Manoj Bajpayee believes it is a great time to be in the content space. The pandemic has changed the way India consumes its entertainment, putting story in the spotlight and making writers and directors with vision its new kings. The 53-year-old actor, who has become a darling of the audience on the OTT space, spoke about the churning in the entertainment space at an online Adda hosted by the Indian Express on Thursday. He was in conversation with Anant Goenka, Executive Director, The Indian Express Group, and film critic Shubhra Gupta.
Manoj spoke how the era of superstars may be over as OTT levels the playing field. He called the streaming a far more democratic medium where talent is thriving. “The system that is based on Friday releases has lost out. You see their desperation and anxiety but they are also trying to tweak themselves to be a part of this new situation.”
Calling the big actors, the “real kings of box office”, Bajpayee added, “For us, it was always this situation. We were doing everything so that we can be part of such films. But they were the real kings of box office. They will take time to come to terms to this situation and start re-inventing themselves. I see that effort happening from that side also,” he added.
However, given the dynamics of Bollywood, Manoj said he saw nothing wrong with stars taking a large chunk of the film’s profit. “If you ask me were stars right in taking 50-60 percent of profit share, I would say yes, because that is how producers and directors were casting. They were not taking Manoj Bajpayee randomly and making him a star. They were going to the stars who can give them numbers at the box office. And those films were star-centric, created around those stars to make profit. So if the main guy is taking that much of profit, I don’t see anything wrong there because it’s all a commercial preposition. We aren’t talking about cinema here,” Bajpayee opined. Source: The Indian Express