It has been mentioned over and over again that film industries down South are more successful than Bollywood because they stick to their roots. Celebrities like Kangana, Raveena Tandon and Boney Kapoor had previously explained how South Indians are proud of their culture and never fail to show that in their films. This is apparently why success is guaranteed.
In an interview, Nawazuddin Siddiqui was asked what are the three things he would change in Bollywood if he had the power. One of the things that were pointed out by him was the continued use of the English language on film sets. He said that everyone, starting from the director to the assistants, spoke in English.
View this post on Instagram
He went on to add that for actors who are not proficient in English, it gets difficult to grasp instructions. His logic is simple – the film is in Hindi, toh Hindi mein baat karo na yaar!
“The film is being made in Hindi but everybody on sets is talking in English. The director is giving directions in English, the assistant director is also speaking English. The actor is unable to understand what’s happening. They go like ‘ya ya you can do it, you come here and..’, seedha seedha bol de na yaar. The performance of the actor gets affected this way you know. When you are able to understand only half of the things, the performance gets affected.”
He further added that a good actor who has previously worked in the theatres might not know English. So when a director is speaking in English about the characters in the film, how are the actors supposed to understand?
“Over here, in the Hindi film industry, Bollywood, the director himself is on some other tangency, the assistant is doing his own thing and the actor is left standing alone. A good actor from the theatre, who may not know English, might be looking here and there trying to understand what is going on. It is his character whom they talking about, and he himself does not know what he is going to do.”
View this post on Instagram
Comparing this tendency of Bollywood with the Kannada, Tamil and Telugu film industries, Nawazuddin Siddiqui claimed that in the South, people are proud of their language and everyone speaks in their mother tongue in a film set.
“In the South, Tamil crews are proud of their language. Kannada screenwriters and directors all speak in Kannada. They understand what’s being said on set.”
Have a look at his interview here:
Do you agree with what the actor has to say?