Is it actors or writers?

I was watching interviews of Salim-Javed and wondering about the depth of knowledge they had about current affairs, history, psychology, language, phonetics etc.

It was a delight to hear them talk of characters, audience, actors.

Their awareness was so deep rooted.

I have never seen writers of today have such grasp of society or culture.

I think more than just actors, we have issue with crap writers who lack originality, creativity, originality, conviction and have no sense of which script will suit which actor or not or what cross section of society they are dealing with.

That would be generalising, I think. There are still many movies with good stories.

In addition, I feel that one shouldn't judge movie stories in terms of reality and real life logic. Movie stories have their own logic which either gets respected in the narrative or gets neglected.

In general, it's the director who is responsible to translate the written story into images...and it's also the director who makes actors play respective to his/her vision and makes the film cut (edited) equally to render his/her vision.

So, I think, apart from probably being put under pressure by the producer(s), it's first and foremost the director who shapes the outcome of a movie.

Still, the talent and screen presence of actors and actresses play a significant role in creating a connection between their characters/their reel lives and the audience.

I'm sure there are good writers and storytellers out there, but they are not getting the right platform.

TV industry was already destroyed by Ekta. But I feel I feel Youtube, Insta etc has cheapened the taste of the audience. The meme culture, trolling and reels has shortened and worsened the attention span of the audience.

Any aira, gaira nathu gaira can become a content creator/influencer and gain big audience. Normalizing gaali-galoch and graphic content in films and web-series has led to this problem. I mean many Social Media "celebrities" have made careers out of this crap. That's why, we have so many agenda based writers and filmmakers today.

So when people can have fun and satisfy their entertainment thrust by consuming all these crap on SM, OTT etc why would they care about the writing? And when the audience doesn't care, the decision-makers in powerful positions do not care. They churn out junk after junk, until it stops selling. Thereby, talented writers don't get the right platform.

The mass audience does not want to watch meaningful or though provoking films. Shows like Sacred Games, Pataal Lok etc became famous more for their explicit dialogues and content, and not for the underlying themes.

I am not against entertainment or massy films, but I feel people have become too naive and gullible in consuming agenda-based content, and people in powerful positions are milking this to their advantage.

The only good content-creators on YouTube are TVF folks, but even its creators rely mostly on pop-culture, nostalgia and catering to the masses sometimes.

It is not about reality but knowing your audience, characters and their psyche and impact of characters on viewers and not even bothering much about society.

For eg, Javed was speaking how he and Salim did not bother about stigma against widow remarriage nor bothered about giving a message or risk showing Jai liking Radha or Radha also feeling attracted to him in Sholay. But it became something ahead of its times and resonates with audience till date. Otherwise it was taboo for widow to look at another man. Or another man to look at her in romantic manner.

But it just came organically and without even realising it, they created something which seems progressive and new generation also connected with it.

Or how they used example of a real life bandit to create Gabbar and that real life bandit used to chop off noses of policemen, so they used that case to show a villain who chops hands of policeman. Or how they avoided showing Gabbar as a rapist or pervert and did not directly show violent scenes, which is why kids also liked Gabbar and Mogambo a lot.

This is the awareness of real life and psyche which I was talking about.

Or the emotional impact of Jai dying. Or the inspiration from Mahabharat to do the right thing, even if it means killing own kin, as Shashi kills own brother Amitabh for sake of duty.

Or the frustration a person sometimes feels against God and religion also if they are helpless or suffer for no fault of theirs. And how Amitabh's scenes in Deewar resonated with audience.

This is what I was hinting at. Salim and Javed knew pulse of masses. Ended up creating characters ahead of their times or that reflected pent up frustration of a repressed, post colonial society like India.

Yet they kept it entertaining and fun. It was fascinating hoe Javed discussed phonetics in naming characters whose names also stand out and remain in minds of audience such as Gabbar, Lion, Mogambo or Daawar, Samba etc. Or how they chose title like Sholay for Sholay.

In that sense, even Aamir and Amole got it right when they, say made TZP and it is still a realistic depiction of lack of awareness of learning disorders in teachers and parents. They wove a message yet kept the drama and emotional factor alive.

Today's writers lack such ability to weave emotions, fantasies and reality together and engage audience or make audience feel validated or sell them dreams. They just add glamour or masala or sex scenes and explicit language.

Every single word is true.

Very well analysed and well worded.

Especially about web and content here, which has reduced attention span, detail, depth.

And anyone can do anything or rely on pop culture or politics to sell their wares or explicit scenes and vulgar cuss words to draw audience.

Sadly TV and filmmakers also try to bring these web content creators in mainstream and they are crap in films and on stage.

The standard is going down.

So, basically, it is an issue of writers for you, right?

The engaging original content on the OTT platforms shows that we don’t lack in the writing talent but guess what ‘itne paise mein itnaij hi milega’.

All the money is paid to the male lead and the remaining crumbs are distributed amongst the rest with the writer being on the bottom of the chain, what do you expect?

For me it is both actors and writers who are problem. We do lack good actors like AB sr, DK, Kaka, Khans etc.

But I think we also lack writers who know pulse of masses have creativity or originality or understanding of which role will suit which actor, the way, Salim and Javed could even spot talent in less known guys like Amjad Khan and make him overnight superstar.

Salim and Javed would actually recommend actors to producers if they saw actor had potential. They focused on Amitabh when he was flopping left, right and centre. They recommended Amjad to unwilling producers.

I am hard pressed to think of writers of today who have eye for talent like Salim and Javed.

Well said. Salim and Javed have spoken at length about how writers were paid peanuts and they were denied mention in credits and on posters and producers and managers used to make faces if they quoted their price.

Writers are indeed denied credit or paid chillar. Whole money goes to the male superstar who also takes profit share.

Do you like most films from last decade or so ? Any ? They have writers. But are hardly brought to forefront