Content-driven films might be getting audience's love nowadays but filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri feels convincing producers for a non-star film is still a daunting task.
"If there are no stars in your film, nobody will look at you. If you have Sunny Leone in the film you will get hundreds of dollars but if you have a honest story to tell it's difficult to find producers. It's the unfortunate time we are living in," Vivek told PTI.
Vivek, who is looking forward to the release of "Buddha In A Traffic Jam", believes it is very difficult to convince producers about a script without having backing of a star.
"People nowadays need figures... Stars sell a film," he added.
Vivek's filmography includes 2005's "Chocolate", which had Anil Kapoor, Suniel Shetty, Emraan Hashmi, Arshad Warsi among others, "Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal", featuring John Abraham, and erotic-drama "Hate Story".
Despite having good relations with actors like Anil Kapoor, Emraan and Suniel, Vivek chose not to use star power to grab eyeballs for his most talked about film "Buddha In A Traffic Jam".
"I did not speak to anybody from the film industry. I could have got help but I didn't want to. I would want people to acknowledge and appreciate the film without stars."
"Buddha In A Traffic Jam" is socio-political drama, dealing with the situation of a young management student, Vikram Pandit, who finds himself in the midst of Maoists threat while trying to work for the welfare of the tribals.
The movie stars Arunoday Singh, Mahie Gill, Anupam Kher, Pallavi Joshi in pivotal roles.
Funds, for the film, were raised by students of Indian School of Business (Hyderabad). Vivek said he struggled to get a release date for the film from one and half year.
The "Hate Story" helmer revealed initially the movie was supposed to be a ten minutes short film, which got converted to full length feature film.
"This story has been with me for sometime as certain issues of national importance have been bothering me. I wanted to make this film as I feel it's a very important subject for the new generation of our country and for their future," Vivek said.
"How the youth of today are being brainwashed. The film tackles Naxalism in a very different way."
"Buddha In A Traffic Jam" is slated to release on May 13.
