Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who was last seen in the Zee 5 film Costao, recently talked about the creative bankruptcy of Bollywood. The industry, which has been going through a lull phase with big-ticket films falling flat at the box office one after another, has never prioritised originality, accused Nawazuddin Siddiqui. In a recent conversation with Puja Talwar on her YouTube channel, Nawazuddin called out the culture of sequels as "pathetic".
Talking about the trend of formulaic films, Nawazuddin Siddiqui said, "In our industry, the same thing is repeated for five years straight - then, when people get bored, they finally let it go. Actually insecurity bohut badh gayi hai. Unko lagta hai ek formula chal raha hai toh usse chala lo, ghiso isko. Aur usse bhi pathetic yeh hogaya ki yeh 2, 3, 4 (sequels) hone lag gaya. (Actually, insecurity has increased a lot. They feel that if a formula is working, they should keep milking it, overdo it. And what's even more pathetic is that now there are 2, 3, 4 sequels being made)."
Nawazuddin Siddiqui coined the term "creativeruptcy" to point out the creative emptiness of the industry. "Kahin na kahin jaise bankruptcy hoti hai, vaise yeh creativeruptcy hogaya. Kangaliyat hai bohut zayada. Shuru se humari industry chor rahi hai. Humne gaane chori kiye, story chori ki (It's creative bankruptcy, just like financial bankruptcy. There's a lot of creative poverty. From the beginning, our industry has been stealing. We've stolen songs, we've stolen stories)," he said.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui went on and added the tradition of "copying" has been in vogue for decades.
"Ab jo chor hote hain, voh kahan se creative ho sakte hain. Humne south se churaya, kabhi yahan se churaya, kabhi wahan se churaya. Even some cult-films which became hits, unke scenes bhi chori kare hue hain. Isko itna normalise kardiya gaya ki chori hai toh kya hua? (Now, how can thieves be creative? We've stolen from the South, sometimes from here, sometimes from there. Even some cult films that became hits have scenes that were copied. This has been so normalised that it's like - so what if it's stolen?).
"Earlier, they used to hand over a video and say, 'This is the film we want to make.' They'd watch that and just replicate it here," he added.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui pointed out that filmmakers, who wanted to make out-of-the-box films, were forced to quit.
"What can you expect from an industry like this? What kind of actors will come in? They'll be of the same kind. And then actors and directors start quitting - like Anurag Kashyap, who was bringing in good work," said the actor.
Earlier, Anurag Kashyap also vent out his frustration that the industry lacks "creative stimulation", which drives him to relocate to the South.