PANAJI: Indian film legend Anupam Kher believes the audience now have a healthy appetite for films based on realism.
While interacting with the media delegates at IFFI 53 here in Goa today, Kher said: “Cinema has changed in the last two years in the pandemic and people are now talking about why certain films were successful and those with big stars did not do well. The reason is that over the last two years, people faced a lot of hardships where in they watched world cinema ranging from Italian, Korean, Malyalam, Marathi, Odia films. The audience fell in love with watching films based on reality and I can vouch that any film based on truth will fare well while a fake film will not be guaranteed success. “
Starring in films like The Kashmir Files, Uunchai and Karthikeya 2, Kher underlined the importance of this year in the evolution of Indian cinema. “These films broken the system what the Indian film industry talked about. That is why this year, is a triumph of cinema and that’s what we should celebrate,” asserted Kher, while hailing the stature of International Film Festival of India as an iconic platform and advising the filmmakers from various parts of India not to address themselves with respect to their state’s film industry but rather come out in public as part of the Indian Film Industry.
Kher experienced the Kashmiri Pandit exodus crisis of 1990 from close quarters and disclosed how demanding the challenge of essaying a role was, in the Indian Panorama film ‘The Kashmir Files,’ which is in International Competition category hunt for the Golden Peacock Award.
“I have never been so mentally tormented while doing a role in a film because this was a responsibility on my shoulders to portray the agony of the pandits those were drawn out of their homes on that night. I was representing those people, so my tears…my screams, were real, truthful. This is one film where I have not used the craft of an actor but I would like to say I used my soul to portray the truth behind it,” explained Kher.
