‘I Credit SRK, Siddharth Anand and YRF for ‘Pathaan,’’ Says Milap Zaveri About How They Resurrected Bollywood. All eyes on Khan and Anand with ‘King’’s December release (EXCLUSIVE)

The era of massy action entertainers of the 1980s may be maligned for its films, but it was a very successful period for Bollywood. There were 'houseful' boards outside theatres. Presently, the industry is struggling to get audiences to the theatres, director Milap Zaveri believes the makers are to be blamed. They started making films for critics rather than the audience. 

The filmmaker adds that the shutting down of single screens in small towns and even cities is troubling to the business and to him, personally, “It's sad that so many theaters, especially single screens, have shut down in India. We are to blame because we stopped making films for the masses. Because we were so enamored by a handful of elite critics in Mumbai that we started worrying we wouldn't be cool if we made a commercial, massy film. We started shying away from that. So, our films stopped working. Ultimately, theatres had no content to play because audiences were not coming, especially in small towns. So theaters shut down. ”

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Zaveri, known for making massy entertainers like “Satyameva Jayate” and “Ek Deewane ki Deewaniyat”, adds that COVID is only partly responsible for audiences staying at home. He credits “Pathaan” for Bollywood’s resurrection post-COVID. “I must give credit to Siddharth Anand, YRF and Shah Rukh Khan, that they made ‘Pathaan.’ It achieved the numbers, which no Hindi film had reached. They showed us that you can make a commercial Hindi masala film with a superstar, and the audiences will come to the theatre.”

Milap Zaveri is currently busy with his next untitled romantic drama, which marks his reunion with Harshvardhan Rane after “Ek Deewane ki Deewaniyat.” Bankrolled by T-Series, it also features Akanksha Sharma in a key role.