Subhash Ghai expressed disappointment at how filmmaking has become another job for many instead of an artistic pursuit.
Filmmaker Subhash Ghai, who has given some of Bollywood’s most iconic films in the 80s and 90s including Khalnayak, Pardes, Taal and Ram Lakhan, recently spoke about the dwindling passion for cinema in the Hindi film industry.
He expressed disappointment at how filmmaking has become another job for many instead of an artistic pursuit. Citing personal experiences, Ghai also explained why he stopped making films.
Speaking on YouTube channel Game Changers, Ghai said, “I stopped making films because I don’t see the love for cinema anymore – not in people, not in my own team. They are all just working.”
He shared an incident about a writer he approached for a script, highlighting how the process had become completely transactional rather than creative. “I gave a writer an idea and asked him to develop a story. He told me he would complete it in 15 days, give the first draft in three days and even asked for his full fee upfront. He told me exact dates—when the story would be ready.
I asked him, ‘Tu rotiyaan pak raha hai?’ How can I work with someone like that? The industry itself has trained them to think this way,” Ghai lamented.
He also criticised the current approach to filmmaking, saying that while skills are being bought, true creative collaboration is fading away. “They say, ‘You send it to me on email, that’s enough.’ Nowadays scripts and dialogues are written on WhatsApp,” he said.
In the same conversation, Ghai also commented on how actors nowadays have started seeing themselves as brands, prioritising financial gain over the art of acting. He blamed this mindset for the Hindi film industry’s failure to produce true superstars in the past decade.
He said, “That is why actors from the 80s are still superstars today like Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Aamir Khan and others. It is because they came from that culture. Who became a star in 10 years? No one except Ranbir Kapoor.”
