The 100 Crore Club

I was flipping through the TV channels the other day when I stumbled upon a talk show featuring a prominent bollywood director. On any other day, I wouldn't have paid an atom of attention to it, but for some reason, I felt I was in for something and continued to watch the show. 

The blah-blah Q&A discussion crawled and the show dragged on as usual. The host put forth a question to the guest about ‘the 100 crore club’ and films being a ‘box office success’ to which the director fantastically replied that ‘it is an honour being part of the 100 crore club because at the end of the day, people pay see entertaining films.’ He also mentioned phrases such as ‘aam janta’, ‘keeping your brains at home to watch a film’ and a few more phrases that I really don’t want to remember.

As the show ended, thoughts kept running through my head about this enlightening talk with this even more brilliant director. Let me dissect this above paragraph phrase by phrase. 

The 100 Crore Club – With producers, multiplexes, actors and the others raking in big bucks, you’ve got to wonder whether a film really deserves to cross the 100 crore mark (Yes, we know people fall over each other to buy tickets in black for Housefull, De Dhana Dhan and many others) but get the point. Let me put it this way; it’s like looking at a brand new Rolls Royce sedan from the outside only to find that the interiors are of a black & yellow cab and the engine, a Maruti 800.

Aam janta – The best way to describe the ‘Aam janta’ is with a George Carlin quote that goes, “Think about this; think about how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of them are stupider than that.” I couldn’t agree more.

If people paid Rs.700 for a ticket in black to watch Ek Tha Tiger, I’m out of words to complete this sentence. But yeah, again, I hope you get the point.
 

Having said this, I understand that people want to ‘unwind’ and ‘watch a good film’ on a weekend.  But as a director, knowing the that audience or the ‘aam janta’ rely on them to provide wholesome entertainment, don’t they feel a slight sense of responsibility to make a half decent film? Cars exploding to a gun shot, people bitten by an alligator or a snake and cracking a half-assed joke about it, throwing a bomb around in a game of passing the parcel and countless other scenes that engulf these ‘100 crore films’ today are not only senseless and daft, but they’re an embarrassment at the world stage (not to forget some of these films have been screened at international film festivals). 

Keeping your brains at home to watch a film – Seriously, whoever came up with this term can take a good hard look in the mirror, strip down bare naked and fuck themselves. Not only is this term invalid, but also an absolutely horrible claim to make in order to cover up for the maggot-infested film that they’ve directed. The funniest comedy films REQUIRE you to use your brains for witty dialogues! A film isn't remotely good if a person leaves the theater not having a thought about it or just giving a flying fuck. Wouldn’t you need your brains to discuss, share your opinion or even criticize it for that matter? 

To conclude, if Akshay Kumar having a duel with a monkey and the priceless expression on Deepika Padukone’s face is termed hilarious, then sadly, entertainment has taken a whole different meaning… for the worse.