Success is but delayed failure
I am in Los Angeles as I write this piece and have been away for almost a fortnight now. I am told by my office in Mumbai that a lot of films have not done well lately. There is a mystery that surrounds the dismal opening of films like Jhootha Hi Sahi and I know the place will go in a tizzy trying to figure if John Abraham is saleable on his own.
As I put the phone off I was happy that I was not part of that discussion. Happy to be away. To think a thought though has become an irritating yet a useful habit with me. Why the relief? Do I not like being a part of the industry? No! I love it! It feeds me. Then why relief? To be away for a bit? Was that it? Did not seem right. More thinking was needed. I love making films. That much is for certain. Telling stories is a passion but over the years this place has drawn me into its vortex of inescapable claustrophobia. The problem with this line of work is that it never leaves you and you can never switch off completely. You wake up in the morning to the various newspaper supplements that have become Bollywood reporters. Then entertainment news. Next comes your busy day and as you step out the faces of actors on every hoarding selling everything from beauty products to underwear beam down. You log on to Facebook and there are people who want to sell scripts and beautiful people who want to get famous. It is all consuming. Even watching a movie which used to be entertainment has become work now!
What’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with being all consumed? Two things. One, it takes you away from reality and makes it a hell of a job to remain grounded. You have to keep reminding yourself that there is a world out there and that films is part of the world and not the world. Second and most important is that if you are not careful it makes you really negative and cynical as a person. The reason for that is the success rate here. About five percent of the films do really well and the rest go down the drain. With so many people seeing failure on an everyday basis the chances are that you will meet more people filled with negativity than the ones filled with a positive vibe. The art is to stay unaffected. To stay happy and content. There is only one dictum that I have learnt here and that is, success here is nothing but delayed failure. Failure is inevitable. It will be hard but if you try hard enough you can stay gold.
Post new comment