Vivek Agnihotri: 'Love Karan Johar & Shah Rukh Khan, but they are responsible for destroying Bollywood'

Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri , who made The Kashmir Files and recently the documentary The Kashmir Files Unreported recently, has given his sharp take on the brand of cinema popularised by Karan Johar & Shah Rukh Khan. Talking about them, he said, “Karan – if he’ll come here, I will love him and hug him. Like Shah Rukh Khan. Do you know I am a fan of SRK? I always say there’s nobody as charismatic as him. But, I don’t like the politics of Shah Rukh Khan. I think they are responsible for destroying a great institution like Bollywood. They have destroyed everything in Bollywood.” He added, “Now, it’s only PRs, hype, glamour and stardom… anything which is not stardom is not accepted. That’s my problem.” On the mediocrity in Bollywood My second biggest problem is mediocrity, their hardcore belief that the audience is dumb. I cannot tolerate that. I make people’s films. They make a Box Office film. When their film is successful, it’s a Shah Rukh Khan film which is successful. When my film is successful, it’s the people’s film which is successful. So, we are standing on two different poles: the North Pole and the south pole.  However much I love him… sometimes I think it’s like Shakti or Deewar… where you love your father and brother but one is a police officer and one is a smuggler. Now you decide who’s a police officer and who’s a smuggler in our relationship. In a recent interview with Firtspost, when Agnihotri  was asked how JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University) has shaped him being a product of the institute, he said, “My DNA is very different. I am not a kind of person, who can be shaped by institutes. I also went to Harvard and there is a very famous saying, that this is the Harvard gate and they say, if a horse goes in a horse will come out. But if an ass goes in an ass will come out. So, the thing is, I don’t think institutes can shape you and if it is happening, it’s a failure on the part of the institute. Institute should help you in critical thinking rather than shaping your mind in a certain direction.”