Bollywood is creatively bankrupt: Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Many actors and filmmakers have spoken about the worrisome state of the Hindi film industry and how it is reeling under the pressure of box office failures and formulaic films. In a recent interaction, Nawazuddin Siddiqui called out the industry for lacking original ideas and creativity and for constantly copying content from South films.

In a recent interaction with Puja Talwar, Nawazuddin blamed the industry for backing formulaic films over the last five years. He also called the culture of sequels ‘pathetic’. He said, “Actually, insecurity has increased a lot. They feel that if a formula is working, they should keep milking it and overdo it. And what’s even more pathetic is that now there are two, three or four sequels being made.”

He devised the word ‘creativeruptcy’ to highlight how the film industry has been bankrupted of creative ideas. He said, “It’s creative bankruptcy, just like financial bankruptcy. There’s a lot of creative poverty.”

‘The Serious Men’ actor outrightly called the film industry folks thieves for stealing ideas from South films. He said, “Now, how can thieves be creative? We’ve stolen from the South, sometimes from here, sometimes from there. Even some cult films that became hits have scenes that were copied. This has been so normalised that it’s like - so what if it’s stolen?”

Nawaz also pointed out a disturbing norm in the Hindi film industry - where makers would hand over the video of a film and directly ask someone to replicate it. “What can you expect from an industry like this? What kind of actors will come in? They’ll be of the same kind,” he said.

He also took the opportunity to mention how filmmaker Anurag Kashyap was forced to quit the Hindi film industry because of this very culture. “And then actors and directors start quitting - like Anurag Kashyap, who was bringing in good work,” he said.