‘Indian cinema needs more collaborations to go global’

It was a rare get together that saw the most celebrated names of Indian cinema share a common stage and discuss the global impact of Bollywood. As part of the Solutions Summit organised by NDTV to celebrate its 25th anniversary, actor Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Waheeda Rehman along with music composer A.R. Rahman discussed the journey of Indian films on a global platform.

The talk started with Bachchan pointing out how Indian cinema is now a global phenomenon. He also mentioned that the music and dance, which is an integral part of Indian movies, was earlier criticised by the West but it is now being appreciated and acknowledged worldwide.

The actor said, “Indian film industry is the only industry that has grown tremendously over the years. It’s a fact that whenever Hollywood movies enter a market, they destroy the native film industry of that country. However, they were unable to do so in India due to our strong culture. Till sometime back we never knew our movies were so popular across the world, now we have created a global audience for Indian movies.”

The veteran was backed by the present superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who mentioned that there’s no stopping for Indian films if the existing divides in the industry are taken care of.

Shah Rukh mentioned, “Earlier, movies were divided into mainstream and parallel cinema, then people started classifying it as art or commercial and now it is reduced to single screens and multiplexes. The need of the hour is collaborations, we cannot achieve a global success unless we work together and blend in their technology and script writing with our sensibilities. If you want to be a part of global cinema, you have to tell what you want to tell, show the emotions which you want to show, but you have to put it in the way the world wants to see it.”

The other panelist, A. R. Rahman, added that he often finds himself in a situation where he becomes the common point in the Indian and global cinema.

He said, “I have been a victim of this. What is considered to be good here, is not good there. I have to switch between the two. However, there are some things which are common as well.