It’s time to revive middle-of-the-road cinema, says Sudhir Mishra
Filmmaker Sudhir Mishra is foraying into the web space and is quite excited about it. He feels the advent of the digital space has helped him up his game as he is working on some interesting stories for the medium.
After getting rave reviews for his web series Hostages, Sudhir says he is already planning its second season.
“I’m planning the second season of Hostages. I’m making a very big series called The Nawab, The Nautch Girl, and the East India Company. Another series is called Taang Kiski Hai, a black comedy set in a village where a cut leg is found on the tracks. I’m also working on a feature film for Anubhav Sinha which will happen later,” Sudhir shares.
He feels that now is the best time for filmmakers and actors to experiment with different characters and storytelling. “Middle-of-theroad cinema is working best in today’s time. Sometimes, you don’t need a big star to make the film work. OTT platforms and streaming services are changing the trend,” Sudhir says, adding that this is encouraging many filmmakers to revive middleof-the-road cinema, which used to be a big hit back in the day.
“Middle-of-the-road cinema was very popular in the ’70s and ’80s, and big actors like Rajesh Khanna, and Amitabh Bachchan and filmmakers like Basu Chatterjee and many others did films which used to be very realistic. The time has come again and it is the revival of that genre of filmmaking,” Sudhir shares.
The filmmaker has also directed a web film, Serious Men, inspired by author Manu Joseph’s book of the same name, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
On this, he says, “Working with Nawaz was a sheer delight. I have already started thinking of another film with him.”
Middle-of-the-road cinema was very popular in the ’70s and ’80s, and big actors like Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan did those films.
SUDHIR MISHRA FILMMAKER