It’s common for filmmakers and producers to hold ‘friends and family screenings’ before their projects are released. In recent years, this practice has evolved into more structured focus groups, where feedback is collected to help filmmakers refine their films. However, during a roundtable discussion hosted by The Hollywood Reporter India, directors Karan Johar and Zoya Akhtar admitted that they “hate” these sessions. Both described how brutally honest feedback from these groups can sometimes be, with Zoya explaining that she no longer participates in such screenings.
Karan Johar shared a memorable story about a focus group screening for Zoya Akhtar’s Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. He recounted, “Zoya has to tell you a story when she showed Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara to somebody, an astute commercial mind, who said, ‘Oh, there are too many travel shots,’ and she says to him, ‘It’s a travel film.’ During the screening of Gully Boy, the same person says, ‘There is too much rapping,’ and she says, ‘Because this is a film about rap.’ She was like, ‘What am I doing here?’”
Zoya added, “I don’t take every feedback, to be honest. I’m just like, ‘Okay, okay.’” Reflecting on a past experience, she said, “I have been shouted at once in a focus group. I have stopped going to those screenings now. There was this uncle, he was the producer’s father’s friend. It was the focus group screening for ZNMD. He went like, ‘This is a rubbish movie. What is going on? What are they doing? They are driving?’ I was like, ‘Sir, this movie is not for you. Because I cannot do anything to make this movie for you.’” Zoya recalled that while this older audience member disliked the film, younger viewers in their 20s resonated with it, which led to a disagreement in the room. “Luckily, for me, there were some kids who said, ‘We liked it, we connected with it.’ So then they started fighting, and I kind of got away,” she added.
Karan shared his own frustration with focus groups, saying, “I hate research screenings.” He described the discomfort of showing his films to audiences and watching their reactions. “It’s like when somebody dies, and you line up at the end, standing with folded hands. A filmmaker feels exactly the same outside an editing room. You can tell by their body language if they liked it or hated it, and then you have to ask them what they thought, and you’re just worried about what they are going to say.”
He continued, “I never go to focus group screenings. I’ve done it for many movies, but you hear the feedback, and it’s so ruthless. They’ll say, ‘I will not recommend this movie. I will not watch.’ This is your three years of work, and they are just messing it up. I’m like, ‘Why do I have to put myself through this?’ And yet you are told, ‘You must.’”
Joining the conversation, Malayalam director Mahesh Narayanan humorously remarked, “We don’t have these research focus groups, and please don’t advise this either,” prompting laughter from the group. Meanwhile, Tamil filmmaker Vetrimaaran shared that in Tamil cinema, they rely on a core group to review the final cut of a film.
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