Director owns the failure, actors own the success: Hansal Mehta

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta, who has made award-winning dramas, says it is his observation that when a movie fails its ownership falls on the director, and when it’s a success the actor walks away with the accolades.

“(In) My experience of the last 22 years of making films, whether I like it or not, the director owns the failure and the actor owns the success,” Mehta said at the & Privé Soiree here on Tuesday. The event brings award-winning movies to viewers in an exclusive setting. The format includes noted filmmakers and actors discussing each film before the screening and highlighting the various themes explored in each story. Madhvani added to Mehta’s point, and spoke about how people end up throwing tantrums and fighting when it comes to ownership. He said: “I think that ownership is not given, it’s taken.”

Madhvani spoke about his struggle after his first film, saying: “I think you have to fight, scream and take it (ownership) because that’s the only way they (high budget actors) will allow you to have ownership. You have to throw tantrums as ownership is not easy. When you work with smaller budgets, it’s easier to get ownership, the bigger the budgets, the more difficult it gets to have ownership. “In the last 14-15 years after my first short film, ‘Let’s Talk’, which we funded ourselves, it took me a long time to make my next film because of the idea of ownership.”