While the Bollywood blockbusters in the last four to five years might have collected moolah at the box office, for filmmaker R Balki, they have had quite a negligible effect on him. In a statement that has now gone viral, Balki also called them “damn boring”.

“A few blockbusters that have happened in the last four or five years have actually been the worst films,” he said in a recent chat with MIT World Peace University. “Not only from an intellectual or artistic point of view but also from the old entertainment, ‘masala, paisa vasool’ kind of a feel. The fun has completely gone from our blockbusters,” added Balki, whose last film was the 2023 sports drama Ghoomer with actors Abhishek Bachchan and Saiyami Kher.

Talking about how the monetary side has complicated things, he continued, “There’s an economics associated with that stuff (theatrical projects). Now it’s just marketing — driving people towards believing something is good. So, by the time people believe it’s bad, the film has [already] made its money.”