Filmmaker Hansal Mehta has recently taken to X to talk about his feelings about Hollywood Reporter India. Anupam Chopra’s popular criticism medium ‘Film Companion’ was recently disbanded and the team merged with Hollywood Reporter to come up with an Indian branch.
Film Companion was time and again accused of bias and keeping a very elitist approach towards Indian cinema in general. Filmmakers and netizens have often blamed them for staying on ivory towers and having no actual idea about what audiences want. However Hollywood Reporter India has only just started and does not have a wide range of content to look for any biases till now. What made Hansal Mehta make this comment is not known yet. There was a roundtable meeting for the company with directors like Vetri Maaran, PA. Ranjith, Karan Johar, Zoya Akhtar and Mahesh Narayanan. It seems that some part of the conversation might have offended Mehta while some think that he was simply offended because he was not invited.
People have both positive and negative opinions about this. An X user has commented, “Film appreciation and criticism in India is a hogwash and hegemony of a few, elitist, English speaking, know it alls,who take speaking eruditely as insight.
It’s a cartel, where they scratch each other’s back, and give opinions knowing nothing of India’s pulse.”
There is no response from Anupama Chopra and her teammates as well.