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Bollywood is boring: Adoor Gopalakrishnan

Acclaimed film-maker Adoor Gopalakrishnan has slammed Bollywood movies for being "superficial" in entertainment.

Updated on: Jan 5, 2008, 17:54:10 IST
PTI | By , Bangalore
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Acclaimed film-maker Adoor Gopalakrishnan today slammed television serials for "corrupting" the new generation even as he dismissed Bollywood movies for being "superficial" in entertainment.

HT Image
HT Image

The award-winning director said the younger generation which grew on television, were exposed to "terribly bad education" on the small screen.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of Bangalore International Festival Film, Gopalakrishnan said before the advent of television, film audiences had some kind of expectations from movies.

Today, film goers are a "terribly vitiated audience". "They have been corrupted by a wrong kind of stuff (on television) in the name of entertainment", he said.

Before television became a vogue, film practitioners hoped that visual medium(tv) would prepare the audience better to appreciate the works of film makers such as documentaries and features. But that was not to be, Gopalakrishnan said.

Asked if he believed television is driving away audience from films, he gave a cryptic reply: "it (television) is preparing bad audience for bad films".

On Bollywood films, Gopalakrishan said: "they say that these films entertain. But (actually) they are terribly boring".

Questioning the Bollywood's style of entertainment, Gopalakrishnan said his view is that when one does a film, the audience should get to learn about life and get exposed to new experience. Entertainment in Bollywood films is "superficial, banal kind of scratching on your itching wound. That's not entertainment", Gopalakrishnan said.

He also took a dig at a section of the media for focusing only on stars and starlets, giving film-makers a go-by in coverage.
Earlier, the media used to feature film-makers also along with stars during movie promotion.

"Now, we only read about stars. Any newspaper you take in the morning, the front page itself you should have scantily-clad starlets....Some stars...You have to have. Otherwise, you can't have morning tea. That's the norm now", Gopalakrishnan said sarcastically.

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