“Critics hate me,” declares director Sajid Khan. Happy with the success of his recent film Housefull 2, the director says he is proud of his work and feels critics hate him because they hate his guts.
This is not the first time he has slammed critics in the industry. “I stopped reading reviews ever since I made my first film. Most of them don’t know their job. They just write personal opinions. And the audience doesn’t really care about what they have to say. The Indian film industry is beyond them. And they hate me because I do what they do, I mock them at award functions,” he adds.
Some directors, who depend on critics for the kind of cinema they make, feel that it’s time for critics to be less biased in their reviews. Onir, whose film I Am won national acclaim, admits critics are very important for the kind of films he makes, but feels there needs to be a serious change in the way they work. “There’s a fine line that divides critics from trade analysts. You can’t have critics mentioning sales of a film, as they aren’t business analysts. Critics are extremely important for the kind of films I make, as they are not star driven, so it’s important to know what critics have to say about them. Also, reviews should be separated from papers that are driven by a media net. Now, if a film is giving an advertisement which costs crores in a paper, you can’t expect the paper to give it one star,” he says.
Filmmaker Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan, of Lahore fame, believes that some critics are biased towards certain filmmakers. “And this I can say after having read some of these reviews and after seeing the film. But this doesn’t hold true for a large number of critics. A filmmaker like me, who doesn’t work with big names, is dependent on critics. This is why much before the National Award was announced for my film Lahore, it was critically acclaimed. For those who make big movies and say reviews don’t matter much to them, it’s a case of sour grapes. They still pull it off at the box office because of the big star cast and not substance,” he says.
While Sajid believes critics don’t know their jobs well, he goes on to say that some films do need critical acclaim, but for most of them it’s just the audience and box office success that matters. “Box office success reveals how well a film has done and whether audience has liked it or not. Maybe some films need critical acclaim before striking a chord with the audience, but I still feel the audience doesn’t care about what the critics write,” he concludes.