Audience shouldn’t be concerned with box-office figures: Sushant Singh Rajput

The Rs100 crore fever gripped mainstream Hindi cinema roughly around six years ago. In these years, people involved in offbeat films have termed this as an unnecessary craze. But since recent times, famous names from the industry have also been doing the same. 

Filmmakers Aanand L Rai and Sudhir Mishra are more recent examples. Now, Sushant Singh Rajput is the latest one to voice his opinion against the trend during an interaction for his upcoming movie, M.S. Dhoni — The Untold Story. 

When asked about the importance of such box-office landmarks, the actor said, “Few people started this marketing strategy by highlighting that their film earned Rs100 crore. Others joined in. People don’t understand mathematics as to how much money was invested and all such things. If I make a film in Rs80 crore and earns Rs100 crore and another in Rs20 crore and earn Rs80 crore, which one is more successful?”

Rajput also criticised people’s decision of watching a film these days. “A person traveling in an elevator asks another, ‘You saw this film?’ The other says, ‘No yaar, it didn’t get a good opening.’ Good opening? How does it matter to you? Will you get paid if it opens well? No! The audience shouldn’t be concerned about a film’s business.”

He elaborated further, “We decide to watch a film if we like its songs. What relation do songs have with the story? Nothing. Sometimes people try something new and it doesn’t earn well, while a bad film earns more. Sequels do well sometimes because people know the first film. Plus, there is this herd mentality. Gupta ji might ask, 'Yeh film dekhi hai?' So we watch in order to answer in the affirmative."