to celebrate cinema in its diverse forms.

Jim Sarbh On Filmmakers Using Same Formula For Commercial Entertainers

In an exclusive chat with Zoom, he said that he was not fully aware of the situation in the Indian film industry, but had recently read or seen a discussion about Hollywood, where a certain type of film had become the go-to commercial, big-budget structure. He noted that by repeatedly making the same kind of films, an appetite or taste had been created in an entire generation of young audiences who now had the money to go to theatres. He added that this trend had led to the decline of mid-budget and low-budget films, which may not have been massive blockbusters but were still financially stable and contributed to a more diverse cinematic landscape.Jim added, "But what that would do is it catered to so many tastes that basically everyone felt that they could go to the cinema for something or the other which kept cinema alive and vibrant and continuing. I think whenever you fall into this thing of 'Oh, the algorithm' and 'Oh, only this kind of film works, with this particular thing, with these particular stars and I have to make X amount of money, otherwise my film is a failure.' What happens is you train an audience that that's the only kind of film they want to go to."

He further said, "All the other people who would have gone to other kinds of films stop going, then you have to serve that person only and then they start to get used to it. Now you have to keep innovating within that form. It becomes harder and harder to do."The Made In India: A Titan Story actor added that he was not an expert on such matters and did not claim to have complete knowledge of them. He admitted that any opinion he had might be misinformed since he did not know all the details. However, he expressed that many kinds of films should be celebrated rather than focusing only on one type of big blockbuster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6ltKLpManE

He suggested that if production companies were willing to invest in a major commercial film while also taking some risk by supporting other kinds of films, it could help cater to a wider range of audiences. He concluded that this approach would ultimately be better for the industry as it would nurture diverse cinematic tastes.