Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt recently dropped truth bombs when he compared Bollywood films to South Indian films. Dutt said the concept of ‘heroism’ in Bollywood has been overshadowed by slice-of-life kind of movies. He addressed the fact the Hindi film fraternity needs to start believing in their cinema, which they have forgotten. The actor was addressing the issue in an interview with Zoom where he further added that the reason why South Indian films are working at the box office and Hindi films aren’t is that Bollywood is no longer catering to tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
Sharing an incident, the actor revealed that when he travelled to these states, fans ask him why he doesn’t play the kind of characters that he used to. He said that one of the fans asked him why he did Bhoomi, and folded his hands in one scene. The fan told him that he wanted him to destroy the courtroom with his bare hands in that film, because that’s what they expect of him. Dutt said the Hindi film industry is forgetting states like Bihar, UP, Jharkhand, Orissa, Rajasthan, MP which constitute 90% of the audience, who are hungry to see their movies.
Dutt reminisced that he had grown up watching Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra films where the idea of a ‘hero’ was alive. “We did that when we were introduced. And suddenly, it’s gone out of the window,” he said. Sanjay confessed that as a producer now, he hopes to do more mas films where he can take actors like Salman Khan. He said that even young actors like Ranveer Singh and Ranbir Kapoor can pull off such films, but they have got to be ‘open’ to doing them.