New stars boost films more than established ones, argue Siddharth-Garima | Exclusive

Monica Panwar's rise post-Dukaan exemplifies how emerging talents hustle harder for promotion, unlike big names who rely on star power. The writer-directors, Siddharth-Garima, fresh from their award win at the Pune's Mumba International Film Festival, advocated for filmmakers to launch newcomers like Karan Johar and SS Rajamouli do.

Q. Monica Panwar, the lead in Dukaan, is now a bigger star than when the film was made. How does having a larger star affect the film’s commercial success, marketing, and social media presence?

Garima: This might sound blasphemous, but the reality is that a bigger star takes a lot more responsibility for themselves in terms of marketing the film. Someone who is yet to make it big will make the most out of what you are doing for them, while a bigger star will lend their star power to the film. That is something that Dukaan could have profited from. Monica has immensely benefited from Dukaan; she got a character-driven role, her hoardings were all over the city, and Anurag Kashyap became interested in her after her performance in Dukaan. Of course, she was brilliant in Jamtara, but when we had cast her for Dukaan, nobody had imagined her in that light.

The first hoarding that we put up in Juhu Circle with our own money was us putting her out there.Siddharth: A bigger star also comes with an audience perception, it increases the chances of the film being sold to an OTT. When we were working with Sachet-Parampara, they did not have a single track out in the market, but today, they are a household name. We believe it is our duty to showcase a talent if it is out there. It is a filmmaker’s, especially those who are at the level of SS Rajamouli, responsibility to work with newer talents.

Why is everyone only looking to work with Alia Bhatt or another big name? They don’t need this push; they are already big enough. For this reason, we respect Karan Johar a lot. If it wasn’t for KJo, we wouldn’t have

Sidharth Malhotra

, Alia Bhatt,

Varun Dhawan

, and, more recently, Lakshya. But even they go back to big names when they make a film these days. He should have cast a new Rocky and a new Rani in Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, or Bhansali sir should have cast a new girl as Gangubai.

Since they are not doing that, this responsibility falls on new filmmakers like us.Garima: When

Akshay Kumar

came into Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, he took it upon himself to tell that story. He said, “Main toh leke jaunga iss film ko aage.” The way he did the film, he had completely surrendered himself to us, the writers. That was so amazing, he did not let anyone spoil the music of the film, he was heavily involved because he knew that he was adding a star value to a rural Indian subject, and that amplified it’s impact. This is a quality that newcomers lack.