For the last decade or so, Bollywood has been more focussed on making content-driven films. From dark thrillers to slice-of-life, the industry has experimented with a variety of genres. The industry, which was once known for making commercial films, is channelizing its energies towards making offbeat films catering to a niche audience. The mass audience, as the box-office performance of South Indian films like ‘RRR’ and ‘KGF 2’ has exemplified, still wishes to see larger-than-life, commercial films on the screen.
Dissecting this phenomenon, Makshika Films co-founder Gaurav Kaushal says, “There should be space for all kinds of films. However, Bollywood has made a grave mistake by choosing to ignore the demands of the mass audience. Every film industry, across the world, runs on the strength of commercial cinema. For example, A film like Life of Pie will be appreciated and make decent money but will never be as successful as an Avengers. There is nothing the audience likes more than a well-made commercial film.”
After working in the Hindi film industry in different capacities for the last 12-13 years, Gaurav took a big plunge recently by launching his own production house Makshika Films. At the moment, the production company is developing several scripts, some of which are adaptations of popular foreign films and the rest are original stories. The one thing common between all these projects is the fact that they will be made as big-scale, commercial films.
“There is a void in the industry at the moment and our company is working towards filling it up. There is a dearth of well-made commercial films and we want to produce the kind of films that inspire others to make more content in this space. Commercial films not only help in pulling more audiences into the theatres, they also play an important role in the growth of the industry”, the young producer states.
One of the first films to be produced by Gaurav Kaushal’s Makshika Films will be a remake of a popular French film. The film will be helmed by debutante director Mihir Lath who has worked on several international projects as an associate director with Shekhar Kapur. The company has several other interesting projects in the pipeline which shall be announced soon.