Director Mani Ratnam’s wife, Suhasini Maniratnam, has always been vocal about her opinion on cinema, and more so on the state of the Hindi film industry. A few years ago, when Suhasini was asked about the state of Bollywood, she did not shy away from calling out filmmaker for plagiarism. In a chat with The Times of India in 2010, when Suhasini was sked about her opinion on Bollywood, she said that she reviewed Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra-starrer Anjaana Anjaani, and noted its similarity to the films Before Sunrise and The Girl on the Bridge.
“I realised that in Bollywood they sometimes blatantly copy without as much as buying the rights or even acknowledging the original work,” she said. But she quickly added that she was still hopeful as she was impressed by Dibakar Baneerjee’s films Khosla Ka Ghsola and Oye Lucky Lucky Oye as she called them “cleverly written.”
In another interview with The Telegraph about a decade ago, she called out stars like Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan for not reinventing themselves and said that they were doing the same roles over and over again. “Aamir and Shah Rukh Khan are still doing stereotypical roles. I don’t think Amitabh Bachchan attempted anything different — except the angry young man image — in his time. Independent cinema still has to fight with mainstream films. I stopped seeing mainstream films 15 years ago. They are absolutely unbearable,” she said.
In the same chat, she said the Hindi films were largely “pan Indian” and did not cater to regional audiences, but she brought it up with regard to their setting. “It’s only now that Hindi films are trying to be regional. They have a typical Punjabi family wedding or a film like Shahid which is about Mumbai and being a Muslim. Otherwise they make only pan Indian films like a Kal Ho Naa Ho or Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham,” she said.
Suhasini married Mani Ratnam in 1988. They have a son named Nandan.
