Luv Ranjan: I don’t give value to people who are sitting in theatres, watching a film, and tweeting

Director Luv Ranjan, whose latest release Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety has completed a successful run of 50 days in theatres, is ecstatic with the response.

With SKTKS, Ranjan feels that he has found a new set of audience. “This is my first film in which families have played an active role. The business that the youth brought in was 65-70 or 75 crores, but then it got an additional kick from families and reached 100 crores,” he says.

Reviews upon a film’s release are something that can often make or break a film. Ranjan’s earlier films, the Pyaar Ka Punchnama franchise, though found a connect with the youth, got criticism for the supposed female bashing the content had. So, is SKTKS is an answer to those critics? “My most solid answer to such critics was my film Akaash Vaani (2013), which wasn’t successful. Also, I never read reviews, and I have a problem with the reviewers. Most of them write the story in their reviews, and end up making personal attacks. People in India don’t know film reviewing is a science, you need to be educated in how to review a film. Some, in their reviews, say, for instance, ‘The editing was bad’, which is the most absurd statement. Whether the editing is good or bad, only the editor and the director can tell, because someone watching the film doesn’t know what material the director had,” says Ranjan, whose next production is with Ajay Devgn and Tabu.

The latest fad also sees people live tweeting the review of a film while sitting inside the theatre. Reacting to this, he says, “How do you expect me to give any value to people who are sitting in theatres, watching a film and tweeting? I don’t want to waste my energy reading what they have to write.” He further adds, “Eventually, people have to say something to keep their shops open. Earlier if there were seven reviewers, today we have 700. There are so many platforms, someone needs to write something. Value of reviews has gone down. People today trust their friends’ reviews more.”

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