Girish Karnad: Don't judge Indian cinema by Western standards

Noted playwright Girish Karnad believes Indian cinema has successfully warded off Hollywood invasion because of its song and dance tradition. "If we would have made films like Satyajit Ray, continued without song and dance, we would have been swallowed up by Hollywood by now," Girish Karnad told reporters in Delhi.

"Italian cinema is gone, Japanese cinema is gone and even French can't compete with Hollywood. "We don't have to worry. Our songs and dancers have protected us. So, why should we give up our strength?," Karnad added.

Karnad, who recently acted in Bollywood movie Ek Tha Tiger, said Indian cinema was doing extremely well and it should not be judged by Western parameters. Girish said, "I think the films that are being made are very good. We should not judge by Western standards. We say why don't our films get Oscars? Why do we need an Oscar?."

"Suddenly, A R Rahman becomes great because he got an Oscar but he was great even before that. I gave the example of Ship of Theseus. It would have been impossible to make something like this 10 years ago," Karnad auoted. The Jnanpith award-winning writer-director-actor, 75, who was here to deliver the 26th Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial IFFCO lecture on Indian Cinema and the Creation of A Nation, highlighted how Hindi cinema went about in building the nation without realising it. Karnad said in their effort to find maximum audience, Hindi cinema went about creating new idioms, new language and new music, which could be consumed all over India.