Filmmaker Apurva Asrani offered his support to Priyanka Chopra when she disclosed that she had left Bollywood due to a dispute with several powerful figures in the business. Asrani now discusses how some families in the industry have an advantage in the market since they have been around for decades and are familiar with the audience’s pulse in an exclusive chat with Hindustan times,
In a converstaion with the publication he said, “Obviously they have their favourites and have every right to work with the ones they like. The problem is when they gang up to oust an actor or a technician from not just their movie, but from the entire ecosystem,”
Asrani recalls seeing “many enormous egos upset” when a performer turned down their project or quit due to artistic differences. “Then these egos call other egos and tell them not to work with this person. They then use the media and powerful journalists to run campaigns to discredit this person. Blind articles are written by corrupt scribes who make damaging accusations. False stories are planted about inappropriate behaviour on set. If this actor/technician is resilient and continues to do good work, then their work is poorly reviewed, or worse, not reviewed at all. If the project still manages to become successful, then news of the success is not carried. All this can be very damaging to a hardworking talent, especially one who doesn’t have a father or uncle in the film business.”
After that, Asrani began describing how people like Kartik Aaryan “thrived” despite the “vicious campaigns” launched against him.
The director described how Priyanka was surrounded during a similar campaign against her in 2012. He went to speak about her two enormous singles in a single year, Barfi and Agneepath, but a city newspaper’s front page featured a headline declaring that no hero wanted to collaborate with her. According to Asrani, this is why Priyanka’s victory is a victory for all of the people, who are continuing to battle against a system that is primarily corrupt. “They weren’t giving her due, she wasn’t allowed to grow as an actor and a celebrity,” says Asrani.
Priyanka is not the first person to criticise the Film mafias, though. Asrani feels that happens to “anyone who is outspoken, who refuses to be disrespected, who doesn’t demean themselves by agreeing to their regressive ideas, they are forced into a corner” and that several other performers had a similar treatment.
In his explanation, he says, “If you do your research, you’ll find that the ones who are labelled as difficult and problematic are typically the outsiders. Rarely are the celebrity kids taken lightly.”
The filmmaker believes there are many producers now “who play a fair game because they are not from dynasties and honestly seek out talent above sycophancy” after realising he does not need to play this game to accomplish good work and moving his base to Goa.
