Rohit Shetty On 'Good Muslim, Bad Muslim’ Debate Around Sooryavanshi And How He Prepares Himself For Criticism

After being delayed for more than a year, Rohit Shetty's much-awaited release Sooryavanshi featuring Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif in the lead roles, hit the theatres on November 5, 2021 and despite the ongoing pandemic, the film set the box office on fire. While most of the moviegoers loved the film, there were some people who didn't like the 'good Muslim and bad Muslim' narrative in the movie.

In his recent tete-a-tete with a leading daily, when Rohit was asked to share his thoughts about the same and how he prepares himself for such criticism, here's what the filmmaker said...

Rohit told Times Of India that for him, the most important thing is that he does not want to hurt his audience, because he knows who his audience is.

"When I talk about my audience, I am making my film for them. I write, shoot, edit, do post-production keeping my audience in mind. For me, they matter the most. No one else in the world. And if they're happy, I am happy. But if they're not happy, I'll accept that I went wrong and I will do something about it. Next time, I will try to satisfy their belief in me. That's it. It's always been about me and my audience and nothing more," added the Singham director.

Rohit further added that he is well aware that his film is commercial and it won't be critically acclaimed. However, the director feels that there's a pattern over it.

"I won't say all media or all critics do that, but one or two individuals could be like that and it's perfectly okay. Look this criticism is also a business. Pehle newspapers mein aata tha, phir TV pe aane laga, abb social media pe aata hai (Film criticism is also a business. Earlier it used to be in newspapers, then it moved to TV and today its on social media). And today, I feel it's not as impactful as it used to be. Because the critics are using the same medium that the audience is using as well. So for every line of criticism that is posted on social media, there are lakhs of tareefein (praises) under it. The criticism actually gets diluted that way. End of the day everyone has their choice in cinema, everyone has the right to say what they feel, especially about a film. But it doesn't bother me anymore," asserted Shetty.