Avatar 2 dialogue writer Mayur Puri: Bollywood needs to learn and understand, stars can’t understand content

Hollywood is getting a very good response. South films are also doing good collections in the Hindi belt. What kind of challenge do you see for Bollywood?
I think Bollywood needs to learn and understand a bit. See, it has happened with us in the last few years that we made bad content for 2-3 years. After that they understood that nothing is going to happen with this content. We have a star base industry here, but stars are not content creators. They don’t understand what kind of content people like and what they don’t. And when they understand and when they have gone ahead, it becomes difficult for them to turn back. The creators very quickly understand what is going on and what is not. We can write any type of script. But these producers, stars and studios do not understand these things quickly. If they have a big frills case, then they understand things late. But I hear and see that efforts are being made to rectify things. I think we have to first understand what we are good at. We are good in family, better in relationships, if apart from these we go to action packed movies like Hollywood then that too is not sensible. If we do something over the top like South, then that too is not right. He looks good on the stars and directors of South. If you make these films in Hindi then it will not work. You cannot make ‘Pushpa’ in Hindi. It means to say that you cannot make it with a Hindi hero. Then it starts to look weird and it won’t even be fun. We don’t have to copy anyone, we don’t have to follow the herd. We have to walk with whatever is our strength. This is a very critical year for us. Right now Bollywood is on the backfoot. Whatever you are doing is going wrong.

Have you got offers for Hindi films?
I get many offers for Hindi films. If I don’t think that the film will turn out to be amazing, then I find it difficult to do it. Second, this work of mine was going on so much that I was not getting time for other work. Now I am thinking that this year I should reduce this work a bit and go back to Bollywood. As I mentioned that I am doing 2 Hindi films, apart from that I wish to do more projects. I had thought this last year itself, that’s why I had started reducing some other projects, this year I will reduce even more. (Laughs) There are more people doing good things for Hollywood.

Music creators are increasing rapidly in the country. Everyone is creating and uploading their own content. Today we are the broadcasters and we are its fans. In such a situation, it becomes very difficult to tell what are his rights as a creator. How can he monetize it, how can he get royalty, how can he make his life better. Because when every society is judged, its history is also seen as to how much we respected our artists. What a dignified life he was leading in his life. In this, it is the work of IPRS to collect everyone’s royalty and distribute it among them. But this is a very difficult task for IPRS to do in India. We have a law that royalty has to be paid, but people do not want to pay. For this, last year we had launched the Learn and Earn campaign, which is going on even today so that you learn and earn money. Earlier it was limited to our members but now we have opened it up to all the people associated with the music industry, be it lyricist or music creator.

Which projects will you be seen in in the coming days?
I had just done the Hindi version of Avatar 2. He was well liked. In the end of last year, many web and audio shows have been written, which will appear in the coming time. Talking about films, I am doing a film named Chhatrapati. This film was made by Rajamouli in Telugu, which will now be made in Hindi. It has my lyrics and music by Tanish Bagchi. I have a friend’s film called Control, that too I have done. It has been shot in Lucknow and that too is almost ready. Will come by May or June. I’m starting to write songs again, I haven’t been writing songs for a long time. I have done a lot of Marvel movies. Doctor Strange came last year. Then came Thor Love and Thunder. So I have done all these films. I don’t have any Marvel project so far this year. I have a contract till the future of Avatar, so I will do all the installments that will come.