Zoya Akhtar: Bollywood needs stars

"I think the star system works on a level. Apart from Hollywood, India and China, no other film industry is surviving. We are surviving because we have our stars and our audience wants to watch our people. We would have been eaten up. Europe has been eaten up by Hollywood right now," the 39-year-old said on Thursday. Akhtar said while the critics loved her first film Luck By Chance, the audience did not come to see it but Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara drew them in. "[Luck By Chance] got me every possible nomination. I won the best debut, all the critics loved it and they loved me. They actually pushed the film, which they don't really do. They wrote articles saying people should go and watch it. But people didn't go and watch it. That's where star power comes in. You have a Hrithik Roshan and a Katrina Kaif in your film and it equals bums on the seats."