Cinema in Free Fall
Any of you ever walked into office and looked around and thought... that guy, over there, he has no interest in his job. Well, that's how I feel when look at modern batch of actors, particularly Nepo Kids. They have no interest in their work. They have no desire to perform. You can just feel it through the screen. They are in the game only for glamour. Because they grew up in that world, they want to just do whatever to fit in. And apparently it does not require to learn acting.
Your office may also have some nepo kids working because they are related to some senior but here is the deal, they are regular employees who are not above anyone. Whereas in cinema nepo kids without any experience are given lead roles and put above everyone.
This is why cinema is suffering. The young lot of actors is just not good enough. They are good Looking but they totally lack personality required to be on silver screen. Putting wrong people in centre stage has damaged the reputation of stage.
This is a matter of concern. There is no other modern medium that provides mass entertainment with big budget on regular basis. By regular I mean REGULAR. there was a time when we were getting good movies to watch at least once a month. Any of you who is born in 21st century just check out movie releases of 90s and 80s era. We were getting a dozen blockbusters every year. And now we barely get one good film a year. And The SAD PART is that movie tickets are getting too expensive. In fact, overall film experience is getting expensive.
Working man comes home at night, turns on TV with only intention to relax. He does not get mentally involved with content on TV AT ALL. He is preparing his dinner, getting ready for bed and TV is doing its job in the background. But Cinema is different. He plans a movie in advance with his friends or family. Discussion goes on for 3-4 days before settling on one choice. The location, the attire and maybe dinner after cinema, it is all well thought. He goes all in without much worrying about the cost. And now if the movie fails his expectations, he gets a rude wake up call. He starts calculating his losses. The post movie chatter with his friends only revolves around how much money they wasted. And now they are in no mood to spend more on dinner. They just go home eat Dal chawal and go to sleep. The weekend did not end well.
This is what modern cinema has done to people. It has made them budget conscious. The whole point of cinema is to entertain masses without making hole in wallet. In fact, if cinema does its job right, people actually pay more. These people trying to reLive the memories actually pay loads on merchandise. I personally own CD of The Matrix from 2005 and it is still a conversation starter for me at parties.
Cinema is not just losing business, Its losing Connection.
There was a time when people saw something or someone on big screen and instantly connected. All the great films around the world had one thing common. Connection with audience. It’s not happening any more. The story, the narrative makes no sense. Half the time audience is just busy wondering what the heck is going on.
This is the fault of filmmaker who does not do much research nowadays. The 50s and 60s had romance as core theme with some social issues going in background. That was the time when we had just got independence and people were left to pick up the pieces. Then came 70s with uncertainty which gave rise to angry young man. The 80s and 90s revolved around pop culture. And the 2000s brought in big budget action movies. Simultaneously we saw rise of biopic cinema.
And now in 2026, film makers have seemed to ran out of ideas. Every film is another feather in the hat of disappointment. And the reason is No Connection. On the contrary, the actors are desperate to make Connection on personal level. They are always on social media showing their personal life. Going to gym, eating out, shopping, and travelling. In a way making themselves look relatable with middle class audience. BIG MISTAKE. Showing your personal life to regular people is bad for business. This was predicted by Satyajit Ray in Nayak (1966). The hero refuses interview with a journalist telling her how bad it is for business to put personal life in front of general population.
If only modern actors watch Satyajit Ray they would learn something.
Film makers and actors and even the audience have no idea what will work now.
The post pandemic world is the same world but with different taste. In 3 months of lock down I was hooked on to old TV shows. I am a 90s kid so for me Tehkikat and Byomkesh Bakshi were daily fodder. Ramayana was always on DD. In 3 months, watching shudh hindi dramas completely rewired my brain. Now I can't take even a minute of nepo hindi accent.
The best you can do now is move away from typical romcom musicals and find appropriate subjects to relate with post pandemic era. Romcoms are thing of the past. When you constantly read about miserable divorces and office affairs you lose faith in romance. Give us something relatable. And please don't use nudity to sell your film. That's just tacky.
Filmmakers must adapt with recent shift or accept to go in oblivion.
