Ratna Pathak Shah: Making pan-Indian films is our big attempt, but everything cannot be Pan-Indian | Hindi Movie News

Day 3 at FICCI Frames 2023 saw actors like Ratna Pathak Shah, Renuka Shahane, Swapnil Joshi and Manasi Parekh talking about the metamorphosis of the so-called regional cinema into ‘Indian cinema’. As panellists spoke about the survival of film from various languages across India, Renuka talked about the never ending competition Marathi cinema has continued to face over the years.
She said, “We have yet not really cracked the code of competition with Hindi or Hollywood films, which releases although Maharashtra. I think as an industry we have not been able to crack the viability code because if we have to dream any further then we have to crack the viability code within our own state first, before we experiment with audiences all over India.”
Marathi films too have excelled at box office and made noise, but Renuka pointed out that the pace has been quite sluggish. The actress feels that Marathi cinema faces a lot of competition and the industry should come together to find a solution. She elaborates saying, “Films like Mee Shivaji Raje Boltoy broke records and Sairat did exceedingly well. But these are exceptions, how do we make these exceptions a rule is a question. The industry must come together and find a solution for it. I think we need a paradigm shift in the way we exhibit and distribute films, because there has to be space for experimentation, which is not in direct competition with the rates of a commercial Hindi, Telugu or Tamil films, otherwise our films are never going to cross that barrier. If we are constantly faced with that competition of viability, we just do not have the theatres where our films will be released or subsidised over a period of time.”
A country as diverse as India has varied stories to tell from across the nooks and corners from its length and breadth. In such a scenario there’s no need to chase to make pan-Indian films, suggested Ratna Pathak Shah. At a time where films like Baahubali, RRR and KGF: Chapter 2’s success has led to filmmakers diving into making pan-Indian films, she shared her perspective saying, “Today kids in their teens pick up a camera and make something. So, there’s that enormous change of the accessibility to resources. There are cheaper resources we need today to make any kind of content on social media. All these things have led to different kinds of content being acceptable by different audiences. Our mistake is that we keep imagining that everything should be acceptable to everyone. Today, pan-Indian (films) is our big attempt. Everything cannot be pan-Indian!”

She added, “The Ramayan, Mahabharat have been our sources of entertainment across dance, music, theatre, across the country. Today, there’s a new audience which is wanting more of their own lives reflected in what they see. I think that’s the big difference. The audience today doesn’t want only fantasy. They know that life is tough, they want to see some reflection of that so I think that is another big change. Today we are becoming aware that India is more than just small band of people and a small band of ideas. That wonderful diversity of India, which I am so proud of and we have read in school books forever and ever is something we genuinely have managed to preserve over 5000 years of a civilization. We have kept our differences, isn’t that wonderful? But today we are so busy trying to homogenise and movies have played a part in that.”