Viewers have failed indie cinema: Bajpayee

Far from blaming the filmmakers for not promoting the independent cinema in India, actor Manoj Bajpayee says the fault lies with the "viewers" as they don't turn up to watch indie projects.

"What failed independent cinema are the viewers. They don't want to spend their money watching independent cinema; here the pirated dvds serve their purpose. Don't blame the filmmakers; they have been doing the good work since time immemorial.

"Only because of them I have been able to earn a name for myself. Having said that, with directors like Hansal Mehta, Anurag Kashyap taking the momentum forward, I have no doubt it will only shine brighter in near future," Bajpayee said.

The National award-winning actor, who was addressing a session during Bharat Rang Mahotsav 2017 at National School of Drama, also criticised media for judging a film according to the "first three-day box-office collection".

"According to box-office collection my recent release 'Aligarh' was not successful in India. It got 250 odd screens for its release, which is a very low number.

"But even now it's everyday shown in some movie festival or the other, and it's earning money. Now who'll aggregate that collection? The problem is that the media is making judgments based on the first three-day collection only," said the 47-year-old actor.