Box-office blockbusters are the biggest threat to cinema: Filmmaker R. Balki at KIFF

Filmmaker R. Balki delivers the Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture at the 30th Kolkata International Film Festival on December 6, 2024 in Kolkata, West Bengal
| Photo Credit: Debasish Bhaduri

Advertising honcho and director of films like Cheeni Kum and Paa, R. Balki, expressed his concern about the death of cinema while delivering the esteemed Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture at the 30th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) on Friday December 7, 2024).

Mr. Balki said the biggest threat to the existence of good cinema are mega blockbusters that rake up hundreds of crores at the box office because according to him, most of these films are not up to the mark.

“The audience has already come into the theatre because of the marketing hype and the amount of thumping happening to bring those people in. Then they go out having watched a film, but they don’t go out with more love for cinema,” he said. 

“There are four to five such films making a lot of money but they do not make a lot of sense in bringing people to the theatres, which is the purpose of cinema,” Mr. Balki added.

Mr. Balki is a National Film Award-winning Indian screenwriter and filmmaker, known for directing renowned films like Cheeni Kum, Paa, Ki and Ka, Padman, and others. He is also known as one of the country’s foremost advertising executives. 

“Cinema is endangered. Cinema is struggling to figure out how to live, and hence our dreams of making good films are also in danger,” Mr. Balki said during his lecture at Kolkata’s Sisir Mancha. “I think [Satyajit] Ray was very, very lucky that he’d never have to think of this. At Ray’s time, cinema was not endangered like it is now,” he said in his lecture at KIFF on Friday.

He also cited an example of the Malayalam film industry, expressing concern that its storytelling innovation would be stifled since “it got a taste of ₹600 crores at the box office”. 

“Filmmakers and producers have tried to build a template that they think can guarantee hundred-crore box-office blockbusters. They think that’s what the audience wants. But if you give them a slightly more interesting film, the audience will only clap louder,” he said.

Mr. Balki also highlighted that the public’s addiction to social media content like Instagram Reels is also a big threat to the cinematic form and the sustenance of a film-watching culture.

“There’s a surplus of content, but there’s not a surplus of good content. It’s very difficult to find something great to watch,” Mr. Balki said in his lecture. “Just as we are responsible for tackling climate change, shouldn’t we take responsibility for preserving the climate of cinema?”

In his lecture, the filmmaker also underlined how artificial intelligence is set to take over the film industry and make the role of creative personnel nearly obsolete. “Soon they won’t need us to make films anymore. Most of the things we are doing in films can easily be done by AI,” Mr. Balki said, quipping that “soon we will soon have categories of films — man-made, and AI-made”.