To what extent a film works is beyond me. My first film 'Aashiq Banaya Aapne' did wonders at the box office. Then 'Chocolate' was also quite popular, but it didn't have the same effect as the first one.
When a film does well, everyone is usually happy and grateful, but for me, the impression the film leaves upon my mind is created during the process of filming; my memories are not a reflection of critics' reviews and box office figures.
I would rather make a bad film which does well at the box office than a good film which does badly.
I directed 'Death in the Gunj' which released in 2017. It got very good reviews and a few awards but did not do well at the box-office. But I'm not bothered. I made the film that I wanted to make. It was not a film for everyone.
In the future, you won't buy artists' works; you'll buy software that makes original pieces of 'their' works, or that recreates their way of looking at things. You could buy a Shostakovich box, or you could buy a Brahms box. You might want some Shostakovich slow-movement-like music to be generated. So then you use that box.
Audiences and critics they don't like seeing what happens in real life. Why do you think comedies make all the money at the box office? People want to go and laugh. I can understand that.
If film critics could destroy a movie, Michael Bay and Adam Sandler would be working at Starbucks. If film critics could make a movie a hit, the Dardenne brothers would be courted by every studio in town.
When critics love your film, you love critics. When they hate your film, you hate critics. It's the same everywhere, but maybe especially in France, where we have pretty good critics, except for three or four newspapers that are really dogmatic.
I didn't know box office was a thing you could possess but I don't have it. I go up for lovely roles and people with this nebulous thing called box office get them so there isn't much I can do about that unless you know where I can get some box-office myself!
The effort always remains that my new film outdoes my last in terms of performance and gets better box office success. Box office is the sole reason why I do films.
To me, the box-office is basically the cost of film. If your film costs so much and your box-office is so much and a bit more, you are okay.
So how critics will perceive your film or your work, or whether your movie is going to make $100 million at the box office, or whether you are going to be winning any awards - well, you have no control over that.
At some level, I feel it is nice to know that a film of yours is doing well at the box office and has also got great reviews. That feels like success.
People can criticise all day long, I think I've proven myself, I think I deliver. And I agree, box office does not mean a movie's good, but I feel like I'm making good movies and I'm delivering in box office.
Film is not just about the art form but also how it fares at the box office.
Box office success has never meant anything. I couldn't get a film made if I paid for it myself. So I'm not 'box office' and never have been, and that's never entered into my kind of mind set.