Vikramaditya Motwane: 'Smaller films aren’t getting a chance to breathe at the box office'

Having focused more on production while running Phantom Films, Black Warrant director Vikramaditya Motwane says he wants to helm more projects from now on

Vikramaditya Motwane couldn’t have asked for a better start to 2025. The creator-director is receiving wide praise for Black Warrant, fronted by Zahan Kapoor. The Netflix series is his fourth work in the past two years after Jubilee (2023), Indi(r)a’s Emergency (2023) and CTRL (2024). “I am making up for lost time. During the Phantom [Films] years, I produced more than I directed. I want to direct more now,” says the filmmaker.

Zahan Kapoor in Black Warrant

Motwane has another wish too. The filmmaker, whose last theatrical release was Bhavesh Joshi Superhero in 2018, hopes to return to the big screen. At a time when spectacles are believed to be the ticket to box-office success, does he think smaller films can shine on the big screen? “Many have been saying from the past six-seven years that the theatrical outing will become about films that are worthy of the big-screen experience and the ticket price. Unfortunately smaller films aren’t getting a chance to breathe at the box office. Different rules need to be applied for them. [Earlier], you had no option but to buy a ticket to watch a Newton [2017] or a Masaan [2015]. While streaming has made things easier, it has also taken those films away from theatres,” he rues.

His filmmaker-friend Anurag Kashyap recently lambasted the Hindi film industry, saying it was becoming difficult to make his brand of cinema here and that he was moving to Kochi to work in the Malayalam film industry. Does Motwane have similar plans? “I’m not going anywhere for now,” he laughs.

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