Deepika Padukone , Priyanka Chopra can get big openings for their films : Pan Nalin

Filmmaker Pan Nalin feels in today’s times stars like Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra can have a huge box opening of their films solely on their own merit.

Nalin, who recently made female-buddy-drama “Angry Indian Goddesses”, feels the “Bajirao Mastani” co-stars don’t need a male star to deliver a film.

When asked if he would have cast any of the leading Bollywood actress, Nalin told PTI, “We would’ve loved to bring in talented important stars too, but it would have been difficult. I believe Deepika and Priyanka, both are amazingly talented. They can open a film alone on their own merit. They don’t need a man to do that.”

The filmmaker, however, believes people cannot just venture out with an agenda to make a “woman-centric” film.

“…you cannot venture out to make a woman-centric film alone, that would be a failure. You can have a central woman character with a beautiful, sensible well-crafted story around it,” he said.

The success of “Angry Indian Goddesses”, which celebrates women empowerment, comes after the recently released “Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2”, which was called a ‘women-bashing’ film.

But, Nalin thinks the audience does not care about gender bashing in movies and both can co-exist easily.

“They don’t think if it is a male-bashing film or a female-bashing film. They want to be entertained and if they are getting inspired by it, like what is happening with ‘Angry Indian Goddesses’, then that is great,” he said.

The filmmaker says he does not differentiate between commercial films and ‘indie’ cinema.

“I personally never differentiate between an indie film or commercial, off-beat or mainstream. I say, make a film which will fight with ‘Prem Ratan Dhan Payo’,” he said.

“You have these films and they will continue to exist, you can’t escape. There is an audience for that too. But don’t say ‘watch my films because I am a different kind of a filmmaker’,” Nalin added.

Inputs by PTI