Every film cannot be Pan-India: Ratna Pathak Shah

Speaking at a session titled ‘One Nation: Many Cinematic Voices’ at FICCI Frames, Ratna Pathak Shah pointed out that movies have played a huge role in introducing different cultures of the country to diverse audiences. She said, "Different kinds of content are acceptable to different audiences. Our mistake is that we keep talking about pan India, that everything should be acceptable to everyone.Pan-India - that is our big attempt. Everything cannot be Pan-India. You can have idli dosa in Kashmir, but that does not make it a Kashmiri dish. It is just something that you enjoy, which has a different taste. Similarly, films in different languages have a different flavour that talks about a place which you know nothing about. When I watch a film from Manipur, I get blown away because these films talk about stuff that I know nothing about. The way people live, think, and society is changing - films reflect all that."
Talking about the changing audience, she said, "The audience today doesn't only want fantasy. They know that life is tough, and they want some reflection of that in the films. I think that's a big change. At least today we know that every film cannot have a Pan-Indian audience."