Sanjay Dutt critiques Bollywood's shift: 'The audience needs the mass'
Sanjay Dutt
shared his concerns about the current state of Bollywood cinema.
He emphasized that films based on people packed with action, emotion, and larger-than-life characters are what truly resonate with Indian audiences.
A call for
commercial entertainment
Dutt stated, 'Bollywood has forgotten how to make massy films. The audience needs the mass.'
Dutt's comments came during a media interaction at the teaser launch, where he praised KD – The Devil for its 'mass appeal' and 'powerful storytelling.' According to Bollywood Hungama, he said, 'The character I have played is very powerful.
His relationship with his wife is very unique. It's a massy character. Since the time I did Rocky, I have only worked for masses.'
He also credited director Prem for crafting a film that blends emotional depth with stylized action, calling him 'one of the most talented directors and one of the best human beings I have met.'
KD – The Devil: A return to roots?
The teaser for 'KD – The Devil' promises a gritty, action-packed period drama set in 1970s Bangalore.
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by Taboola
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Dutt plays Dhak Deva, a formidable force bonded by blood with Dhruva Sarja's character KD. The film also stars Shilpa Shetty and Nora Fatehi, and is being presented in five languages—Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam.
As noted by 'Masala,' fans are already calling it a 'badass action and bloodbath' spectacle, with Dutt's OG appearance drawing nostalgic praise.
The bigger picture: Bollywood's identity crisis?
Dutt's comments are part of a larger discussion about Bollywood's changing identity. Many industry veterans are wondering if Hindi cinema has lost touch with its mass roots in light of the rise of pan-Indian films from the South and a growing desire for high-octane entertainers.
What was his message? It's time to revive massy storytelling's swagger, scale, and essence.
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Scroll.in
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A lot can happen in a week. On July 25, JP Thuminad's Su From So was released on 13 screens across Karnataka. By the end of seven days, the Kannada film was available on close to 150 screens and had mopped up nearly Rs 16 crore, producer Raj B Shetty said. 'That's remarkable – it's a star number associated with superhit films,' Shetty told Scroll . Not only is Su From So continuing to do roaring business in Karnataka, especially in the capital Bengaluru, it has also been dubbed into Malayalam and was released in Kerala on August 1. Anybody who hasn't watched Su From So will be startled by the success of a movie with mostly theatre actors and none of the usual blandishments of commercial cinema. Nobody who has watched Su From So will be surprised by the love it has received. Thuminad's debut feature, which he has also written, is a rambunctious comedy of manners set in a village in southern Karnataka. The beautifully written, performed and staged movie tucks into a consciously chaotic and absurdist narrative a firm message about the treatment of women. Ashoka (played by the director) pretends to be possessed by a female spirit in order to get out of an uncomfortable situation. Ravi Anna (Shaneel Gautham), the village's de facto head, is pressurised into heading the investigation. A dodgy television godman (Raj B Shetty) is called in as an exorcist. Even as Ashoka finds it hard to keep up his pretence, it appears that the ghost of Sulochana from Someshwara ('Su From So') is actually hovering around. Sulochana's daughter Bhanu (Sandhya Arakere) gets embroiled in the goings-on, adding to Ravi Anna's headache. The movie's chief pleasure lies in watching the villagers bumble about, hold forth and behave at cross-purposes while trying to solve the mystery behind Ashoka's behaviour. 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To help Thuminad overcome his despondency over losing the project, Shetty asked him to come up with other ideas. 'I told JP, tell me about the interesting characters and incidents you have seen in your life,' Shetty recalled. Su From So emerged out of these conversations. This was nearly seven years ago. Thuminad kept working on the script, through and after the coronavirus pandemic. Su From So was shot in October last year, completed in February and released in July – an indie approach that Shetty says is necessary if such movies are to be made. 'The industry knew about the film's existence only a few weeks before its release through the trailer,' Shetty stated. By flying under the radar but aiming high, the production has reaped rich dividends. Su From So (2025). Courtesy Lighter Buddha Films. Everything that the makers were warned against worked in their favour. 'Distributors cautioned us against releasing the film on July 25 – three big films in other languages were coming on that day,' Shetty said. 'For a while, I too believed in the lie that nobody would watch a Kannada film.' But the word of mouth that had begun with the premiere on July 21 and subsequent preview screenings was too strong to ignore. 'Nobody had the power to control us,' Shetty said. 'If we had had somebody to whom we had to report, the process wouldn't have been so much fun and so smooth.' There was also the perception that since Su From So reflects the culture of Dakshina Kannada – or southern Karnataka – it would not appeal to the state's northern viewers. 'This film is running houseful in northern Karnataka too,' Shetty said. 'For them, the culture is new, which makes the experience a bit more interactive. Audiences are more intelligent than the industry gives them credit for.' Cinema has the power to transcend geography, Shetty added. 'Watching a film is like going on a trip,' he observed. 'You want to go to a place that is new rather than already known. When you watch Sholay , you want both the heroes to survive not because they are from your part of the world, but because they are human.' This is the case with Su From So too. 'The characters are funny and relatable, they are people from our own families, lives and villages,' Shetty said. Danks Anthem, Su From So (2025). Thuminad expertly handles a sizeable cast of actors, many of whom are new to filmmaking. One of his tricks, he told Scroll through Shetty since he mainly speaks Kannada, was to narrate only those scenes to the actors in which they were involved. This part-of-the-whole approach ensures that even minor players are memorable. 'Take the character of the drunk – he thinks that he is very responsible and very important to the occasion, although everyone else thinks otherwise,' Shetty pointed out. Shaneel Gautham was among the few actors who knew the entire script. Gautham is likely to known as Ravi Anna in the conceivable future for his terrific turn as the saga's reluctant knight in shining armour. 'I played the character with great joy,' Gautham told Scroll . 'I was the one person who had heard the complete story, I knew it from top to bottom. I thought it would be easy to play Ravi Anna. But JP fought a lot to make me get under Ravi Anna's skin.' Gautham had no references for the role. 'I imitated what JP told me to do,' he said. 'The villagers view Ravi Anna as someone who is daring or dashing. He is somebody people turn to. He needed to look huge and separate.' Thuminad deliberately surrounded Gautham, who is six feet tall, with actors who were shorter than him to make Ravi Anna appear imposing. The shoot was a source of 'great joy', Gautham said. 'I had been mesmerised by JP's writing right from the start,' he added. 'When we are making a film, we tend to lose judgement. 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The Aksharamala mundu (with Malayalam letters) sells the most during Vidyarambham, our Kolam mundu is picked for Pongal. But the main sales happen around Vishu and Onam. Thanks to the multiple Onam celebrations now—at home, work, school and even gyms—the demand is robust.' Apart from Kerala, Rouka's orders come from Bengaluru, Mumbai and West there's a need to revamp the wrap is clear to Menon. In his seventh year in business, he is busy doing that with the mundu—the wrap he's most familiar with. He says, 'Cultural significance is not sacrosanct. It should adapt to modern needs and not merely be seen packed by history and nostalgia.' His initial research revealed that the mundu commanded the biggest market share, about 65%, of all woven products in Kerala. There is a steady market for men's mundu which comes in two sizes: the double mundu (4 m) and the single mundu (2 m). 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This November, Menon is gearing up for The Mundu Project where Save The Loom will reimagine the mundu in collaboration with designers like Vivek Karunakaran, Gaurav Khanijo, Divyam Mehta, Gaurav Jai Gupta and Ujjawal Dubey The versatility of the mundu—a piece of unstitched fabric in a onesize-fits-all format—makes it easy to reinvent. It's the drapery that excites Ateev Anand, designer and founder of re-ceremonial, an ethical fashion brand that tries to understand how clothing within the subcontinent is worn and understood as a concept, and then gives it a modern, relevant con - text. The mundu was part of its first ever collection in 2022. 'Just by adding a pocket, the look turned, for want of a better word, fresh.' This year, he worked with the mundu as a co-ord set. But even now, he's not putting it out as retail pieces because he feels men need to be talked into it. 'The challenge is to offer it as an unstitched drape. If you tailor it too much, it loses its versatility,' says Anand. His bigger mission is to make people comfortable with making an effort to dress up. 'I want them to under - stand that the minute you invest time on how you dress, you invest time in yourself.' And for him, the unstitched draped garment is 'it'. The Bengal dhoti surged in popularity after actor Saif Ali Khan was seen in the traditional Mayur Puchha dhoti last year, catapulting Abhisek Roy, who designed it, to fame. Earlier this year, he debuted his Lakme Fashion Week collection that concentrated heavily on dhoti. He swears by the unstitched dhoti that can be worn in 100 different ways. 'There's slowly a change in men's approach to style. They are eager to experiment with silhouettes, fits and patterns. What's also causing a stir is a back-to-the-roots movement in fashion,' he says. 'And people are not restricting themselves to their own region.' Not just big players like Ramraj and MCR, but smaller enterprises are looking to capitalise on the niche style needs of men. Sari giant KKE Venkatachala Bhagavathar & Sons, which runs the online platform Muhurth, is tapping the formal dhoti segment apart from focusing on their staple, silk saris. Prasad Dayalan, founder of Muhurth, says, 'While silk dhotis have always been part of our offering, we have noticed a growing demand in recent years, especially from men who are particular about quality, design and colour.' Their silk dhotis with angavastram cost Rs 14,000 to Rs 50,000. Their B2B dhoti sales are 350-400 a month, while D2C sales are around 50, though it is not their primary focus. Silk dhotis are mostly produced in and around Salem. For Kerala mundu, the major hubs are Balaramapuram, Chendamangalam, Kannur and Kuthampully. Says Menon: 'A majority of mundus in Kerala are hand - loom, while the rest of the South mostly wears power - loom mundus that start at Rs 150.' The gender fluidity of the garment is what made designer Pranav Misra, founder of Huemn—a contemporary Indian streetwear label—launch a lungi skirt in June. The design merges the comfortable lungi silhouette with elements of the skirt. Misra says, 'The lungi represents memories of fathers lounging at home, trips back to ancestral homes and the films we watched growing up. What our design does is make the garment accessible to a younger crowd, removing the constraints of gender, gaining the comfort of the skirt, while remaining true to its essential nature.' While these lowers are traditionally worn by men, women too are adding it to their wardrobe. Bengaluru-based artist and interior designer Susan John has three lungis that she picked from Tiruchirappalli. She wears it around the house. 'It's easy to move around in and I feel good.' Women are the prime clientele of The Sufi Studio's take on lungi and dhoti. 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It's unfortunate that we have to do all this to make our traditional wear seem 'cool',' he says. Menon recalls how economist Abhijit Banerjee wore a Suket Dhir ensemble that had a Kerala kasavu weave worn as a Bengal-style dhoti to receive the Nobel memorial prize in economics in 2019. 'It's a product that can have a universal market. It's on the verge of finding its moment,' says Menon. It's time to wrap it up.
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