Rakesh Roshan faces backlash over his 'South cinema is not breaking any path' remark: 'This reeks of arrogance'

Director-producer Rakesh Roshan came under fire for his controversial statement on South industry. The filmmaker recently shared his perspective on South Indian movies and said that they are successful but they are following the same templates that work in terms of storytelling. Unlike Bollywood, they are not breaking path, he said, which didn’t go down well with the internet users. 

"South films are very grounded. They’re continuing with the old-school format of song-action-dialogue-emotions. They’re not progressing. Technically, they are, but storytelling-wise, they’re sticking to the same formulas that work. They’re successful because they’re not breaking any path.” he said in an interview with Zoom. He further added, “We are breaking paths. After I made Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai, I didn’t want to make romantic films. Then I did Koi... Mil Gaya. After that, I made Rohit (Hrithik Roshan’s character in Koi... Mil Gaya) a superhero. These are the challenges we took. They don’t take. They play on safe grounds.”

Social media users were stunned by Rakesh Roshan's comments, with many expressing disbelief. On Reddit, users fired back, arguing that Bollywood has consistently failed to grasp and cater to its audience's needs. They also accused the veteran filmmaker of displaying arrogance in his assessment. One user wrote: “I mean that's quite lazy way of putting it out there. Even if you take out malayalam cinema the works of directors like vetrimaran, mari Selvaraj , Karthik subbaraj , hemanth rao , shetty brothers , etc are quite unique and different and quality wise much better than what bollywood is offering Bahubali and Eega itself were path breaking films then(sic).”

Rakesh Roshan speaking facts. A film like Dangal, Stree2 or Bajrangi Bhaijaan could never break records in Tollywood.
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"Absolutely, but Bollywood never made any proper effort to expand its market and make content to its heartland audience, and south esp Tollywood is catering. Left hate Bollywood because it is not enough woke, Right hates Bollywood because it is too much woke. Elites hate bollywood because not elite enough, mass audience hates bollywood because it is too elite. EVERYBODY HATES BOLLYWOOD!!!" commented another user.  "Rangasthalam, Vikram, Kantara, Manjummel Boys. These were all the biggest hits of their respective industries. There are obviously other examples as well. If Bollywood was always challenging themselves and South Indian cinema doesn’t break any new ground, then why do South Indian movies still get remade?" another user asked.

Meanwhile, Rakesh Roshan’s Kaho Naa Pyaar has recently re-released in cinemas. The Roshans,  the documentary series that chronicles the trials and triumphs of Bollywood's iconic Roshan family, is also set to release on Netflix.