Importance of Bollywood movies' run-time: Check out industry veterans' opinions

A massive hard work and production is put in to create a Bollywood blockbuster. Bollywood movies include immense time investment backed up with smart film making ideas. Talking about the run time of a film, various industry veterans have varied takes and opinions on the topic. 

In a recent interview with an entertainment daily, Manoj Kumar talked about this significant aspect of film making and editing. Manoj Kumar is a well-known writer, filmmaker, film editor and a major star of Bollywood. He revealed his golden maxim about film making, and also explained why he was called King Midas.

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He shared that he does his best as a writer. But when it comes to directing a film, he thinks from the director’s point of view. Manoj Kumar is ruthless with the writer in him, he shared. He also practices the editing schedule and is always merciless with the inner director too. He believes that a film is finally made for the audience on the editing table, as added by him. 

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In another interview, Anees Bazme, popular writer and director, agreed with Manoj Kumar’s view. He shared that the length does depend on content, and a film is made on three tables — script, direction and editing and so the storyline must justify the run time. The Pagalpanti maker recalled that his shortest films to date were Singh Is Kinng (2008). For Salman, he has made films with runtimes of 2.29 (Ready) and a 2.43 (No Entry). 

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Another veteran Anil Sharma, the creator of Gadar: Ek Prem Katha, also shared his views on the run time of a film in an interview. The director stated that today's audience has much less patience. In the olden days, films would be the only source of entertainment. However, now things are different and it is about shorter films and more shows. He also added that he never makes any film looking at length but as per its story. Giving an example of his Bollywood hit Gadar, he said that it was rage and its interval was at 2.02 hours, which is the total run-time of many movies. However, the suspense kept the fans going. 

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