Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali who had made wonderful films expressed that the best way to enter a new business market for films would be to have superstars like Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan. The filmmaker stated, “Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan as a combination of exuberance and content”.
At a recent event Imtiaz Ali said when a local content is consumed globally, it makes storytellers enhance their own work. He said, “I think you need Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir as a combination of exuberance and content to break through and get into different markets. Of course, I’ve shot with Shah Rukh in Europe, so there hardly a place that we went and people didn’t mass recognise him. That’s a great thing for us.”
He further added, “What it does is, it changes the quality of your own work when you get aware of the fact that different people from all over the world are watching... I think there is a qualitative improvement in cinema as a result of it travelling abroad.”
Imtiaz Ali also said, “Except for language, there is no other difference. I have an idea which might be suitable to be made in the language. I quickly thought of all the films that I have made. And even though when I think about Mandarin, what comes to my mind is really exotic Chinese music and people eating with chopsticks and some pretty looking girls. When I think about the films I have made, many of them could have been a Mandarin film.”
He further added, “But now, I feel I already have a lot of scripts for Mandarin films, especially the one that I have been toying with for a long time. It gives writers and directors an opportunity to tell stories with a bigger heart, to a bigger audience. No one kind of actor’s film is a hit; it’s the content that works. People love stories, which are human dramas and have emotions unlike the big-budget Hollywood films, which they keep watching anyway and that also do well.”
Prasad Shetty said, “But at the same time it doesn’t mean only one particular kind of genre or stories work. We can’t define what works and what doesn’t. There is no set formula for it. India and China are similar in a lot of ways like culture, values etc.”
Filmmaker Shoojit Sircar who was also present at the event said, I would love to explore the Chinese market, be it teaming up with actors over there or working there.”
