Pallavi Joshi on ‘Boycott Bollywood’ trend: Give audiences stories they’re dying to see and they'll flock to theatres

During a time when Bollywood is struggling to get over its box office slump, The Kashmir Files turned out to be quite a surprise, as it went on to become one of the highest grossing films this year. Pallavi Joshi, who had produced the film and starred in it as well, recently opened up about why she thought Bollywood is failing to draw audiences to theatres and also addressed the ‘Boycott Bollywood’ trend.

In conversation with Hindustan Times, Joshi said that the intent and sincerity with which they had put forth The Kashmir Files to audiences was one of the biggest things that worked in their favour. The actress said that people could feel one’s honesty through their screens and she believed that viewers could spot the intent in a film’s subject and the performances of actors. She said that she became much more aware of this during her theatre days. The actress revealed that on the days when she used to lose focus, she was unable to get a good reaction from audiences.

Joshi spoke of how, as an artist, they were trained to hold a mirror up to society and shine a light on its problems. She gave examples of films of Raj Kapoor, Manoj Kumar, Sunil Dutt’s, which did not shy away from showing problems India was facing at the time. The actress said that the disconnect is there today as films do not feature the problems of India anymore.

On the ‘Boycott Bollywood’ trend, Joshi said that the industry should introspect on why it was happening today, as audiences were the most important part of the industry. “So, let’s try and remember this and give them what they want. Give them the stories they are dying to see and see how they flock the theatres again”, she said.