Khan has been repeatedly saying that this film is made for entertainment purposes only, and is made to appeal to the masses. He says it will be a masala flick, and has in the past hated on critics for giving him bad ratings. His last film, Heyy Babyy, “borrowed”a plethora of material from Hollywood and Bollywood films, lacked an original script, and was ripe with overacting and brainless jokes.  According to this review of Housefull, it seems like this film is more of the same.

In an interview with India Express, Khan said:

I know that there are 10 per cent pseudo intellectual people who like slow, boring, insignificant and non-entertaining films. But then for me, cinema is only about entertainment. It could be in any form, whether action, comedy, thriller or drama,” Sajid said.

Expressing his desire to make only entertainers, Sajid, “Nobody comes to watch a film to change their life. Has a film ever cured cancer, split an atom or changed society? Not at all. The sooner most directors realise it, the better it would be for Bollywood as it would stop delivering any flops.”

Filmmakers have proven that art and comedy can be mixed, that intelligent films can deliver box office gold. Take Jaane Tu Yah Jaane Na or the Munnabhai films. They were commercial, mainstream, but were original,  inspiring and hilarious. Entertainment doesn’t mean that there’s no room for some depth.

A few years ago, the Sajid Khan- style brainless masalas were all the rage in India. The audiences loved them, and the producers loved the profit. Khan’s words may have held a lot of weight in the 90’s and early 00’s, but today, his words aren’t applicable to Bollywood. Art films are doing well, and filmmakers have begun to make smart entertainers. At some point, audiences started rejecting these cliched scripts and overacting, and began to appreciate films that were smarter, more original, and all around better films.

I’m not saying that films like Dev D. or Omkara, though both successes, are the only examples of what constitutes as a smart yet successful film. Uber-masala flicks like Wake Up Sid and Jab We Met are all great  and original films that achieved box office success.

Khan’s may say his main goal is to attract audiences and to make money, but his rejection of films as art work is problematic. Alas, he was successful with his debut film, and it seems like he will be with this movie as well. That’s fine, and that’s his right. My only hope is that Bollywood filmmakers and producers don’t budge from their current progress and don’t forget that intellect and entertainment aren’t mutually exclusive.