Sooryavanshi can be enjoyed only on the big screen, says Farhad Samji

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced cinema halls shut in India since March. Hence, a number of films, big and small, are being released directly on OTT (over-the-top) platforms. And the audience appears to be adapting to the so-called new normal.

Writer-director Farhad Samji believes this isn’t a major change in film-viewing habits. “You can eat in a restaurant or at home by ordering home delivery," he remarked in a conversation with Cinestaan.com. "In either case, food goes into your stomach and you get satisfaction. So I don’t think it’s a big change."

However, he believes there are some films that can only truly be enjoyed on the big screen. “I have seen Khuda Gawah (1992) 25 times, but I have seen it only in theatres," he said by way of example. "I can’t enjoy that film on a small screen. Such experiences are made today by people like Rohit Shetty and Sanjay Leela Bhansali.”

Farhad Samji and his brother Sajid Samji have co-written a number of commercially successful films like Golmaal 3 (2010), Singham (2011), Housefull 2 (2012), Bol Bachchan (2012) and Singham Returns (2015). Many of these were Rohit Shetty projects. They also co-directed Entertainment (2014) and Housefull 3 (2016).

Elaborating on the theatre experience, Farhad Samji said, “When 300 or 400 people together applaud by clapping or whistling in a theatre after a film ends, that is our Oscar and Filmfare. I miss that experience of creating an atmosphere of watching a film together. I hope that for this reason theatres keep running.”

Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic raging around the world, Shetty's next film, Sooryavanshi, for which Samji has written dialogues, could not be released as scheduled on Ramzan Eid.

“We launched the trailer for Sooryavanshi thinking the film would be released in the coming weeks," Samji said. "This is one film which can only be enjoyed on the big screen. My film Baaghi 3 (2020) [for which Samji wrote the screenplay and dialogues] was released in the first week of March and earned only Rs90 crore in 11 days as its business got hit by COVID-19.”