Hollywood is slowly opening to Indian interviewers, which is great to see as they are able to give presentation to the country and the fans those movies and stars have here.
But where it is certainly good to see more and more Indian interviewers for such international projects, also indicating how Hollywood is beginning to see the potential of the Indian market, something that struck me about these interviews.
And it was how painful or boring it was a viewer to sit through them and watch the poor interviewer stumble through the 2-3 minute of chat.
As an Indian, it didn’t exactly feel all that good to see that kind of representation where it felt that the interviewers just froze up at the sight of someone famous and completely forgot what they were supposed to do there.
A couple of interview I came across recently really drove home that point:
#1. Pinkvilla and Chris Hemsworth
Pinkvilla, a popular entertainment site sat down with Chris Hemsworth during the press junket for his recent release Men In Black: International.
Now, the interview altogether was not bad, but I did have some points that jumped out to me that made it a cringy watch.
- The interviewer was too nervous. Whatever it was, the girl was too stiff and not interactive enough. In such kind of press junket interviews, where you get 4-5 minutes max, the onus of making the chat interesting lies on the interviewer.
- I could also see that Chris for his part was trying to reach out to the journalist and build some rapport with them. However, she kinda failed him in that regard and could not pick up the cues he left.
- The reporter also looked a bit detached from it all, as if they were not invested into the clip or what the actor was saying. This does bring down the energy of the chat quite a lot.
#2. Rajeev Masand
With Rajeev Masand I felt that he was trying too hard and trying to show off his knowledge a little too much.
Also he cannot seem to connect with the actors and make them feel comfortable which makes it difficult to see the interviews and enjoy them.
#3. Zakir Khan
Zakir Khan was an interview where I couldn’t even see it all the way since it was just so not interesting.
As good as he in his stand-up routines or videos, the interview just seemed too out of his control.
He came out to be just a tad bit too over-eager, and his words kept stumbling over themselves and instead of being funny, he just had an awed look at his face.
There is nothing wrong with showing excitement or eagerness to talk to a certain celebrity when doing such press junkets, it even makes the actor feel appreciated, but then you also need good material to back it up.
Also once you start the interview, the focus should be creating a two-way street where the actor and interviewer can contribute to making an interactive chat that viewers would also like.
I also could not understand this one thing I’ve seen multiple Indian interviewers do where they repeat they are from India 2-3 times in their introduction itself.
I believe once is enough and you then should move onto the questions.
Perhaps the only good Indian interviewer who does these chats the right way is Kenny Sebastian. His interviews with Chris Pratt for Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 2 and Will Smith & Joel Edgerton for Bright are pretty good and funny.
These are my observations after watching these interviews and not at all a direct attack on any of the journalists conducting them.
I simply wish that we could also have good and interactive interviews with Hollywood stars like other regions such as Korea, Singapore and more have.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: YouTube
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