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It is customary for filmmakers and producers to conduct what is called a ‘friends and family screening’ before the release of their projects. In recent years, this practice has become more professional, with proper focus groups being called in to watch a film and provide feedback for the filmmakers. In a recent roundtable conversation hosted by The Hollywood Reporter India, two renowned filmmakers, Karan Johar and Zoya Akhtar, confessed that they “hate” the process. They said that focus groups can be so “ruthless” at times, and Zoya, for one, is no longer interested in conducting these sessions.
Karan Johar recalled an incident that happened with Zoya Akhtar during a focus group screening for her film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. He said, “Zoya has to tell you a story when she showed Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara to somebody, an astute commercial mind, who said ‘Oh there are too many travel shots’, and she says to him, ‘It’s a travel film’. During the screening of the Gully Boy, the same person says, ‘There is too much rapping’, and then she says, ‘Because this is a film about rap’. She was like, ‘What am I doing here?’”
Zoya quickly added, “I don’t take every feedback, to be honest. I don’t listen to everything. I am just like, ‘Okay, okay’.” She then recalled, “I have been shouted at once in a focus group. I have stopped going to those screenings now. There was this uncle, he was the producer’s father’s friend. It was the focus group screening for ZNMD. He went like, ‘This is a rubbish movie. What is going on? What are they doing? They are driving?’ I was like, ‘Sir, this movie is not for you. Because I cannot do anything to make this movie for you.’” She further stated, “And its not for him. Its not his jam. Luckily, for me, there were some kids in their 20s, who were like, ‘We liked it, we connected with it’. So then they started fighting, so I kind of got away.”
Karan shared his views on the process, and said, “I hate research screenings.” He explained, “When you are showing people the film and they walk out. It’s like when somebody dies, and you line up at the end when you are standing with folded hands. A filmmaker feels exactly the same outside an editing room. You can tell by their body language, if they liked it or hated it, and then you have to ask them what they thought, and you are just worried about what they are going to say.”
He added, “I never go to focus group screenings. I have done it for many movies, but you hear the videos, and they are so ruthless, and they are like, ‘I will not recommend this movie. I will not watch.’ This is your three years of work, and they are just messing it up. I’m like, ‘Why do I have to put myself through this?’ And yet you are told, ‘You must’.”
After hearing Karan’s story, Malayalam director Mahesh Narayanan, who was also a part of the interaction, said, “We don’t have this research focus groups, and please don’t advise this either.” This made everyone laugh. However, director Vetrimaaran said that in Tamil Cinema, they have a core group who review the film’s final edit.
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