At a recent panel discussion, Rohit Shetty made a passionate defence of Bollywood and his colleagues in the film industry. Before the release of their film Cirkus, Rohit and his crew—Ranveer Singh, Pooja Hegde, and Varun Sharma—appeared for film promotion and were asked about the state of the Hindi film industry.
Even though full attendance was permitted in movie theatres this year, many Hindi films failed to connect with audiences. Meanwhile, a few Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam films drew record crowds even in the Hindi belt. Rohit, on the other hand, does not see it as a terrible portent for Hindi films. He said it in a session with Lallantop.
He spoke about his movie Sooryavanshi, which was released late last year and earned 196 crores at the box office with a 50% occupancy rate. It could have raised more than 350 crores if it had been released at full capacity. “Sooryavanshi was released, while films like The Kashmir Files and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 did well at the start of this year. Drishyam 2 has recently performed nicely. It’s not like our films aren’t successful. “Gangubai Kathiawadi did extremely well,” he stated, adding that for every great regional film, he identified one successful Hindi film of the year. “Ek saal kharab gaya aur aap palti maar rahe ho (We had one hard year and you are turning your back on us),” Rohit continued.
Rohit passionately named all of Bollywood’s major hits over the years, including Sholay, Hum Aapke Hain Koun, Maine Pyaar Kiya, Munnabhai MBBS, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Hera Pheri, and his own Singham, Golmaal, and Sooryavanshi. He said that all of these films were also produced by Bollywood. The audience at the event started shouting his name, and even Ranveer was impressed by how brilliantly Rohit defended the Hindi cinema industry.
“Don’t worry about that madam, but rats are the first to jump ship when it sinks,” Rohit told the interviewer.
Cirkus, starring Jacqueline Fernandez and others, will be released on December 23.
