Bollywood wants critics to go slow

Rather than improving the content of their films, the film industry is now asking film critics to go soft or rather slow on their film’s reviews.

The Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) has now written a letter to the film critics requesting them not to publish any reviews till three days after the film’s release. In the letter they have mentioned on how critic reviews are influencing audiences and are affecting the box office collections of their films. The not-so-impressive performances of two recent films from the Karan Johar’s stable — Kalank and SOTY2 — after scathing reviews, is said to be the reason for the letter now.

It can be recalled that a film news website had recently decided to do away with the star rating based on a suggestion from Shah Rukh Khan. Not so long ago, Khan himself had come to the press screening of his ambitious film Zero and requested critics not to post mid show reviews of his film online and in the social media.

“How can the opinion of 15-20 people lead to people not watching films? The audience watches the film on Friday morning and tells their friends on and offline what to watch and what not to. We are living in a digital age. Film reviews are published to basically guide audiences about what is the content of a film and the reviewer gives his opinion. It is the audience’s prerogative what to watch and what not to. There are so many films that are thumbed down by critics but still go on to be a hit,” says film critic and editor Complete Cinema, Atul Mohan.

Around two decades ago, the Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association  (IMPPA) had also strictly told film critics not to publish reviews before Sunday as it was ‘affecting’ the box office performances of films. Another incident was when director Kunal Kohli, who used to be an anchor and a reviewer on a show called Chalo Cinema, was also asked not to criticise films because his reviews came out before the end of the weekend.

“Tell them to make better films. If a film is a good and film critics say good things about a film, it will always do well. Muffling the critics is a bad idea,” says a film critic.

— Sanskriti Media