After the warm reception to his just released De Dana Dan, Priyadarshan plans to make a film on AIDS with Aamir Khan in a way that’s palatable to the public.“And why not? Films are meant to generate a mass reaction. No point in making a film with one of the biggest stars of the country which only a handful of people want to watch,” says Priyadarshan.
He wants to make films for the masses. Even if it’s about the construction mafia Khatta Meetha with Akshay Kumar and Trisha or the stigma attached to inter-caste marriages in a film with Ajay Devgn, Bipasha Basu and Akshaye Khanna, he will speak in the language of the common man. Priyan – as Priyadarshan is popularly known – says the romantic rain song with Akshay and Katrina which had been edited for reasons of length will be restored in the prints from Saturday.
“I’ve never made films for critics. I make my films, even my so-called artistic ones like Kala Pani and Kanchivaram, for a mass audience. Today commercial success is more important for the survival of our film industry than ever before. Don’t critics want films to do well? Don’t they want the industry to make money so the movie business can get back on its feet? If audiences want to watch happy films who is going to stop them?”Priyan adds, “I’m a film buff. I understand world cinema. I know about Fellini, Ray and Godard. And Satyajit Ray is one of my favourite directors. But I also understand about the film market. We can’t make the films that audiences don’t come to see.”
