"Lack of education. The level of education is not equal or universal. That's one of the tragedies of the country," he told reporters when asked about the reason for lack of good quality scripts.
"An educated society will be able to decipher the difference between good and bad and hopefully that will reflect in the kind of writing that our cinema has," he said here Monday at the launch of the online portal The Big Indian Picture.
"Until then I guess you will have to take a very safe path. A path which is not very difficult to understand for a person who is not that educated yet at the same time subtly be able to pass a message. So, I would give a lot of respect to Indian cinema because it has to tread this very narrow path," he added.
Meanwhile, the 69-year-old defended the song-and-dance routine in Hindi films saying it only reflects the way Indian society has been.
"If you go back in time or the small towns, villagers have always played an important role. Whether it was the 'Ramayana' or 'Mahabharata', their enactment during Dusshera or during other festivals has always been enacted to music, song and dance... perhaps there is a great identification with that aspect of art and culture which has been imbibed into cinema," Amitabh said.