SS Rajamouli says ‘corporates coming into’ Bollywood, paying ‘high fees to actors, directors’ reduced hunger for success

Filmmaker SS Rajamouli has spoken about Hindi cinema and the key ingredient to making a popular film. In a new interview, the director said that a ‘connect with the audience’ is important. Rajamouli also said when the corporates ‘started coming into’ the Hindi film industry and paid ‘high fees to actors and directors’, the hunger to succeed has come down.

Talking about the South film industry, Rajamouli said that such a scenario doesn’t exist there as they ‘have to swim or sink’. He added that they shouldn’t get complacent now that they have ‘good business’.

Speaking with Film Companion, SS Rajamouli said, “I don’t think there will be any secret formulas. Two things I would say is, basically having a connect with the audience and not getting too comfortable. If you get too comfortable, you will get too complacent. If your film is doing good business at the moment of announcement then you tend to get complacent.”

He also added, “What happened once the corporates started coming into Hindi field and started paying high fees to actors, to directors or companies, the need to, ‘I have to succeed at any cost’, has come down a little bit, the hunger has come down a little bit. Here, down south, that was not there. You have to swim or you are going to sink. Now it has shifted here. Now, we shouldn’t get complacent. We have good business. If we get complacent and the hunger goes down then it’s going to go the other way. To have the connect with the audience, to always have an understanding of what are they wanting, I think is important.”

Rajamouli’s last directorial RRR has garnered praise not only in India but also globally. The film follows a pre-Independence fictional story woven around two real-life Indian revolutionaries — Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem played by Ram Charan and Jr NTR respectively, in the 1920s. The film released worldwide in March in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi. It also stars Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn in key roles.

Recently, the period action epic was nominated in the best picture–non-English and best original song (Naatu Naatu)–motion picture categories at the upcoming Golden Globe Awards. Rajamouli was recently declared the best director runner-up by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LACFA).