What other projects are you working on?
There's a buddy flick called Jai-Veeru that will be out next year. It stars Dia Mirza and Kunal Khemu.
These are films you act in. What kind of films do you like to watch?
All kinds. Science fiction to drama to action to social films, horror, suspense, thrillers -- I watch them all.
How do you react when a film flops?
You like to know why things didn't work out -- what decisions were made that didn't work. Sit back, think and do your homework and not make the same mistakes, I guess.
How do you compare Hollywood and Hindi films?
In terms of audience, Hollywood caters to an international audience because of the medium in which it communicates, which is English. Plus, America is the biggest exporter of culture in the world. The American culture has somewhat filtered to every country, in terms of it is a popular culture.
We, in the Hindi film industry, are restricted by our language. But we also have successfully exported our popular culture -- the way we see things -- and we have found an audience. Today, Bollywood films are screened in 30-40 countries, which is incredible.
In terms of the way films are made and who they're made for, yes, there is a lot more sophisticated audience here. If you look at demographics, in terms of educational backgrounds, their acceptance of issues that a film could talk about, in terms of the sophistication of cinema itself. So the standard is different here because the audiences are different.
Plus, Hollywood is so much bigger as an industry, it's got so many more outlets all over the world, the revenue generated is so much more, the budgets of the films are so much more than ours. You can get the best in terms of technology. In India, those are still challenges we face, even though our budgets are extremely healthy -- it is not uncommon to have a $ 10 million movie made. In terms of technical knowledge, I think we're at par with the best in the world.
I think as far as the Hindi film industry goes, it is just the beginning for greater things to come. Looking at the quality of films, the kind of films, the audience it is reacting out to, the subject matter people are tackling, it's a great time.
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