Actors’ Adda 2022: ‘Good is Not Good Enough, It Has to be Great’

When Anil Kapoor, Vidya Balan, Rajkummar Rao, Sheeba Chadha, Dulquer Salmaan, Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor, Vijay Varma and Ayushmann Khurrana got together for Film Companion’s Actors’ Adda 2022, the conversation covered a lot of ground. They spoke about their craft, how their colleagues’ performances made them feel, the expectations they have of themselves, working through injuries, the difficulty of finding good scripts, and much more. 

“The conspiracy theories are changing every two-three months,” said Ayushmann Khurrana. “Before Drishyam 2, everyone was like ‘Remakes won’t work.’ The film proved them wrong. They’re saying, ‘Love stories aren’t being made.’ Soon, we’ll have a love story that will work and then everyone will say, ‘Oh, this is also working.’ So every three months, someone comes out with disruptive content and nails it,” he said, pointing out how Kantara is a really small film and has still done really well. Khurrana believes it’s about how engaging the content is. “Good is not good enough, it has to be great.” 

Vijay Varma and Vidya Balan were quick to point out that Gangubai Kathiawadi – a film headlined by a woman – raked in better bucks than male-driven films this year. However, director Sanjay Leela Bhansali films have historically been considered the exception. On this, Balan said, “If a woman’s film does well then it’s a director’s credit. This is ridiculous.” 

Janhvi Kapoor, admittedly agitated by a trade analyst’s comment that heroes need “more testosterone”, said, “From my limited experience and my novice point of view, when anyone is giving out these theories, I don’t think they know what they’re talking about – especially in this environment.” She stressed on creating films from a place of authenticity. “When you make something with conviction and honesty, it resonates with people. People want to see truth on-screen,” she said. 

Dulquer Salmaan talked about how there will always be individuals who will dissuade actors from taking up certain projects. “That’s when I feel like ‘I wanna do it,’” he laughed, referring to people who cite past experience and industry trends as justification. “Nobody has an idea about what is going to work and I don’t think that’s how we should approach films at all,” he said.

“But this state of flux is so wonderful,” said Chadha. “We grew up on such formulaic films. And now, nothing sticks – and that’s probably bad for commerce – but it’s great for actors and content watchers,” she said. 

Watch the Actors’ Adda NOW.