Hansal Mehta asks audience stop judging movies by box office numbers: ‘Terrible films sometimes make lot of money’

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta has said the box office collection of a film is something very “private” and the moviegoer should only focus on if it was worth the price of the ticket. He also opined that since bad films could have good box office collections as compared to good films, they shouldn’t be judged by numbers at the ticket counter. Also read: Hansal Mehta calls All That Breathes ‘much more cinematic’ than Oscar winner Navalny: ‘Go ahead. Crucify me…’

Hansal was replying to a Twitter user, who shared the difference between box office figures shared by a film producer and those shared by a trade analyst. The user stated that a producer could share inflated box office figures in some cases and even trade analysts could go wrong with the numbers sometimes. Reacting to it, Hansal wrote, “Bottom Line: A film’s box office is nobody’s business. It impacts ONLY those involved in the film in various ways that are purely transactional and essentially private.”

He further added, “STOP JUDGING FILMS BY B-O (box office) NUMBERS. Terrible films sometimes make a lot of money and good films make less money. Focus on your experience of the film as an audience and not on the film’s collections. Focus on whether the film was worth the price of your ticket not on whether the price of the film star should go up or down.”

When a Twitter user wrote that a film is made to make money, he asked the user, “Kya aap film paisa kamaane ke liye dekhte ho??? To phir aapka film ke business se kya lena dena? (do you watch a film to earn money? Then what do you have to do with the business of a film)?”

Hansal Mehta is known for directing hard-hitting films like Shahid, Omerta, Aligarh and recently saw the release of his film, Faraaz. The action thriller film is based on the 2016 terrorist attack in a cafe in Dhaka, Bangladesh and marked the debut of Shashi Kapoor’s grandson Zahan Kapoor.

Speaking at the film’s press conference in January, Hansal had said the trend of determining a film’s success by its box office score was quite upsetting. “The box office has become the yardstick for a film’s success or quality, something that has upset filmmakers like me… There has to be an organic growth of a film. Every film has an audience and you have to allow it to breathe. Every film cannot be a blockbuster on Friday and Saturday,” he had said according to PTI.