Pad Man director R Balki calls blockbusters in last 4-5 years ‘damn boring’

With a rise in the re-releases of popular Indian films in theatres, it's a clear indication that this year’s fresh releases have been dull in terms of entertainment. Pad Man director R Balki thinks the same. In a recent chat with MIT World Peace University, R Balki said that he honestly feels that a few Bollywood blockbusters in the last four to five years have been “damn boring”. 

He said, “A few blockbusters that have happened in the last four or five years, or whatever, have actually been the worst films. Not only from an intellectual or artistic point of view but also from the old entertainment, ‘masala, paisa vasool’ kind of a feel. Also, they’re damn boring. The fun has completely gone from our blockbusters.”

R Balki then compared today's blockbusters with those of the 1970s by Manmohan Desai. He recalled watching the late filmmaker's Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) and Naseeb (1981) during an Amitabh Bachchan retrospective film festival around the actor's 80th birthday in 2022.

He said, “It’s become like a project. There’s an economics associated with that stuff. They want to recover this, they’re putting this money, they’re pumping the marketing out. It’s marketing, basically. It’s just driving people towards believing something is good. By the time people believe it’s bad, the film has made its money.”

Balki made his Bollywood debut with the 2007 romantic comedy Cheeni Kum, starring Amitabh and Tabu. He followed it up with Paa (2009) with Amitabh, Abhishek Bachchan and Vidya Balan; Shamitabh (2015) with Amitabh and Dhanush; Ki & Ka (2016) with Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor, Pad Man (2018) with Akshay Kumar, Chup: Revenge of the Artist (2022) with Dulquer Salmaan. His most recent film was Ghoomer with Saiyami Kher and Abhishek Bachchan.

At the time of its release, Balki said that Ghoomer didn't work at the box office because of Anil Sharma's action drama Gadar 2. The film brought back nostalgia with it and Balki’s Chup collaborator Sunny Deol’s return to the screen. 

He said that nobody expected this kind of a thing. “We thought everyone will do well and we can have the second week. This kind of tsunami was not expected,” he said.