Actors Randeep Hooda and Seema Pahwa along with filmmakers Farah Khan, Mansi Jain and actor-producer Anuraag Malhan came together here on Saturday to talk about the trends in Indian cinema. In the last few years, the audience saw Hindi films moving towards realism besides focussing on the interiors of India. Asked about this change, Farah, popular for making entertaining larger than life films, said: "Change is always good and is necessary. I think all sorts of cinema should co-exist. Different types of films should be made. Larger than life films...some are bad films and some good. The same goes for real films. Nawazuddin Siddqui: ‘Content Driven Cinema Works on Formula Like Bollywood Hits’.

"Real films should also be entertaining. It's a good trend though this trend was there in the '70s and '80s also. Filmmakers like Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Shyam Benegal used to make them and they were commercially successful films." Another trend seen in Hindi cinema is a reinterpretation of old classics. Randeep pointed out that as far as human stories are concerned, there are only four kinds of stories possible. The Body: From Memories to Drishyam, 5 Memorable Thrillers That Jeethu Joseph Has Given to Malayalam Cinema.

"Love story between two people, love story between three people, revenge and journey -- internal or external. So I think the stories are the same. They are classics because they were great stories to begin with, but times have changed and so has the technology. "The same relationships have different interpretations now. You should remake the classics as long as you make them well, as long as you have a thematic change or what represents today's society in terms of technology like there is social media now which was not present then.

"If you incorporate them smartly, the newer generation should be able to be privy to those thematic issues," he said during the panel discussion organised by Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films. Short films have found popularity in India now. Jain feels that filmmakers have been making short films for a while, but now they are more marketable and there's a platform for them. "I feel the challenge is to tell a full story in a short period of time. It's annoying to me when short films are 60 minutes long. It should be self-contained. It should have a beginning, middle and end," said the director.

Seema has acted in short as well as feature films. "Actors anyway get a lot of challenges. Sometimes when we do full length feature films, we get only one scene. Actors like us who are not stars...so we often get such challenges. We get one or two scenes where we have to do everything. We have to show our full talent," she quipped. "The approach to a short film or feature film isn't different. You have to tell a story through your performance," she said.

Anuraag also tried something new by taking up the short film "The Lovers". "I have a television background. I was looking for a big break. Later I decided to invest money in a short film and learn things practically. When we make a TV episode, it takes us about two days to make an episode of 20 to 22 minutes. This film was for 22 minutes and it took us six months," he said. He also got to see the creativity and experience the pressure for being a producer. "As an actor and producer, I learned a lot," he said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 17, 2019 07:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).