Shah Rukh Khan sounds dejected about singing and dancing, the future of Bollywood
Speaking with Brad Pitt about movies, their careers and the future of cinema, Shah Rukh Khan sounded worried.
His dancing, his charm, and his devoted fans make it seem otherwise, but Shah Rukh Khan seems to be losing his patience with Bollywood. At a Friday talk organised by Netflix, the Baadshah of Bollywood talked movies with Brad Pitt, who was in Mumbai promoting his new film War Machine.
“Hoe long does it take to shoot a Bollywood film?” Brad Pitt asked.
“If it’s an action/dancing film, about 120 days, 140 days. Sometimes longer, if things go wrong,” said Shah Rukh, “And if it’s a simpler film, about 70 days.”
“It’s about the same with us,” nodded Pitt, “and we don’t have dancing! I would never make it in Bollywood because I can’t dance.”
Then, Shah Rukh proceeded to show him the classic Shah Rukh dance move, and promised Pitt that he could get him to dance. “We make everyone dance in Bollywood,” he said.
But when the conversation turned to their movies, and their process as actors, both seemed tired. “I take a two-hour-long bath the Friday my movie releases,” said Shah Rukh, “and by Monday, I’m through with it. I don’t want to be a part of it any more.”
Shah Rukh, picking his words carefully, almost hesitantly said, “As you know, in commercial films, the singing and dancing is part of no storytelling, you just have to do it because you have to do it.”
“Maybe I’m going to be speaking against a lot of people, but you can’t really get into a character if you have to sing and dance every 20 minutes in a film. It’s not a musical, it’s not laid out like that. Somewhere down the line, it’s just song and dance. I don’t know, I’m sorry to say, how to dance in character. It becomes difficult when I’m playing a more realistic role, like My Name is Khan.”
When he was asked about the future of Indian cinema, and whether he feels Hollywood poses a threat (things are changing of course, it’s not everyday stars like Brad Pitt come to India to promote their movies), Shah Rukh seemed concerned.
“If we don’t adapt ourselves in terms of marketing, visual effects, scriptwriting and professionalism, we will be overtaken,” declared Shah Rukh. “If we do not learn from Hollywood, there is a real fear. Spider-Man does as well as a Hindi film, so we have to adapt. Scripting especially. If we don’t do that, we’ll have an issue over the next 20 years.”
“We have such wonderful stories to tell but we aren’t telling them well enough. We treat our stories like fads. Singing and dancing has to be a part of Bollywood movies, if only to keep Brad away from our movies.”
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