The Galatta Plus Pan-India Round Table&nbsp;2022

Oh, this is going to be fun!

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Sri Prabhuram

grabs popcorn and cola

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K

Could not recognize some of them.

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Deepika

The photo could have had good clarity.. Both the one that is here and the one on twitter

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hari prasad

Is that blue shirt next to Anurag Kashyap , Tovino Thomas?!?

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Enna koduka sir pera

What an eclectic bunch

Who is the lady other than Pooja Hegde?

I hope you would also do just a Directors round table

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hari prasad

It’s that KGF Reena girl , Srinidhi Shetty.

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Jay Krishnan

Nice group. Will be fun to watch!

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Rajesh A

Some had written in twitter that “most random roundtable” ever. I totally agree with that.

this roundtable is going to be all those Boycott hashtags and as a courtesy talk about south hits RRR, KGF, PS1, Kantara.

i know it is not correct to say this before watching the video, but I guess “It is not going to be useful audience. Nor going to be useful industry insiders because they know very well what is the problem”

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Rajesh A: So then what is the purpose of your comment? 😀 I mean, why bother to take the time to write this “advance review” instead of simply ignoring it? 😀

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Caesium

BR sir: yes, you’re a film journalist. But that overcoat is a tad too on the nose.. 😂

I see “EXIT” signs behind KJ and AK.. Any hidden messages there? 😜

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Caesium: Haha. Yeah, I guess. That was a gift from Rima Das. I wore it as a sentimental gesture to represent Assamese cinema.

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Spandana

The comments section on the interview with Jhanvi Kapoor blew up because some folks believe she doesn’t deserve the platform provided by BR. At least she seems to be doing interesting projects, even if most are remakes bought with daddy’s money. At least some reviewers seem to appreciate her work. Many actresses without JK’s resources are good performers championing good stories.
But I see no such ambition or talent in the mediocrity that is Pooja Hegde. Hasn’t played a single character of any importance in any movie, haven’t heard any good things about her ‘performance’, lacks any other skills (like comedy or dance) whatsoever. How long can one look at a pretty face (or legs. I’m not being creepy. That is the entire love story in Ala Vaikunthapuramlo) of someone who can’t do anything?

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Heisenberg

Thanks for not having GVM for another round 😀

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hari prasad

Ipo solliteengala Tamil Directors Roundtable nu Mani , Lokesh , Manikandan , Ranjith , Karthik Subbaraj , Pradeep oda serthu GVM ah um kooptu panna poraaru paarunga 😜

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lurker

Pradeep is top tier already?

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hari prasad

Pradeep gave Tamil Cinema its biggest hit in terms of small investments , big returns this year with Love Today , so there are chances Baddy would invite him to the Tamil Directors Roundtable if it happens…

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Rajesh Arumugam

@BR — yenna enakku ungala romba pidikkum… Indha round table irukkura silara ennaala ethukka mudila… Adhai padhivu seiya thaan

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Rajesh Arumugam

How come a BR interview without GVM ??

@Spandana – I totally agree on your comment about Pooja Hegde.

Srinidhi also has done only few movies. Don’t know why she is there.

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V

December 3, 2022

Please – one with Tamil directors. Your interview with Pradeep Ranganathan made for a refreshing watch, so was the one with Lokesh (pre-release ones). Mani, GVM, Lokesh, Pradeep, Parthiban, Dhanush (for Naane Varuven for which he wrote the story), Manigandan, Ranjith – this year the table will be like sangha palagai, that just keeps extending for every interesting artist.

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Deepika

December 6, 2022

When are we getting to watch this, BR!

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December 7, 2022

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Rocky

December 7, 2022

gt holidays and The Westin kee toh nikal padee. out of the 2.02 promo, 1.01 was promo of these two.
Looking forward to this, Pooja Hegde is so so beautiful.
Aside- I kept reading MEGA as MAGA lol !

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Rocky

December 7, 2022

I wish Kamal Hassan, Amir Khan, SLB, Vivek Agnihotri, Rohit Shetty, Ram Charan, NT Jr. and Adivi Sesh were included instead of Khapshyap and Kjo and VD.

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Raghu Narayanan

@BR: A soft suggestion…please keep a frying pan or a grill as part of the set prop to symbolically suggest to the invitees that some of them would likely get there 😀

Honestly, I would mind at all to see some BIG egos get broken and bruised. And ‘only you possible’ (guess the movie!?)

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The round table is up…

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Rocky

One hour 20 minutes ….watching it now.

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Rocky

My summary !!
Kjo emphasizes that Brahmastra opened big too.
Red velvet Khapshyap is as usual full of himself.
Pooja in three disasters – Radhey Shyam, Beaset and Aacharya
Varun Fumbles- Kannada vs Kannad right after Hemanth Rao had made a point about the difference .
Kjo- I went and hired Rajeev Masand , BR- who assembled this panel again ? LOL !!
Varun has gone radio silent after the Kannada fiasco
Khapshayp thinks the “Sangh” is Capitalist – Beda Gark !! what an ignorant fool.
Him talking about opportunists , really ? he should rewatch i Sacred Games season 2.
Kjo makes an excellent point about Bachchan Agneepath and the remake Agnee-patt.
Kjo winks like Rahul Gandhi, he again makes a good point about Uunchai and Kabir Singh.
10 minutes discussion on the OTT release of Nipun’s – Me Vasantrao!!

Srinidhi’s Jhumkas are simply wow !
BR plays with Varun, and creates a mini Bawaal with Circus ..LOL !!

“word” of the year- CONVICTION !

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karthik299

What a panel!
As expected, KJo was the most fun. Wanted to hear a little more from Nipun as he made some really good points, but him getting represented itself was a great gesture as very few people know about his film. For a change, did not enjoy Anurag as he seemed to take everything about himself a couple of times despite them being just jokes.
And Hemanth Rao was such a revelation!
Interested to see more of his work just because of this interview.

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Rajesh A

If I get to watch Me Vasantrao in some OTT platform in nearby future, I will consider this Roundtable a success. Otherwise as BR perfectly summarized the only word everybody kept repeating was conviction which they didn’t say/repeat/parrot with conviction.

I don’t think professional movie makers (i.e., not the upma movie makers) are doing movies without conviction. Everyone has some conviction on their stories.

I think instead going behind data/numbers, trend etc – If they go behind story, it will succeed. Bahubali, Eega, RRR, KGF2, PS-1, Vikram, (despite the malicious propaganda in) Kantara were not just about conviction. They fleshed out the screenplay putting their heart and soul on it. Conviction comes from that. And also spending right amount of money on the movie that needs it. Why does a 10crore budget tamil movie Vikram Vedha cost 180 crores (as per wiki) to make in Hindi especially when the movie doesn’t have any songs (particularly lavish songs, items songs) (which take a huge chuck of money)

Also, don’t repeat old outdated stuffs (like Laal Singh Chadda). Sita Ramam isn’t a repeating.

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rsylviana

Also, don’t repeat old outdated stuffs (like Laal Singh Chadda). Sita Ramam isn’t a repeating.

@Rajesh A: As in ?

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thoo

BR wtf? Does your channel think we’re watching a cricket game? There’s ads taking over the screen, ads every few mins. I mean WHAT THE FUCK. Pl don’t encourage this. I’m not going to watch. they will normalize this till every channel does this and we will all be the losers.

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thoo: I understand that you (like many) want free content AND non-interruption by ads — but that is not my department, as I am just the content producer and these decisions are taken by the money people.

Also, without ads/sponsors, we would not have been able to spend the lakhs we did on this round table, so though I get your annoyance (I really do), I also see no way around it. This is what pays the bills, keeps the company viable, and gives me and my team our salaries.

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thoo Also, about this statement:

BR wtf? Does your channel think we’re watching a cricket game?

So you are okay (or have gotten resigned) to be bombarded with ads during a cricket game, but not when it comes to entertainment? I don’t get the logic here…

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thoo

No, I stopped watching cricket too

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thoo

Everyone on youtube takes sponsors. There are sponsor blocks. Your video has a sponsor block in the beginning, intruding screen ads, youtube ads plus ads embedded in the video. WTF. This is exactly why I stopped watching cricket. This stuff is uniquely Indian in how intrusive it gets.

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thoo

all of these were within the first few mins after which I stopped watching. yeah ok, you will get enough views from others and I don’t matter but yeah I won’t be watching from now.

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Got this message, too – so I guess some people have made their peace with this 🤷🏽‍♂️

“Hi Baradwaj. Hope you are well. Just finished watching the mega roundtable episode and loved every second of it. Learnt so much. Great panel and as always brilliant questions and moderation.

Taking back the word ‘conviction’ with me to the coming days even more and hope to imbibe it in every way possible.

Thank you for being who you are and for inspiring me always. Love and respect and Happy New Year in advance. ❤️🤗”

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Raghu Narayanan

To the very first question, “what is working for people?” did I miss something or nobody mentioned ‘Quality’ & ‘Originality’? And I liked the fact that BR put this question to Anurag and then KJo – it was a nice way of pointing out, without pointing out, that only Hindi movies seem to be getting raw deals this year. And then Karthi said Trailers? I agree that a trailer becomes a hook, but if the movie lacked the quality and originality, the audience get off the hook, and fast! Truth to be told, Hindi cinema these days seems to be a re-hash of themes already beaten to death, or it is a remake! Into this mileau we find that there is support for certain films which, those who are part of the ‘boycott’ culture seem to be flocking to. And mostly, these are ‘South’ (and I just HATE the use of this term by ‘non-South’ folks) films which get dubbed in Hindi!

For a change, I could appreciate the clarity with which KJo expressed his views, without getting being silly or frivolous (as it so often happens in Koffee with Karan).

And ‘Kannad’ Varun Dhawan! We needed someone like him on the panel, who would in all his naivety get out this glorious confession that for a long, long, time, Hindi cinema lacked originality and creativity!!! What a bumbler!

Ultimately, IMO, Hindi films have become top heavy in terms of imbalance between commerce and art, and in terms of favoritism / nepotism as against giving more opportunities to a wider talent base. And, its facing the push back owing to this.

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Caesium

A hour and 20 mins went by fast. Particularly liked KJo’s theses on several topics (Hindi movie trends of each decade for the past half century, influence of OTT on Indian cinema landscape) Thanks much for this!

Format was rather fluid. Props to you for managing the crowd, providing the trigger questions, giving people their space to complete answers. Also, props to editor for going to town with frames and mini-frames and mini-mini-frames.

With big groups, it’s hard to get decent participation from all. IMHO, maybe panel could’ve been 2-3 people lighter.

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Caesium: With big groups, it’s hard to get decent participation from all. IMHO, maybe panel could’ve been 2-3 people lighter.

True 🙂 But while putting these together, I prefer to have 2-3 people extra in case someone drops out at the last minute. And if you have a tight panel and no one talks much, then that becomes a whole new issue 🙂

Here, that ‘last-minute drop out’ didn’t happen — but I’d rather work with more than less. So yeah, it’s a bit of a balancing act.

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Enna koduka sir pera

I loved the free flowing discussion. It was great. Kudos to you for moderating such a large panel. I was initially wondering what the topic of discussion would be in an eclectic panel like this – but it turned out to be really interesting to hear perspectives from various voices in different zones of cinema.
Also I really appreciate the efforts you take (either consciously or not) to bring recognition to well deserving, but Uber recognized artists and movies. Felt so for Mi Vasanthrao movie here and also during your guru somasundaram interview.

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“To the very first question, “what is working for people?” did I miss something or nobody mentioned ‘Quality’ & ‘Originality’? ” – You’re right but KJ did say, “Or just make good films”.

Also, his point that the Pink/Kapoor & Sons market is gone (or rather, gone down to 30cr from 70cr) is valid. Badla made 100 cr in domestic in 2019. Those days are gone. And that’s bad for cinema…if these kind of films will only get a small run in theaters or even go direct to OTT. Before the avid OTT defenders jump in, I am simply saying it reduces avenues for revenue for filmmakers, not imploring you to watch in theater.

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In fact, as I am listening, Varun Dhawan has made the exact point that there is a dearth of original stories in Bolly and that they have not empowered the writers.

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As Kashyap mentions the biggest star up North being Rocky-bhai with an image of bearded Yash on the screen, I recalled this article of yours.

Something in the hair

And if VV is any evidence, even Hrithink wants that ‘mard’ look now. Oh, how hath the mighty fallen!

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Kumar

My 2 cents – didnt mind the ads at all, we all know the trade offs while consuming engaging content that is both unique and free. And if you/your team can’t cash in on the social equity you have earned all these years for a few minutes of ads then I dont know who can. But, I do feel that the OTT space lacks conversational content on cinema – we have David Letterman moving on to Netflix, I think you should consider it seriously. And, Netflix btw is also creating an ad supported alternative.

Feedback on the panel: I liked the fact that you were giving a platform for Nipun, did he feel okay when everyone started hawking his movie to OTT providers on his behalf – just started to look a bit like regional appropriation from big bolly-brother. I really like when your panels dwell into the mindspace and craft of a maker or an actor – I guess that can only be accomplished in a 1-1 setting. The deep ones with SJ Suryah, Pasupathi, Govind Vasantha and the more alluring ones with Kamal, Simbu, Anurag, Lokesh and Mani particularly stand out. These larger settings only gives space for very generic questions like – what’s working post pandemic? will OTT and cinemas co-exist? what is ideal for OTT vs. cinema. You have asked these questions many times to many people already these last couple of years. These questions are now beginning to sound more like CNBC news anchors asking equity analysts on where the markets will move from here, their rationale and what their picks are looking like. Market forces are a bit like mother nature – we can talk all we want but the unexpected always happens, we call it a black swan and then frame a narrative and connect the dots to make sense of it for the unversed.
I love your content because you get into the minds of these people and also make them open up in a way they talk to a peer – its authentic conversation. While this panel was interesting, but, it was more like everyone becoming a soothesayer in front of a crystal ball. Maybe a round table of producers talking about market forces would have made this conversation more authentic – ie Karan was probably (or atleast I) the one person who got into the market dynamics which sounded authentic. So a panel of people with mixed backgrounds makes sense only when you get the to talk about the creative process and the give and take they need to do with each other to get a product out. I liked Karthi and Hemanth saying everyones brilliance and incompetence makes up the end product and diving deeper into that aspect with an eclectic bunch such as this would have been more fascinating.

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PRS Rao

@thoo You could just use Brave browser or an ad blocker which blocks ads. The browser hack works on Mobile too. Just open the same page on the browser and watch it – no ads, except the ones embedded in the video itself.

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Macaulay Perapulla

Kudos to the editing team and camera team for capturing the plurality of the dialogue so beautifully in this panel discussion. I haven’t seen multi-player panel discussions captured like this before. When Karan Johar is speaking, we are able to hear him alongside Karthi’s comments about how Rajni took his mannerisms from Amitabh. The content is mostly what we’ve heard before. But the form is great!

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Agree with Kumar. Maybe a more ‘focused’ panel would allow for a THR like roundtable where you could just give a 10 minute space for each to talk about a film they were part of with others chipping in.

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” The content is mostly what we’ve heard before. But the form is great!” – Sums up most of today’s cinema!

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Raghu Narayanan

@Madan: Yes, you are right and I heard that as well when KJo said, “Or just make good films” though I was left wondering a bit because dont everyone set out to make good films? Why put an ‘Or’ upfront as if its one of the options on the table? I got a bit confused on that. And when Varun Dhawan says that “they have not empowered the writers” I feel that it throws light on a deeper malady pervading the Hindi film industry which does not allow for artistic freedom and risk-taking by the controlling mafia. This industry seems to be singularly focusing only on paisa vasool (maybe, been doing this for the past few decades even) as the main mantra. ?Use a formula that has worked before! Whereas, someone like a Rajamouli seems to realize that paisa coming in is a natural consequence of a quality movie. Now, quality does have many dimensions and maybe while his movies lack the depth of a Ayyapanum Koshiyum, there is stupendous value in the production which does give a superlative experience to the audience. Malayalam is still focused more on quality of content rather than big budgets – so there does not seem to be the race to rake in a 1000 crore revenue in any case. The common thread that I can observe is that, the movies that worked big this year do not have the ‘superstar’ effect. As in, the movie / output is much larger than the stars who acted in the movie. Be it RRR, KGF, Kantara, etc. this seems to be a common thread. And this is the case in almost every Malayalam movie. As against this, even the Tamil industry seem to suffer in this area. We have a Beast and a Valimai which are diametric opposites! Big budgets with total focus on the ‘superstar’ and next to nothing (that is, below nothing!) in production value. So I think the powers that be in the Hindi industry need to introspect and see what is going to work in the future. Maybe, less pay for the superstars and more production value if its a big budget venture and total focus on quality, creativity and originality if its a low budget venture. And still it will be a toss up, because its ultimately the audience who give the verdict.

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“though I was left wondering a bit because dont everyone set out to make good films?” – Hehe, million dollar question when applied to Indian cinema and especially to Bollywood.

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Rajesh A

BR – Let me clarify, I am not thoo
but, let me the explain the logic here.
“So you are okay (or have gotten resigned) to be bombarded with ads during a cricket game, but not when it comes to entertainment? I don’t get the logic here…”

In cricket, they don’t put an advertisement when the ball is travelling from bowlers hand to batsman’s bat or from batsman’s bat till the ball is back to bowler. there might be adds on the screen even when while the bowler is preparing from the next ball. But the explicit advertisement break is normally only between overs.

i get your point that you need to at least break even. But, I hope there are other ways exists to put adv and recover costs.

I don’t know whether you watched this roundtable discussions with advertisements in youtube. Probably if you watch few interviews like this, you might get what many of us felt.

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kaizokukeshav

Unimpressed by the fact that there are no Telugu flag bearers in the round table, also off late there are no Telugu reviews either (even though there are very few review worthy ones).

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musical venkyy

Success of films are like lottery wins. No use analysing and advising. It is random and unpredictable.

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Mass man

Mr. Anurag Kashyap is arguably the most accomplished film person in this panel yet we got so little out of him. I felt like he could’ve been prodded a bit on some of the topics discussed. For example, Varun Dhawan mentioned writers being not empowered, Kashyap being someone who started out as a writer and who later went onto empower many could’ve given a perspective on the same. Similarly, he was also a very powerful independent film producer a few years back with AKFPL and Phantom and he could’ve been asked about how he made profit off such off beat concepts etc. And he must have been an astute producer cause for all I know Phantom broke up cause of that queen director guy’s sexual harrasment case and not cause of money issues.

And Karan Johar has this tendency of hogging the limelight in such discussions and he should let others speak.

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Prat

Wishing for a music directors roundtable!

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vijay

Yes music directors roundtable, I was thinking the same. Elllarayum round katti adikkalaam..

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Honest Raj

December 12, 2022

The current generation is finding it difficult to work in bilinguals? 🙂 Kamal has done this several times in his career. I can think of Shankarlal – after the director’s sudden demise halfway through the shoot, he went on to ‘complete’ (in addition to acting) the film all by himself. And, he was just about 27 then – doing 10-15 films a year!

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anony

I would love it if u can do a session with lesser number of people. Quality over quantity, where there is a natural flow of conversation and there is enough time for everyone to say what they want to, without the fear of getting interjected or cut off .

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sanjay

Agree the informal format turned more like a chit chat session and discussion felt aimless at times except the ‘conviction’ part which was summarized at the end. Kashyap did sound genuine of the lot but did not have much talk time. Varun and Karan johar kind of show why Bollywood is idiotic to the core. These are the idiots who make movies for us and now I wonder the sorry state of affairs at the movie theatres.

After all the research, waiting and getting to know audience pulse, we get a moronic Pathan where the hero does not even know his limits and looks repulsive and like a chimp on screen. How can u expect audience to throng to theatres with such repeated crap.

yesterday a Canadian lady was trending on tiktok requesting Canada Kumar to take a break and stop doing films for atleast 4 years and come live in Brampton instead of giving nonsense like ram setu with no depth and through the motion .

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hari

Sanjay on Fire

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sanjay

Bollywood is beyond any reasoning and discussions for the time being!
How else can one explain a guy who gave Zero 4 years back , faced outright rejection and has been giving substandard crap and getting rejected for a good 10-15 years would be humble in any approach towards his work but actually doubles down nearing age 60 with those yucky torso and pelvic thrust to lure back his audience?? This is delusion in purest form and something Karan Johar harked upon in this discussion also but when it comes to implementation they continue to do the same time and again.

It all seems an extension / variation of the nepotistic discourse and nothing but power grab or the arrogance of shoving anything and everything on our faces just because they can or have certain position of power to do so. Obviously simple demand and supply and the economics of filmmaking does not bother Bollywood anymore because disasters far outnumber the triumphs.

Not even a question that most prefer a Avatar: The Way of Water than venture into a color blind Rohit Shetty Cirkus in literal sense !!

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Rajesh A

@PRS Rao – Thank you so much for the Brave Browser. I can listen to any video while doing my daily chores without having to watch the ad or skp the ad every 5mins are once.

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Rocky

https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/bollywood/story/vivek-agnihotri-slams-anurag-kashyaps-claims-of-kantara-pushpa-destroying-bollywood-calls-him-bollywoods-milord-2308793-2022-12-13

This roundtable is trending now-
During a Galatta Plus round table, Anurag Kashyap said, “With pan-India, what is happening right now is that everybody is trying to make a pan-India film.”

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“How else can one explain a guy who gave Zero 4 years back , faced outright rejection and has been giving substandard crap and getting rejected for a good 10-15 years would be humble in any approach towards his work but actually doubles down nearing age 60 with those yucky torso and pelvic thrust to lure back his audience?” – Pardon but I fail to understand why it is OK for Tamil and Telugu stars to continue to act macho well PAST 60 but somehow SRK attempting this is distasteful? And last I checked, Chennai Express, as horrible as it was (for me), was a big, big hit. It’s not even 10 years since that film and you are saying he has been rejected for at least 10-15 years?

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musical venkyy

Anupam Kher would have suited the role in Goodbye. B looked too old. They created 15 years age gap to justify the casting. Neena gupta looked like B’s daughter.
Amir Khan and his last two duds. He listens to himself too much. What next for him? Becoming a full time parent for the next 10 years. Then he can play granddad to his own grandkids for the rest of his life.
Srk should stop trying to trying his luck every 5 years. Being in the same frame with bikini clad girls will not make him a lover boy once again except for his fanboys and fangirls.
Akshay is like Sisyphus. He will not give up.
Ajay Devgn will do Drishyam 3, 4, 5 and so on with Tabu and Shreya till 2040.
Why to pick on poor Janhvi? I will be looking forward to her next move or movie.
A musical perhaps.

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musical venkyy

At all India levels, south stars are not as relevant as say an Akshay or even an Ayushman K. South films may become hits but their stars wont get collateral benefits. So they are not on radar as much and are not bashed as much as their cousins from bollywood. Why it has to be south only? What about gujrati, marathi, bengali, assamese etc.?
It will always be bollywood and the rest. Occasional hits like Drishyam 2 makes bollywood stronger than 10 hits from non- bollywood entities.

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Macaulay Perapulla

I so badly missed BR in this interview. Everyone sitting with folded hands, and it seemed as if the host wasn’t warming up the space to make the panellists feel open and light enough to share their perspectives. It felt like such a missed opportunity.

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Macaulay Periapulla: Was thinking the same. This was the kind of panel I’d have loved for the galatta plus round table.

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Macaulay Perapulla

Yeah man. Except for Prithviraj and Kamal, everyone else only sat there. I was raging at one moment when Prithviraj had the audacity of cutting Kamal when he was trying to answer a question. Everyone else felt overwhelmed with Kamal in the space and the host wasn’t warming them up enough to be who they are in the midst of a legend like Kamal.

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Ashwin Kumar

@Madan, I think there is a difference between acting macho and resorting to crass music video kinda songs with halk naked people dancing around. I don’t recall any recent aging stars doing stuff like this anymore. Rajini had learnt his lessons and started doing somewhat age appropriate roles. So is Kamal, and even Vijay and Ajith too. Maybe I am missing something, but I wonder what’s the thinking behind the recently released song. It was uncomfortable to watch for sure in a living room 🙂

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lurker

@Ashwin – Rajini was paired with Nayantara in his last movie (Not saying that it’s right or wrong, they’re just actors and I’m not bothered about their age and stuff)

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” I think there is a difference between acting macho and resorting to crass music video kinda songs with halk naked people dancing around. ” – So a two piece bikini is half naked?

And Rajni was older than SRK is today when he did this (top portion is identical, they are only not showing off legs):

It’s ok, double standards are the flavour of the season, I guess.

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lurker: Rajni age-appropriate a nadicha podhum. Avan underage-a love panna kuda thapila, that’s how the ‘logic’ works. I mean it’s a film, they can do whatever they want, but the point is these things already don’t fly in Bollywood. On top of which we now have 360 degree moral policing.

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Ashwin Kumar

@Madan, I already did hint about how Rajini did all this nonsense and later learnt his lesson. Do it really matter the specifics of which age 🙂 and Sivaji came out way back in 2006/07? And the world has evolved since then.

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Ashwin Kumar

@lurker, Totally agree with you that as actors, it’s their choice. It’s just that it comes across as silly/tacky

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“I already did hint about how Rajini did all this nonsense and later learnt his lesson. ” – But it’s not exactly as if he was punished for it. Sivaji was a big, big hit. He just switched to a different tone from Kabali onwards.

” Do it really matter the specifics of which age 🙂 and Sivaji came out way back in 2006/07? And the world has evolved since then.” – It does because Shah Rukh is 57. He may have been around a long time but he is not even that much older than Ajith. I don’t think this has very much to do with the world evolving, given that Yash got away with spouting horribly sleazy lines to his keep in KGF2 and Rishabh even eavesdrops on his lover when she’s bathing naked. But more that for South fans, SRK does not fit the masculine macho bill the same way as their favourites and that’s more what he’s being attacked for. And besides, the colour of Deepika’s dress being offensive really is the definition of looking for things to get offended about, in case you’re following the social media conversation about it.

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Ashwin Kumar

@Madan, I certainly don’t want to get into the north south comparisons because I am a fan of both and I have been following both industries for long and also fan of SRK. And no I don’t bother with the stupid moral policing brigade who read hidden meanings in everything:-)
On a lighter note, found a gem to help you ( sarath kumar in sandamarutham doing a SRK) 🙂

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Ashwin Kumar: Fair enough. My original comment was in any case addressed to sanjay who often makes very contradictory complaints about Bollywood which don’t take into account that the boycott brigade presently (emphasis on presently) has its guns trained on B-wood as the big prize. If Bollywood is brought down, it will of course soothe the hearts of those fond of commie revolutions but the consequence of that will be South films being subjected to similar moral policing instead.

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Re the film companion adda, I couldn’t help notice that only Kamal spelt out a goal that would aim to technically improve filmmaking. And it was mostly also he who talked about the films from more of a narrative or aesthetic pov. It kind of ties into what BR said in the other thread about the Sight and Sound list – our cinema is commercial-oriented. So even the producers – some of them being actors/directors – talk a pure commercial language for the most part. I was interested in whether anyone at all would bring up Gargi but nope, it was only about the films that made big money. Even if you brought together an assemblage of Hollywood directors to only talk about theme park films, they would still find a way to talk about the artistic aspects and the emotions and that was mostly missing in the adda (barring Kamal’s contributions to the discussion).

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Rajesh A

I think Karan Johar should take what Rajamouli rightfully said (in another round table/film companion) without any sugar coating that Bollywood got complacent once the movie business is done.

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sanjay

There is no issue if one decides to act macho, dances with half-clad girls or is half naked at any stage of his life and 57 or 60 is just a number in large scheme of things. Problem is when these megalomaniacs don’t autocorrect – dude u look hideous and repulsive if not ugly showing that ripped navel area zooming on groin and private parts. In normal circumstances audience rejection would take care of such an issue and demand and supply would trigger but seemingly economics does not seem to be hurting anyone in Bollywood currently. Zero was a massive disaster so have been many others in last few years. Happy New Year itself had that unnecessary bare torso mud fight. 2007 was the only time in OSO where it may have fallen in place. Audience keeps rejecting and box office receipts should auto correct in a normal world. Chennai Express worked as an exception but boy what a cringe piece of filming.
Core issue is maturity where perfectly normal, intelligent people get delusional if there aren’t any checks and balances or have people with objective minds around to correct things. For srk last time a task master helmed a project we got a Chak De. Hope Hirani can iron out these issues in Dunki and not the other way round like Anand Rai;s Zero. Even a Rohit Shetty could not handle such egregious behavior after Dilwale.

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“Chennai Express worked as an exception but boy what a cringe piece of filming.” – What you call ‘exception’ is precisely what encourages filmmakers and actors alike to hold onto the notion that this is OK because the audience likes it. Just as Rajni fans queueing up to watch Darbar or Annathe while complaining that Thalaivar could make better films actually only conveys the message that this is good enough for the audience. And by the way, Happy New Year and Raees didn’t lose money either. Nor did Dilwale. Zero and JHMS were the only two SRK films that got a resounding rejection.

After covid, if the audience suddenly decided to sit under a bodhi tree and get enlightened, doesn’t mean the past sins can be erased or the sinners held accountable for them either. Adjustment is going to take time because for so long, they have been told mediocre is ok.

And the signals are still very confusing. As I said, Yash gets away with horribly cheesy dialogues to his mistress in KGF2 and it is the biggest blockbuster of the year. If it is true that the audience has outgrown gross (especially if aging superstars are going to enact it), why does the Thaar Maar video have 21mn views and 155k likes? Speaking of, even Besharam Rang has 37mn views already along with – wait for it – 1.1 mn likes. Let the audience decide, for real, that they want class and they hate mediocre. I am all for it but colour me skeptical. If they flock to stars for their name alone, nothing will change.

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m

“I was raging at one moment when Prithviraj had the audacity of cutting Kamal when he was trying to answer a question. ”
Kamal was interjecting and interrupting everyone and hijacking the conversation. But it is fun to listen to him talk. Everyone else , except for prithvi wasnt opening up, because they were too in awe of kamal and they let him do all the talking and it is obvious that kamal loves talking. Everyone seems to have come prepared to listen to kamal talk.

Prithvi seemed to be too excited about something and was in the mood to talk. Maybe excited about all the money he made this year from all his distribution and production ventures. Gautam might have run out of things to say because he has already done too many interviews with rangan.Rajamouli looked like he had done too much talking during his american tour for rrr and he just wanted to chillax . Lokesh was definitely anupamas’ favorite and it was cute to see her being all motherly with him.
Anupama , I dont think is well versed with south films. But I like that she didnt interrupt their banter too much with smart alec comments or asked long questions to make herself look better than the guests.

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Aman Basha

Forgive me for being out of touch, but are people really complaining about this hot hunk?

just shah rukh khan being so BESHARAM to look like this at 57 🧎🏽‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/Vd6iHa0oxh

— shahd (@shahodx) December 12, 2022

I feel for BR, who has now among all things, seen his blog become….prude. 🙂

It might be better if the Pathaan related comments were moved elsewhere. Really distract from the Roundtable.

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Aman: The blog has been an outlier for long but ultimately can’t not reflect the sensibilities of the nation as a whole. In other news, at last Bhootnath has woken up from his slumber and realized something doesn’t smell right about the Republic. Too late!

I warned in one of the innumerable boycott discussions that this would simply become a rent seeking avenue for sanghi groups and it has already come to pass with VHP raising the ban bogey. And those who then said our reactions to people using loudspeakers to tell others not to watch LSC were being alarmist are now silent, big surprise! Bas, what about Congress in 1947 khelte raho, barbadi bhi chal jayegi bas ek mandir ban gayi toh.

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Aman Basha

@Madan: But the weird thing is the people complaining here have the same complaint as some of the prudes saying this is too vulgar and all. When BR, I remember, wrote a piece about topless scenes once. 🙂 Rare horseshoe moment on the blog. I am not talking about boycott but the complaint that SRK looks bad, to the contrary he looks amusingly fresh.

The color thing in Besharam Rang is really jumping the shark for the nutcase gang. This is clutching for straws and may I say, what offended these lunatics is that a “Pathaan” is dressed all stylish and swaying with bikini clad beauties. Goes against their world view.

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Well, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder so if someone finds SRK gross in the video, I am not going to argue that. It’s the calling the girls half naked part that’s, like, um…we aren’t in the 80s anymore, are we? THIS is so objectionable? Wow. Like, I am ok with people going ewww at this but the vitriol is what I don’t understand.

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https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/boycott-pathaan-trend-shah-rukh-khan-deepika-padukone-song-jnu-maharashtra-bjp-leader-ram-kadam-wants-explanation-drags-in-deepika-padukones-jnu-visit-3611435#pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Now that the derisively labelled Sonia Sena is gone, Maha can also join in competing with MP or Karnataka on who has maximum Dr Phil quotient.

All this because she wore a saffron dress once? Arre par aapko to hara rang bhi nahi bhaata, na? Phir poora nanga chalega kya?

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lurker

“The blog has been an outlier for long but ultimately can’t not reflect the sensibilities of the nation as a whole”

@Madan – Nicely put. I don’t really follow this blog for readers’ political opinions, but there are are all sorts of generalizations being thrown about lately, not unlike in Twitter (a recent much ‘liked’ comment said atheists need rituals and that’s why they wear black bands.)

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lurker: Heh, I personally knew two atheists, one being an uncle, and neither had use for rituals, religious or otherwise.

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?

Seriously, people are complaining about a well maintained srk paired up with deepika? If people can sit through chiranjeevi, balayya, mohanlal,rajni , nagarjuna and the rest of the older heroes with their pot belly and wigged up bald pate romance young girls , then why not deepika& srk. At least they have paired up a couple of times before this in other films. People didnt complain then? Then why complain now. Their pair definitely looks believable.In south, the older heroes dont even pair up with the same girls. They go for younger actresses with each new movie.

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“If people can sit through chiranjeevi, balayya, mohanlal,rajni , nagarjuna and the rest of the older heroes with their pot belly and wigged up bald pate romance young girls , then why not deepika& srk. ” – The argument seems to be that happened a few years ago but like I said, Chiranjeevi and Sallu just did that all over again in Thaar Maar.

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?

controversy over saffron colored swimsuit!!! I mean, have to admit, their sense of humor is amazing. I thought having to watch people drink cow excreta and smear it on their body on tv was the heights. But they seem to come up with amazingly new and innovative ways to top their previous joke. whoever is coming up with these wonderful reasons to start new controversies, thanks for the laughs.

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