Puri Jagannath's musings in audio format have been hooking many people ever since the lockdown time. He has good narrative skills and above that he never misses common sense. But for the first time, I felt he spoke something without applying basic intelligence.
He said that the web reviews and live updates from theatres are killing the films and thus demoralizing the producers. He appealed to all the critics to rate any film as 2/5 in the place of 1/5 and 3/5 instead of 2/5.
He lamented that producers feed many families with his investment despite knowing that the success rate is very small in the film industry. He also said that industry runs only on flop films but not hits, so be concerned about such producers.
But what he should realize is that the producer is being killed not by the critics but by the star heroes and big directors. There would not be these many commercial failures had the directors and star heroes work for lesser remuneration.
There is no film industry in the entire world, except Telugu Film Industry, where a producer of a blockbuster film also ends up in losses. Thanks to the greedy directors and star heroes.
They will be tough with the producers and some star heroes don't even join the subsequent schedule if some deals are not signed in time or if the payment instalment is not cleared. Same thing applies to star directors as well.
The point is when the directors and heroes themselves are not emotionally attached to the producer, how can the critics and general public be?
Another point to be noted here is, gone are the days when the critics are limited in number. Now every netizen who has a social media account is a critic. He has his own following and his own power to influence some people. The one line reviews they give on FB and Twitter are more powerful than a 500 word review in a website. How can anyone control them?
Keeping that aside the films like 'RX100' and Puri Jagannatha's 'iSmart Shankar' have received poor reviews, but still they could break the roof with thumping box office collections. Could any review stop such films from becoming successful with the patronage of the majority audience?
After 2004, if US Market has picked up on par with other business centers in AP, it is only because of websites and film reviews. The reviews have added to the hype and the noise has resulted in picking up the business. What is much talked about will always pull public attention.
If someone feels that reviews will hurt their morale, then they shouldn't make any film. If a soldier is afraid of eating a bullet, he shouldn't join the military. Because, public response cannot be stopped. It is on par with any natural phenomenon. Every filmmaker should live with it.
Usha Chowdary
