The Bollywood machine is under fire from filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, who decries 12-hour shifts as a creativity assassin. In an exclusive interview, he painted a grim picture of an industry morphing into a tireless factory, where long hours erode the very essence of artistic expression.
‘Creativity thrives on fresh energy, not exhaustion,’ Agnihotri asserted. He detailed the ordeal: heavy makeup and prosthetics falter midway through the day, leaving performers physically and mentally wrecked. Evening fatigue hits differently than morning vigor, but cost-conscious producers push boundaries to maximize shoots on a budget. In India, he noted, workers endure due to limited awareness of rights and lax regulations.
Agnihotri challenged the status quo with vivid analogies—no painter or musician sustains peak performance for half a day straight. Shifts balloon beyond 12 hours, compounded by Mumbai’s commute woes, leaving little recovery time. For stars, maintaining that on-screen glow amid fatigue is a Herculean task.
Reflecting on his experiences, Agnihotri confessed, ‘Post-shift, I’m creatively bankrupt—brain fogged, body spent, spirit depleted.’ He urged collective action from guilds and organizations to rethink schedules. Prolonged overwork doesn’t just harm health; it diminishes output quality. Time for Bollywood to prioritize people over production lines for superior cinema.
