Real or fantasy, nothing 'in between' works for audience today: dir Laxman Utekar

Director Laxman Utekar says new filmmakers are adding "culture" to cinema which is readily being lapped up by the audiences.

The director, who made his Hindi directorial debut with "Luka Chuppi", says people either want to watch realistic films or another level fantasy cinema as they are longer in the mood to settle for anything "in between".

"Until few years ago audience had not seen stories of small town people for the longest time. We did not have directors from small towns, we had them from Juhu or Bandra so their hero comes in a Ferrari, shoot happens in New York and so on.

"In our country after every 100 km there is a different culture, language, costume, flavour and we are not exposed to it. People are bringing culture into films and audience is loving the originality, the rawness. Audience are bored to see a hero getting down from chopper or has a big house. Today people either want fantasy films like 'Baahubali' or something real. They want to have a connect to it. There is nothing in between that works," Utekar told PTI.

"Luka Chuppi" released on March 1 and enjoyed a successful run of over 50 days and grossed Rs 125 crore worldwide at the box office.

The director says the team expected the film to strike a chord with the audience.

"The response is a little more than what we had anticipated. When we were working on the film, we knew people will love it as it is a unique story. The success was anticipated. We are overwhelmed," he added.

The film, featuring Kartik Aaryan and Kriti Sanon, revolved around live-in relationships through the eyes of small-town lovers.

"The characters that we have shown in the film are presented in a real manner, like how people react to the idea of live-in - be it in small towns or metro cities.

"The perspective of small-town people about live-in relationship is unique and we were hopeful that it will work well with the audience."
"The film has done great business and it happened because people wanted to watch Kartik and Kriti on the big screen. They both were working for the film, not their individual credit. It is teamwork."