Mumbai:

Known for films such as 'Ghulam' and 'Raaz', Bhatt's comments come against the backdrop of Bollywood witnessing a beeline of flops, with even movies featuring established names getting smashed at the box office.

Bhatt, speaking to a news agency on Saturday, talked about the challenges and how Bollywood can course correct, emphasising the need to cater to the masses."Everyone forgot the masses and went to niche films. And during COVID, the audience's habit of watching films in theatres disappeared. We stopped making massy films.

Bollywood has stopped making "massy" films, unlike South Indian cinema, where movies are made for the audience who whistle and clap seeing their "superheroes" on the big screen, says filmmaker Vikram Bhatt as he decodes the 'slump' in the Mumbai film industry.

Niche audience says the movie will come on OTT or television soon...the mass audience, we ignored them completely. But the South Indian film industry did not do that. They always made movies for the masses, and that's why South movies are successful," he said.

Bhatt said the southern audience "still wants to watch superheroes". "They still consider the villain a villain, still whistle and clap. Hum toh waisi films banana bhul gaye jise dekhkar audience seeti aur taaliya bajaye (we forgot to make films which get whistles and applause from the audience)," Bhatt said.

He also spoke about the lack of "urgency" in Bollywood movies and on claims that OTT was keeping movie-goers away from theatres.

"There was a time when we used to go for movies and we used to buy tickets in black if we failed to get the normal movie tickets...we wanted to watch the movie on the same day it was released...but those people who say that now people are not coming to watch movies (to theatre) because within 2 months, movies will come on OTT, then why do people go (to theatre) to watch south movies?" he said.

Bhatt suggested that filmmakers start focusing on the "urgency" element while making movies. "We have to make films in which there is urgency. I have learnt it recently only when my film 'Tumko Meri Kasam' did not work. It got very good reviews. But it didn't work because it was not an urgency film. And even though my film didn't work. So, we will have to make films which have a sense of urgency... Films should be made in such a way that people eagerly wait for the first day, first show [sic]," he said.

The filmmaker suggested that his counterparts give more importance to content than starcast, and work to have a better understanding of the financial structure of the film industry.

"This whole problem can be solved in a minute if music companies, digital and satellite companies start giving this message that we need good songs, we need good pictures. If you support a good movie, not a star cast, then the producer will not be burdened...," he explained.

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