Nikkhil Advani is pointing at a shift in Hindi cinema that is usually described as creative but is, in his telling, fundamentally financial. The filmmaker says Bollywood has grown noticeably cautious, and the reason is not only a fear of unusual scripts. It is the pressure to make a lot of money quickly enough to justify a large investment.
Speaking around the recent OTT release of his period action thriller series The Revolutionaries, Advani argued that the industry now asks a particular question before a project can move forward: if a film is not expected to earn huge returns, is the story worth telling at all?
“Bollywood has become a little risk-averse,” Advani said, adding that the caution “has to do with the pressure of making money, a lot of money.”
Money pressure changes the question
The old test, as Advani remembers it, was whether a producer believed in the story. The new test is whether the numbers justify the story. That filter changes decisions far beyond the script: it touches casting, budget size and the kinds of films that reach production. When a project must be enormous to justify itself, modest and unusual stories become harder to defend.
Advani contrasts that mindset with the generation he worked with earlier in his career. “The great filmmakers I worked with, whether it was Yash Johar or Yash Chopra, were certainly big producers, but they backed stories with conviction,” he said.
Why that matters for Hindi cinema
For our readers, the concern is about the pipeline. If only the surest returns get approved, the films that become cult classics or set a new trend often never reach production. The pattern feeds itself: bigger budgets demand safer bets, and safer bets make budgets larger still. The mid-budget film that once carried Hindi cinema through changing tastes gets squeezed from both sides.
Advani frames the fix as a habit rather than a single brave greenlight.
- Risk in casting can establish a more flexible approach.
- Risk in budgeting can lower the price of a creative bet.
- Risk in storytelling becomes easier once smaller risks are normalized.
The case for small risks
He does not argue that every producer should abandon commercial logic. His point is that risk tolerance needs to be rebuilt in stages. “If you’re willing to take risks in casting, in budgeting, in storytelling, then perhaps you’ll also be willing to take risks with the subject matter,” he said.
Advani calls it a chicken-and-egg situation. The industry wants confidence before it takes a chance, but confidence tends to come only after the chance has been taken. The practical answer, he suggests, is to start somewhere small and let that create room for the larger bets that define a memorable filmography.
Source: The Times of India
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