Fri. Mar 29th, 2024
Film audience agnostic to platform, language if content is good: Producer Priti Shahani!

Producer Priti Shahani says that film audience agnostic to platform only if language content is good. Priti’s recently released movie “Bareilly Ki Barfi”, which was a romantic comedy film, directed by Ashwini Iyer Tiwari and written by Nitesh Tiwari. The movie features Rajkummar Rao, Ayushmann Khurrana and Kriti Sanon in the lead roles.

Priti says that the dynamics of the Indian film audience and box office collection readings are changing rapidly. Her last movie “Bareilly Ki Barfi” is attracting the audience with its sweet narrative small town love story.

About the same Priti says, “The indicators are very clear from the audience. They are looking for a story.” She added, “The thing is that the audience is being exposed to a lot of content. Whether this comes from OTT platforms, whether it is local content with companies like Only Much Louder or The Viral Fever or Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, they are exposed to the global content. So what we have noticed is that if your content is great, then the consumer is agnostic to platform, size of screen and language. There are no barriers anymore. If you want people to step out of their homes and commit four hours, buy tickets and popcorn, then you need to give them an engaging experience.”

Priti makes a pertinent point, she says that all the much-awaited projects received a lukewarm response based on their content and the audience is readily dismissing the movies of Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, and Ranbir Kapoor.

Priti was earlier associated with the Reliance Entertainment and Studio 18 and she has seen Box office changing tremendously over the years. She says, “One of the things that have happened over the last three years is that the box office has changed in the way it reacts. Initially, we were able to call the opening numbers of our films with great ease, and based on a Friday number, probably even predict what a weekend figure would be and maybe even the first-week figure. That has changed over the past few years. Even in the last six months, there has been a rapid change in the way we are reading the box office.”

Priti says that the Saturday numbers are well decided in advance whether the content has been well-received or not, and whether the movie is going to stay in the theater for a long time or not. Priti says, “The other thing I find on big-ticket films is that sometimes the numbers start changing within the day… So it is very clear that it’s the word-of-mouth that works. You can have very aggressive marketing and promotional plans, but at the end of the day, what sticks out is the content and word-of-mouth, whether it is through social media or through WhatsApp groups, is pretty rapid.”

Her production house last produced Meghna Gulzar’s directorial movie ‘Talvar’, which was based on the 2008 murder of a 14-year-old Aarushi Talwar. Priti says that her recent movie Bareilly Ki Barfi was inspired by an English translation of a French book “Ingredients of Love”. Her movie has already been endorsed as a must watch a movie by the legendary Amitabh Bachchan and by the Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani.

Now, Priti is gearing up for her upcoming movie titled ‘Raazi’, which is based on the Harinder Sikka’s novel “Calling Sehmat”. The movie will be directed by Meghna Gulzar and co-produced by Karan Johar. It features Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal in the lead role. The shooting for the movie has already started.

The story of her upcoming venture of ‘Raazi‘ is about a Kashmiri girl who marries a Pakistani officer (played by Vicky Kaushal) and spies for the Indian Intelligence. The movie is based on the Harinder Sikka’s novel ‘Calling Sehmat’, and the movie will be shot in Punjab, Kashmir, and Mumbai. Director of the movie Meghna is very well known for the films like Filhaal and Talvar. Meghna is the daughter of celebrated writer Gulzar and veteran actress Raakhee. The movie is slated to release on 11 May 2018.

After this, her next project would include Vidyut Jammwal-starrer “Junglee”, which will be directed by an American writer-filmmaker Chuck Russell. About this Priti said, “We are in the business of creating valuable Intellectual Property, and that’s created only through content that has been very well-received, accepted and that which has longevity.”