Mudassar Aziz: A filmmaker needs to carefully study while pegging a film around the idea of stardom

Mudassar Aziz’s films have boasted of multiple stars. His last movie Khel Khel Mein had seven protagonists which included actors like Akshay Kumar, Vaani Kapoor, Taapsee Pannu, Fardeen Khan among others. However, the film didn’t do well at the box office. At a time when production houses are battling with budgets, is it wise to invest in a staller cast for a film?
Mudassar shares that with changing times, a star’s stardom also changes.He elaborates saying, “It is a slightly more complicated question than what it seems like. We need to figure who is a star for a 15 – 20-year-old today. I feel sometimes we hold our cards too close to our chest and our vision gets blurred. We operate from a vision of what we believe is the reality of the world as opposed to what it could be in a fast-changing times like we are in. Let’s not forget that somebody who is 24 years old today was not even born when Mohabbatein released or somebody was in their nappies when Hera Pheri was doing well in cinemas. Their identification to these stars (from the film) or their acknowledgement of their stardom is very different from maybe a generation that is now 35-37 years old. This generation is now busy with their jobs or are young parents or have taken up different responsibilities of life. For these people watching their favourite star’s film might not be on priority today. They might also prefer watching it on OTT than cinemas. So, it’s association between 15 to 30 age group is something that a filmmaker needs to very carefully study now while pegging a film around the idea of stardom perhaps.”
The Dulha Mil Gaya director continues, “When it came to my film, luckily, I was not pegging it around a star. If you noticed Khel Khel Mein had seven protagonists. Two of whom were Pragya Jaiswal who got introduced and Aditya Seal who is fairly new. However, there’s no disparity in their role’s length as compared to Taapsee Pannu’s or Akshay Kumar’s or Fardeen Khan’s. Hence, I was trying to put out seven protagonists first. But yes, one has to also take into account the fact that the principal star headlining the cast is Akshay and that is how it is always going to be viewed.”

He concludes saying, “I wish the answer to the question was as easy as a yes or a no but unfortunately the answer is enveloped in so many layers right now because it sort of dawns upon you as time goes by to understand what may be a star today might not mean the same to my 17 year old niece.”
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