Karan Johar says ‘paid PR and herd mentality’ has hurt Bollywood, while South filmmakers are ‘not seeking validation’

The success of films from the south in the Hindi belt has raised questions about Bollywood’s dominance among the film industries of India. For long, Hindi films have out-earned the so-called ‘regional language’ films, barring a few exceptions. But since late 2021, while south Indian films like Pushpa: The Rise, RRR, KGF: Chapter 2 and Vikram have minted money at the box office, Hindi films have largely failed. In a new interview, filmmaker Karan Johar spoke on why Bollywood was lagging behind. Also read: Ranbir Kapoor urged Karan Johar not to invite him on Koffee with Karan: ‘I’d have to pay the price for too long’

Pushpa earned ₹365 crore, while Vikram also crossed the ₹300-crore mark at the box office. Both RRR and KGF 2, on the other hand, grossed over ₹1000 crore globally. In comparison, only one Hindi film crossed the 300-crore mark in 2022, so far – The Kashmir Files with global earnings of ₹340 crore. Many other Hindi films with big stars – like Samrat Prithviraj, Jersey, and Runway 34 – failed to even cross the ₹100-crore mark at the box office.

Speaking with Film Companion, Karan Johar chalked it down to Hindi cinema being victims of things like paid PR and herd mentality. “I think we are victims of everything we should be running away from, whether it’s paid PR or media blitz, projections, perceptions all of that. That is plaguing. Also I think we don’t have the conviction. We are victims of herd mentality,” he said.

Karan said that filmmakers in the south have conviction when it comes to their work, which the Hindi filmmakers of today lack. He added, “Tamil cinema and Malayalam cinema have always been story-heavy. They have also been commercial and aesthetic. What happened with Kannada cinema and now Kannada cinema with KGF is that they have a lot of conviction. They don’t listen to other things and follow that conviction. They’re not seeking validation, acceptance, approval. They are so confident in their skin and convinced with what they are doing. That’s what we all lack. We don’t have that conviction. Suddenly, if biopics are doing well, everyone will make a biopic. Suddenly everyone has woken up to the syntax of southern cinema and now we want to start doing that. We are all so idiotically unconvinced about our strengths and weaknesses that we just tend to be all over the place. ”

Karan is directing Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, which stars Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt. The film sees his return to direction after almost six years. Also starring Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan, and Shabana Azmi, the film is set to be released on February 10, 2023.