Bollywood Analysis - What went wrong with Bollywood?

In the recent times, post-pandemic, Bollywood has been struggling to prove its mettle. There are many reasons for that and today we will be discussing the same.

Before we begin, let me be honest, Bollywood has been instrumental in initiating my cinema watching experience and to some extent they have elevated it every year. There are movies that I would literally rewatch just to bring back the feeling of nostalgia, to reminisce the memories of how some movies had impacted me when I was a certain age.

Here is a short (Part 1, Part 2) for all the underrated Bollywood movies before we start diving into the topic.

The problem arose after pandemic as people got easy access to movies with good screenplay, likeable characters and storyline that came from the south. With their dubbed versions available, many people who have trouble reading subtitles ended up enjoying it so much that it is impossible for them to rewatch the same story with some other cast in its “bollywoodised” re-creation.

Here comes my first point and that is remakes.

Remakes haves been clearly a thing of the past. There are a list of movies that Bollywood created back in the day by taking heavy inspiration from the original content available in Hollywood, Korean, Spanish, French or sometimes even south industry.

If I’ve to give you an example then Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007) is a remake of Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu (1993). Similarly, a lot of the movies like Murder, Murder 2, Ek Villain, Zinda, Kaante, Wanted, Ghajini, Hera Pheri, Singham, Simmba, etc. have been picked up straightaway from some original content available in different languages.

Now the major reason why they worked wonders in the past is because the original content was never perceived or viewed by a large Indian audience. Also, the concept was so traditionalized and molded to deem fit for the Indian Theatre-going audience. There was genuine effort to make something better with terms of the existing screenplay and characters. There was a clear indication of creating a better cinematic experience. Now even if you look at the original content as well, you’ve undoubtedly created a liking towards the Bollywood remake and hence will almost disregard or discredit the original. But that is not quite the reality today.

Nowadays due to the rise in OTT, remakes have become a curse for Bollywood and its getting tiresome looking at their pathetic state.

Recently some remakes in 2023 have been really awful like for instance we have Shehzada which is a remake of Telugu film Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo (2020), Selfiee which is a remake of Malayalam film Driving Licence (2019) and the legendary Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan which is supposedly based on a Tamil film Veeram (2014). Now to be very honest Selfiee is a good film but Driving Licence was a mediocre film. The film in its originality didn’t have a lot of substance then why was Selfiee touted to be made on a budget of ₹110 crore whereas Driving Licence was made on a meagre budget of ₹4 crore only.

Let’s not forget Laal Singh Chaddha (2022) which was a remake (Indian adaptation) of the hugely successful and famous Forrest Gump (1994), failed drastically even though it had Aamir Khan in the lead and a great album attached to it.

Now there have been some great Remakes which have been partially or to some extent completely successful in bringing something new and fresh to the audience like Kabir Singh (2019), Bholaa (2023), Drishyam 2 (2022), Jersey (2022), Gumraah (2023), etc.

This brings me to my 2^nd point: Fees/ Remunerations.

Actors and maybe some directors are charging way beyond their price tag/ pay scale. I’m aware about the fact that they are supposedly superstars and have earned it but still looking at the horrendous state of this industry, it should be their duty to keep the movie’s entire budget in check. Rather than being selfish and making a disastrous film, a sensible decision should be taken in order to reduce the fees/ remunerations and use the budget wisely in places where it is non-negotiable and necessary. This will help in making a better film and will directly lead to a better cinematic experience. Unless you intend to make a direct-to-OTT release film then that’s a different story but nowadays the DTO movies are far better then the one’s you watch in theatre.

For example: let’s take Kartik Aryan’s recent 2 films – Dhamaka (2021) and Freddy (2022) have been great from a storytelling and acting perspective.

Let’s move on to the 3^rd point and that is usage of heavy VFX, CGI and trying to hide a weak story.

It’s inevitable in today’s day and age wherein the usage of VFX or CGI can be ignored. They’ve been helpful in glorifying the storytelling and movie watching experience in a monumental way.

Movies like Krrish 3, Ra.One, Brahmastra, Zero, Tumbbad etc have had a huge fan following for incorporating good special effects along with a passable storyline.

So what went wrong with a movie like Adipurush whch was again touted to be over 500 crores? Ok let’s not talk about that as you will find enough data about this on YouTube.

With a weak storyline and bad, repetitive, forgettable dialogues, Brahmastra still had great VFX and ended up earning close to ₹430 crore. Made on a budget of close to ₹350-400 crores, I don’t think so this is a profitable venture. If we look closely at movies like Zero or Ra.One for that matter, even though it had SRK, still they cannot be considered to be a profit.

The bottom line is instead of making a buzz about heavy VFX, first bring in good writers and maybe good directors who can bring their vision in proper form in front of the audience.

Look at movies like 2018 (2023) which is a story about 2018 – Kerala floods, has been made on budget of ₹20 crores and ends up earning ₹200 crores. This is a mystery to me on how they’ve achieved this feat.

Even big budget movies like RRR (2022) made on a budget of ₹550 crores and KGF chapter 2 (2022) made on a budget of ₹110 crore both end up earning close to ₹1200 crores. Kantara (2022) made on a meagre budget of ₹16 crore ends up having a collection of ₹500 crores. These films are supposedly the true Pan – Indian Films and they actually deserve all the accolades that have been presented to them.

Let’s move on to the 4^th point which is applicable to all industries and not limited to Bollywood.

The casting choices have been a big gamble in recent days.

Making Pathaan with SRK in lead and John as a villain worked out in so many ways and has been the highest grossing film of 2023 so far. Similarly casting Ranbir Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor in TJMM felt fresh. But what made them cast Prabhas as Lord Ram in Adipurush? Why did they cast Akshay Kumar in Prithviraj? Why do they cast Ananya Pandey or Vaani Kapoor in any film when they have not proved their merit even once. That’s preposterous. What can be the actual reason for good actors being sidelined and actors who are not fit or maybe not talented enough to continue in an industry which is finding it difficult to bring back its audience to the theatres?

There is still hope if critical measures are taken into consideration otherwise its just blatant efforts in making the theatre going experience as limited as possible.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Let’s end this blog on a good, positive note by talking about the most awaited films in Bollywood that I feel have the calibre to break Bollywood’s dry spell similar to what Pathaan (2023) did.

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

TL; DR

Reasons for Bollywood’s Current State:

1) Remakes

2) Fees/ Remunerations

3) Weak Story, Script, VFX/CGI

4) Selecting the Wrong Cast