NEW DELHI (ANI)- Filmmaker Anurag Basu opened up about the lack of global outreach for Bollywood films, stating that mainstream Indian cinema still has a long way to go compared to the Korean film industry.

Basu, who is currently busy with the pre-production of Aashiqui 3, shared his thoughts on Bollywood’s standing in the global cinematic landscape. Despite earning critical acclaim for films like All We Imagine As Light and Anuja on global platforms, he believes that mainstream Indian cinema caters primarily to the Indian diaspora and audience. He acknowledges the industry’s progress but feels there’s still much more to achieve globally.

Anurag said, “I think world cinema is noticing our films. But we have a long way to go because mainstream cinema still caters to the Indian diaspora and Indian audience. We are still far behind in getting a global audience. We only get an Indian audience globally. It’s a long way to go.”

The Barfi director compared the global reach of Hindi cinema to the Korean film industry. “We only cater to the Indian audience. We are as young as the Korean Film Industry, but they have a global audience. People see their movies, we see their movies. Our movies are only seen by Indians and a few passionate about cinema. We don’t cater globally. We only care about Friday, Saturday, Sunday, the weekend, 100 crore, 500 crore—basically only that,” he said.

Anurag also shared an update on the making of Aashiqui 3, starring Kartik Aaryan. “We have not started shooting yet. We will start next month,” he said.

Additionally, Anurag is helming the sequel to his film Life in a Metro, titled Metro In Dino. The anthology film stars Aditya Roy Kapur, Sara Ali Khan, Ali Fazal, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Anupam Kher, Neena Gupta, Pankaj Tripathi, and Konkona Sen Sharma in lead roles.

Metro…In Dino marks the second collaboration between Aditya and Basu, who previously worked together on Ludo. Sharing more details about the film, Basu said, “Metro In Dino is a tale of the people and for the people! It’s been a while since I’ve worked on this one, and I’m glad to collaborate with Bhushan Kumar, who has always been a pillar to me!”