Megastar Amitabh Bachchan feels it is unfair to blame the fees of actors as a reason for film studios shutting down their operations.
Disney India has shut down its Hindi movies production business and people from within the industry like Anurag Kashyap said it’s due to high fees paid to actors that the studios are plugging off.
“Everytime a star or actor is held responsible for the loss of a film and I don’t agree with it.
I feel what is the harm in paying an actor his or her fee, after all they manage to grab attention of audience towards a film,” Bachchan said at a press conference on the occasion of his birthday.
“Also if a film doesn’t do well, then in the next film the actor is not paid less.
When I was young and the hero of a film, I had a certain fee that I use to charge after the success of a film.
My people (manager) used to talk to producers about hike in my fee and if a film failed, they (producers) used to reduce your fee and there is nothing wrong in it,” he said.
Bachchan doesn’t think studios shutting down is a sign of worry and feels Indian cinema will survive this phase too.
“There will be ups and downs but I think the film industry will always be alive and will keep working,” he said.
The 74-year-old megastar feels there should be a book on various aspects of Indian cinema for everyone to be aware of our history, films and the legendary artistes.
“We don’t have much documentation about our film industry.
For the coming generation we should have something to tell them about the work of older or yesteryear artists, filmmakers and all.
I myself would like to know lot of things,” he said.
“Like what Raj Kapoor thought while making ‘Bobby’, ‘Aawara’, what was there in the mind of Mehboob sahab for ‘Mother India’, how Dilip Sahab (Dilip Kumar) worked in ‘Devdas’, or how and why a particular shot was taken in a film, all these things we don’t know.
“Why a song was done in a particular manner, why certain kind of lyrics were written or why a particular costume was worn,” he said.
Big B feels there is hardly any discussion on this and also one doesn’t have any knowledge about cinema in detail.
“I feel books on all these things should be there as it will be an informative knowledge for us.
Particularly when someone from abroad wants to write something about Indian cinema, they come across only gossip magazine’s.
They seem saddened as they want to know other things (besides gossip) about Indian cinema,” he said.
