Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan has openly expressed to the media recently that an inadequate level of education is the key cause in the production of poor quality scripts within the Indian film industry. According to a leading Indian newspaper, during the launch of an online portal, reporters asked Mr Bachchan why there has been a number of poor quality scripts witnessed within films. He responded with the following answer: “lack of education. The level of education is not equal or universal. That’s one of the tragedies of the country.” Mr Bachchan has arguably made a fair point here to elucidate why we continue to see films which follow a script that is ill-structured and contain fruitless plots.
Mr Bachchan also elaborated to the media that “An educated society will be able to decipher the difference between good and bad and hopefully that will reflect in the kind of writing that our cinema has. Until then I guess you will have to take a very safe path. A path which is not very difficult to understand for a person who is not that educated yet at the same time subtly be able to pass a message. So I would give a lot of respect to Indian cinema because it has to tread this very narrow path.”
Perhaps Mr Bachchan’s argument will have an influential impact. It may encourage the industry to employ more scriptwriters who are not only well educated, but who can make a substantial contribution in providing the audiences with a creative and stimulating narrative that will leave a lasting effect on them when they see it incorporated into a Bollywood film.
