It’s standard for filmmakers and producers to do a ‘friends and family screening’ ahead of their project’s unveiling. In the last few years, this method has turned more professional, bringing in formal focus groups to view a film and give feedback to the filmmakers.
During a recent roundtable organized by The Hollywood Reporter India, two celebrated filmmakers, Karan Johar and Zoya Akhtar, admitted that they “hate” the whole process. According to them, focus groups can be so “ruthless” on occasion, and Zoya for her part has lost interest in organizing these sessions.
Karan recalled an incident which happened with Zoya’s film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. He conveyed, “Zoya has to tell you a story when she showed Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara to somebody, an astute commercial mind, who said ‘Oh there are too many travel shots’, and she says to him, ‘It’s a travel film’. During the screening of the Gully Boy, the same person says, ‘There is too much rapping’, and then she says, ‘Because this is a film about rap’. She was like, ‘What am I doing here?'”
