Local stories and the changing face of entertainment through OTT — the opening day of FICCI Frames 2023, being held in Mumbai, was all this and more. It kicked off with a fireside chat with actor Ayushmann Khurrana, who was happy and surprised with India bagging an Oscar for the documentary The Elephant Whisperers.

“Ten years ago, I went to a wildlife sanctuary at the tri-junction of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and witnessed first-hand the relationship between man and animal. I never thought that in 2023, that relationship would be spoken of worldwide and give us an Oscar. The more local we go, the more global we reach. Our film industry is at the cusp of global greatness,” Khurrana said, adding that he never imagined his choice of quirky, socially relevant subjects will come to be called ‘the Ayushmann genre’.

It was a fascinating conversation between four auteurs of Hindi cinema: Hansal Mehta, Sriram Raghavan, Abhishek Chaubey and Sudhir Mishra. Mehta started off with recalling his beginnings as a filmmaker and how he continues to “find myself through the stories that I try to tell”, before going on to dismiss the notion that Bollywood exists as a single entity. “Bollywood does not exist. What exists is respect for each other and each other’s work. There is a desire to share what you have done with each other. You support and appreciate each other’s work and using that to propel your work forward,” he said.

Chaubey, on the other hand, was not too happy about box-office collections being the sole measure of a film’s success. “Over the years, it has gotten even worse. This obsession with weekend numbers is unnatural... So, I think this revolution that has happened through OTT has happened in good time,” Chaubey shared.

In attendance with Gulmohar director Rahul V Chittella and his co-actor from the film, Utsavi Jha, Bajpayee asked the audience if they had seen the film yet. When not many hands went up, the actor quipped, “Theatres mein aati hain films, aap nahin jaate. Ab OTT pe aa rahi hain, tab bhi nahin dekhte!” On the power of content, he added, “After watching Gulmohar, my daughter went to the bathroom and howled. She washed her face, came out, and then told me that the dadi in the film (played by Sharmila Tagore) reminded her of her nani, who had passed away last year. That is the impact.”

(L-R) Abhishek Chaubey, Sudhir Mishra, Hansal Mehta and Sriram Raghavan PHOTOS: RISHABH SURI/HT