Tigmanshu Dhulia: Commercial cinema is being protected by a few production houses

Filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia says that these production houses can’t accept it when a director like him tries to make a film in that space.

Bollywood filmmakers don’t really shy away from expressing their pain, when a film fails to make a mark at the box office. While some take it to heart, others believe in moving on and not letting anything dampen their spirits. Filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia belongs to the second category. Though the failure of his directorial Bullet Raja (2013) wasn’t easy to bear, more because of the flak that followed, Tigmanshu says he decided to keep trying and working hard.

Tigmanshu Dhulia is awaiting the release of his next film, Raag Desh, starring actors Kunal Kapoor, Amit Sadh and Mohit Marwah. (Yogen Shah/HT Photo)

“After putting so much time and energy into a film, it obviously hurts when it doesn’t work. I would not have made the film had I not believed in it. Saif Ali Khan (the lead actor in the film) also liked the concept,” says Tigmanshu. He, however, feels that the only saving grace was that the satellite rights of Bullet Raja were sold for a phenomenal prize and it does well every time it is screened on television.

Elaborating more on why he feels the film didn’t work, he adds, “I think it’s not just about the film but more about the image I have. It didn’t gel well with the kind of films I make. Had it been made by some other director such as Sajid Khan, Prabhudheva, who make commercial films, then there would have been no problem. The question was ‘how could Tigmanshu make such a film?’ ‘He should make his kind of cinema and not enter the commercial space’. Commercial cinema in Bollywood is being protected by a few production houses, who can’t accept it when directors like me try making a film in that space,” says Tigmanshu, whose next film Raag Desh is all set to release.

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