The Tips Industries boss praised Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn's four-films-a-year work ethic while urging Aamir Khan to stop taking long gaps between releases.
Ramesh Taurani has a message for Bollywood's biggest stars: stop being so afraid of a bad opening weekend.
Speaking with trade analyst Komal Nahta alongside his son Kumar Taurani, the Tips Industries chief laid out what's bothering him about how top actors operate today. His line, delivered half in Hindi, summed it up: "Bhale 10 hit chhoot jaaye lekin 1 flop nahin chahiye!" Translation, more or less, actors today would rather dodge ten hits than risk a single flop.
That's the opposite of how Taurani remembers the industry working. He recalled a time when music companies like his would sign actors off a one-line narration, sometimes over the phone, no meeting required. "Woh bharosa tha aur luckily, woh bharosa rang laaya kyunki hamari sab picturein chali," he said, crediting that trust for the run of hits his banner produced.
Kumar Taurani went further, arguing that actors have simply gotten too cautious. He said they should be doing two to three films a year regardless of the downside, and that a couple of flops in a career shouldn't matter. He also flagged something about Dhurandhar's economics. According to Kumar Taurani, the film's cast and director took a profit-sharing deal instead of a heavy upfront fee, a structure he seemed to hold up as the kind of risk-sharing he wants to see more of.
Ramesh Taurani's theory for why actors have gone risk-averse: money from stage shows and endorsements has made them financially secure enough that they don't need the next film to work, so they'd rather not do it at all than let it flop and dent their brand. He reached for a courtroom analogy to make the point, likening it to the principle that a hundred guilty men should go free before one innocent man is wrongly punished, except flipped for stardom. Actors, he said, would rather skip ten hits than wear one flop.
The praise, though, was specific. Taurani singled out Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn for keeping up a pace of four films a year across decades without slowing down. He pointed to Drishyam The Conclusion's early buzz as proof the model still works. Salman Khan got a nod too, with three films lined up over two years, by Taurani's count.
Then came the needling. "I always tell Aamir Khan, 'Bhai aap zyaada picturein karo,'" Taurani said, telling one of Hindi cinema's most selective stars to loosen up. Shah Rukh Khan wasn't spared either. Taurani noted that King will arrive three years after Khan's last release, which for a producer who built a career on volume is apparently its own kind of problem.
Whether Aamir Khan or Shah Rukh Khan respond to the nudge is anyone's guess. Neither has commented, and both have built their recent choices around scarcity rather than output. Taurani's bet is that the industry rewards the opposite.
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