The world of the Hindi movie industry is something that is enveloped by glitz and glamour from various sides and is oftentimes associated with the production of films that depict some larger-than-life moments. However, no matter how majestically this movie industry stands firm for so many years now, this industry has found itself caught in the controversies of nepotism and group politics at the same time. Several times several accusations have been raised against many renowned directors and actors for creating unnecessary ‘PRs, hype, glamour and stardom’ to make them feel important among the public and their millions of millions of fans. Recently, in an interview with an online news portal, the controversial yet acclaimed director Vivek Agnihotri decided to open his heart out as to how he feels about the group politics that is prevalent in the industry and how some famous personalities such as Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar are playing a major role in bringing down the fame and glory of the Hindi film industry.

The Secret Files of Bollywood

Recently, in an interview with an online portal of news, Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, the director acclaimed for his most controversial web series ‘The Kashmir Files’, decided to take it out on both Shah Rukh Khan and the director Karan Johar by alleging that they are responsible to certain extent for the creation of these kinds of disturbing trends and the promotion of those values that he feels are not good keeping the reputation of the Hindi movie industry in mind.

While speaking about his upcoming series of documentaries ‘The Kashmir Files Unreported’, he said that a group of these famous personalities have successfully been demoting this grand institution into more of a commercial film box office than an art box office. Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri said that a need for cleansing the Hindi film industry is strongly in the need as he has strongly felt over the years of his making films that several people within the industry would just keep them concerned with the commercial success at the box office. This he feels has strongly defeated the real purpose of making films that have insulted the real intention with which the institution has been made.

Then he began with his piece of mind against Karan Johar, praising his mettle as a director but at the same time calling in out for the sense of corruption that, Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri feels, he has instilled into the industry. “I don’t like the value system that Karan Johar promotes in his cinema. I don’t like the entire politics of that man. He’s a wonderful man – I know that. I don’t know him personally but I love his cinema. Dharma is a very successful, big production house. The good thing about Karan is that he has given a chance to a lot of new directors. The great thing about him is that he has given a chance to a lot of gutsy directors. They have made some off-beat cinema, different cinema. He has introduced many actors to the film industry. I don’t have any problem with that. You can’t take that away from him. But, why not focus on that? Focus on your cinema. Why should a director like Karan Johar not make a film for eight years?” feels the ‘The Tashkent Files’ director. Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri calls that Karan Johar has created an ungodly trend in the movie industry that would be followed by others without even giving it a thought, “My problem is the kind of value system and the kind of politics you have created in Bollywood that have come to mean only one wrong thing. This over-glorification of stardom or star system is all done by Mr Karan Johar and I am against that,” added the ‘The Kashmir Files’ director. “I find myself in a place where I have no option but to oppose it. However much I love him for his craft, I am sure he must be a great person but he is giving strength to the star system. He is nurturing the star system, the studio system. He is creating and helping a system which is not letting middle-class, Hindi-speaking, Indian, raw-rooted, talented citizens thrive. That is my complaint. He is promoting values which are not our values. These values are imported. I don’t want Bollywood to thrive on imported values when we have such a great, fantastic value system in place,” thinks he.

Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri also has advice for the recently released movie of Karan Johar. He appreciated the fact that the director has directed a film such as ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’ that has gone a long way from his earlier films to show that the hero falls in love with the heroine, who is much more educated and successful than him. It seems that the director has tried to break free from the conventional notion of the hero falling in love with conventionally beautiful heroines such as that of his 1998 movie, ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’. It is then in ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ that he showed the female character as a tomboyish girl rather than the source of glamour and charm for the film. When asked whether he feels that movies such as ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’ is breaking the conventional stereotype regarding gender that the Hindi film industry has been suffering from, Vivek Agnihotri was quick to reply, “I hope God blesses him and he travels India without his sena and his chamchas. He travels to every small town, and middle-class town in India, lives there in cheaper hotels and struggles in those cities to understand what India is, and then Karan Johar will understand what is wrong with Bollywood.”

However, Vivek Agnihotri was probably saving up the bomb to be dropped with a bang on Shah Rukh Khan as he claimed that though he would appreciate the performance of the ‘King Khan’ on the big screen, nevertheless, he would not refrain from chastising him for creating a vibe of ‘internal politics and vanity’ inside the Hindi film industry. “Karan – if he’ll come here, I will love him and hug him. Like Shah Rukh Khan. Do you know I am a fan of SRK? I always say there’s nobody as charismatic as him. But, I don’t like the politics of Shah Rukh Khan. I think they are responsible for destroying a great institution like Bollywood. They have destroyed everything in Bollywood. Now, it’s only PRs, hype, glamour and stardom… anything which is not stardom is not accepted. That’s my problem.” He once again takes the time to slam Karan Johar and Shah Rukh Khan for feeling that they could make the audience fool with any kind of film that they would be making as they have started to feel that the watchers are not smart enough to differentiate between a good film and a bad film. He claimed that he considers himself to be a director, who makes films with the general people in mind while people like Karan Johar and Shah Rukh Khan are satisfied with making films just to have a taste of the financial success at the box office. “My second biggest problem is mediocrity, their hardcore belief that the audience is dumb. I cannot tolerate that. I make people’s films. They make a Box Office film. When their film is successful, it’s a Shah Rukh Khan film which is successful. When my film is successful, it’s the people’s film which is successful. So, we are standing on two different poles: the North Pole and the south pole. However much I love him… sometimes I think it’s like Shakti or Deewar… where you love your father and brother but one is a police officer and one is a smuggler. Now you decide who’s a police officer and who’s a smuggler in our relationship (laughs).”

When asked about his willingness to work with Shah Rukh Khan despite having so many differences in opinion with him, the director was quick to retort, “If Shah Rukh Khan is willing to work my way, I have no problem. But, if he is working in my film, the writer and the director will be in the foreground and he will be in the background which he will never accept. So, he will never work with me.” This points out the fact that we cannot expect a collaboration between the two anytime sooner or later as of now. When asked about, whether he would be willing to work with the other superstars of the industry, the director himself negated any chances, “Koi bhi aisa star jo mere ko kinare karke samne khada hota hai, uske sath kaam nahi karuga (anyone who thinks he can corner me to become the face of the film will never work with me). A film belongs to a writer and a director. The hero of the film is a writer and director.”

Thus, this scathing assessment by Vivek Agnihotri of the whole industry does tell us that there could be some possibility of some kind of toeing-the-line thing that is going on. The call for change that has been started by the director serves as a wake-up moment for the industry to make them realize to give priority to quality, plotline, and diverse and inclusive nature of itself. This would help it thrive and make use of its potential to convert itself into a powerhouse of cinematic experience.