Vicky Kaushal on Bollywood films failing at the box office: Audiences have clearly told us ‘acchhi picture banao’
Vicky Kaushal is happy to finally perform the typical Bollywood ‘naach-gaana’ i Govinda Naam Mera. The actor, known for his intense roles, has delivered an out-and-out masala entertainer for the first time in his career. The actor has done a number of films where his sincere acting chops and serious choice of stories and characters have won the hearts of audiences and critics alike.
In this interview with indianexpress.com, Vicky talks about how he landed in Govinda Naam Mera, a film he calls “fun hodgepodge”, and shows his love for dance. The actor also gives his two cents on how the box office game has changed since the Covid-19 pandemic and why he thinks it’s easy to tell if a movie will do better at the box office.
Vicky calls Govinda Naam Mera a fun invention, a film that he wants the audience not to take seriously and just laugh after all the pain and loss everyone has gone through throughout the pandemic. He says, “I am so grateful that I have gone into this concoction because I still remember Shashank talking about the film for the first time, it was before the second phase of the film. Covid-19 pandemic. He said we live in such terrifying times when people are so scared and everything you see (on OTT) is also so ugly and serious, let’s make people laugh, let’s try to give them a good time. I was sold on that idea in the first place.”
Vicky himself wanted a break from the kind of serious cinema he was doing until last year. “I also came out of serious cinema with Uri: The Surgical Strike, Bhoot and Sardar Udham. As an actor, even I was hungry to explore that side and have fun on set. I play a proper loser in life, his wife beats him, he has a partner; his mother or even his baai does not care about him. He has a best friend and you think Aisa best friend kisiko na mile, dushman ho usse acchha. There is a don, there is a hip-hopper, there is a lawyer, sautela bhai, sauteli maa, all sorts of confusion is happening at the same time and there is a murder mystery involved, all this is served with humor on top of that. We just want the viewers to have a good time and not take us seriously,” says Vicky.
Most of Vicky’s recent releases have been on streaming platforms, including Govinda Naam Mera. When asked if he accepts that Bollywood is experiencing box office stress and what this phase means, Vicky says that the audience has clearly expressed that they want to see only good films in theaters, irrespective of the genre, or who the star is. or the language is.
“I think good films work. People have actually made it very simple. If you look at the graph, they’ve made it so simple that if the film resonates with them, whatever the language, genre or scale, they’ll give it a lot of love. The audience has made it very simple that humein picture accchhi lagni chaahiye. You see a Bhool Bhulaiya (2), KGF (2) or RRR, Drishyam (2), none of them fall in the same box, they is neither the same language, genre or scale, they didn’t even have the same marketing plan. Even three years ago it was directly proportional, app jitni marketing karoge, utni aapki film chalegi, but it’s not like that anymore. Today, if people can like a movie, they just pick it up.”
“So I think we live in times where they have clearly and simply told us that acchhi image banao, we will give it all our love,” emphasizes Vicky.
While Vicky has only had one film release this year, he is very much looking forward to 2023 as he has four film releases. “I’m very exciting because throughout the whole of Covid I was shooting films, there were three four films of which Govinda is the first, then there is one with Lakshmain Utekar sir with me and Sara in it, then there is a film with YRF, another one with Dharma, which Anand Tiwari has directed and then Sam Bahadur, which I am shooting right now, all these films are releasing in 23. I have been very excited to bring these stories out and I am very excited to know how people will react on these grades.”
2023 will be another decisive factor in Vicky’s trajectory, just as 2018 was the year the actor was rediscovered. He says, “The last time I had a year like that was 2018 when I had Love Per Square Foot, Raazi, Sanju, Lust Stories and Manmarziyaan all coming in the same year. I get very excited when I have more films coming up , because you’ve shot back to back and played different characters, so the idea that one day people are going to see this and I’m going to get through the test of them liking or not liking it is very exciting.”
