Success of commercial films helps us survive: Dibakar Banerjee

If commercial films do well, studios put profits into off-beat films too, says Banerjee.

Mumbai: If commercial films do well, studios put some of the profits into off-beat films too, says Dibakar Banerjee, the director of ‘Shanghai’ and ‘Love Sex Aur Dhoka’.

"It actually helps filmmakers like Anurag (Kashyap) and I when a commercial film makes Rs.100-200 crore. This is public funding and the studios put this money into films like `Love Sex Aur Dhoka` or Gangs of Wasseypur`. So this helps us survive," he said at 14th edition of FICCI-Frames, a media and entertainment industry convention, Wednesday. Directors Zoya Akhtar, Karan Johar and Anurag Kashyap also took part in the discussion titled `100 Years of Cinema and Beyond`. Dibakar also said that it was important to make the kind of films one wanted to make. "Just because certain films are making money does not mean you should make them too. You should do what you want to do," he said. Kashyap, whose films have a limited budget, said he knew the kind of money his films would earn. "Studios never put pressure. They know the kind of films I want to make. I have chosen a certain kind of film. I must bear the consequences," Kashyap said. Talking about the obsession of films earning Rs.100 crore, Johar said this was something created by the media. "The audience is obsessed with (the film earning) Rs.100 crore. This is all media-driven. We follow a set pattern. No one talks about the brilliance of the film. All we talk about is the (film) stars and Rs.100 crore," he said. IANS