Mumbai: Actress Alia Bhatt, who has been making waves with her appearance at the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, spoke about the film industry’s tendency to prioritise male audiences in mainstream cinema.
Alia shared that she often finds herself questioning why discussions around box office success continue to revolve around films made primarily for men, instead of stories that connect globally.
According to the actor, storytelling should rise above gender divisions, with strong content taking center stage rather than filmmakers targeting a particular audience segment.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter India during the festival, Alia reflected on how global films like ‘Barbie’, ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ have managed to draw wide audiences, and questioned why Indian cinema still largely leans towards male-centric narratives when chasing box office numbers.
“When I look at the landscape, I think we’re in a very fascinating time today… If you take a look at the box office, you’ll
see the films that have done phenomenally well: Barbie, Wuthering Heights, and The Devil Wears Prada. These are a few; I am sure there are way more, and their main audience, perhaps, was women. Women were showing up, watching these films, which have now become massive hits,” she was quoted as saying by the The Hollywood Reporter India.
Talking about Indian cinema, she continued, “But in India, when we talk about box office and numbers, there is a conversation that comes up pretty often, which is 75% of the movie-going audience is male, so we need to cater to the masses. This conversation comes up quite a bit. I wonder if we are catering just to the men, then what happens to the women? I am saying the alineate the men, but why do we have to alienate anyone? Why do we have to cater to one gender? Why can’t we make movies that are gender-agnostic, where the storytelling takes centre stage? So, whether it stars a man or a woman, that should not matter. It is the storytelling that should matter. I’m just hoping we have more of that.”
Following her debut appearance on the Cannes red carpet last year, Alia returned to the Cannes Film Festival as the global face of L’Oréal Paris.
This year’s edition of the prestigious festival commenced on May 12 and will conclude on May 23.
On the work front, Alia will next be seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Love & War’, which also stars Ranbir Kapoor and Vicky Kaushal.