- 19 Mar 2025
Much is riding on the upcoming Salman Khan starrer, “Sikandar,” touted to be one of the most expensive Indian films ever made. But the focus isn’t only on the money that has gone into the ambitious production helmed by one of Tamil cinema’s most successful directors, A.R. Murugadoss. Will the effort expended on “Sikandar” pay dividends? The Bollywood superstar and the Mumbai industry will be hoping that it does. The film, scheduled to hit the screens on March 28, is the actor’s customary Eid release. But are his fans waiting for it as eagerly as they once did for his films? It is clear as daylight today that the mass festive fervour that would accompany the arrival of a movie starring a Bollywood A-lister is no longer what it used to be. The reason, too, is obvious: the industry is in the midst of a crisis of confidence.
All the stakeholders – the stars, the producers, the exhibitors and, last but not least, the audiences who make or break a film – are looking for miracles even as their expectation of a Bollywood resurgence recedes. There is more trepidation than hope in the air. “Sikandar” marks a collaboration between Salman and Murugadoss, who helmed the super-successful 2008 Aamir Khan starrer “Ghajini.” The star is coming off a couple of cameos (in “Singham Again” and “Baby John”), a damp squib (“Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan”) and a hit (“Tiger 3”). What he now needs is a megahit of humongous proportions.
In the past five years or so, Bollywood’s failings have repeatedly been shown up by the Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam industries, which have all found a way of staying in good health in the aftermath of the Coronavirus pandemic. Hindi cinema has struggled to recover from the reverses. In 2024, many hugely hyped Bollywood flicks – “Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha,” “Maidaan” (both starring Ajay Devgn) and “Bade Miyan Chote Miyan” (starring Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff) – bit the dust. The first three months of the current year have been no better with only one Hindi film, “Chhaava,” achieving certified box-office hit status (but for all the wrong reasons).
At one end of the spectrum, Hindi films that perpetuate the politically dominant narrative that thrives on inciting enmities and creating schisms in society have overrun the industry. At the other, Mumbai films that fall back on derivative templates to tell stale stories of gangsters, felons, spies and soldiers either sink without a trace or end up on streaming platforms in the hope of finding eyeballs. Both “Sky Force,” starring Akshay Kumar, and “Deva,” featuring Shahid Kapoor in the titular role, underperformed in the recent past. But that did not surprise observers who have for a long time been seeing the writing on the wall. Bollywood is wallowing in hackneyed ideas and methods for way too long for its own good.
Star fees have gone through the roof. Little thought is given to the need to find original voices and visions. Everything appears to be at the mercy of algorithm-driven boilerplate principles. Genuine creativity has gone out the window. Audiences have good reason not to throng to the theatres anymore.
The story is markedly different in South India, which is still delivering a steady string of blockbusters (as well as smaller films that ignite socially relevant conversations). Not that they are all necessarily making better movies. It is just that they are more in tune with what the audiences want, which is, for the most part, unabashed pulp served up on a platter that never runs out of masala. So, when a “KGF” and a “Pushpa,” and their sequels, come along, audiences across the nation go all out to fill the theatres.
Neither movie is the sort that a critic would recommend to a discerning viewer, but that clearly does not make any difference to the paying public whose enthusiasm for such potboilers clearly has not waned. In the space where Mumbai filmmakers seek to push the envelope and develop alternative modes of entertainment, the success rate is abysmally low even though these films have had the backing of mainstream production outfits. “Jigra,” directed by Vasan Bala and produced, among others, by Karan Johar and lead actress Alia Bhatt, went nowhere. Neither did “Kill,” produced by Johar’s Dharma Entertainment and Guneet Monga’s Sikhya Entertainment, and “Superboys of Malegaon,” directed by Reema Kagti and produced by Farhan Akhtar’s Excel Entertainment and Zoya Akhtar’s Tiger Baby Films.
The year 2023 saw Shah Rukh Khan deliver back-to-back hits with “Pathaan” and “Jawan” (although the latter title did not break records the way the former did) and Ranbir Kapoor spearhead “Animal,” directed by Telugu cinema ‘bad boy’ Sandeep Reddy Vanga.
“Jawan” was helmed by Atlee. But when, in 2024, the director turned producer for Baby John, a Hindi-language remake of his Tamil hit Theri, the Varun Dhawan starrer tanked at the box-office. The film was released on Christmas day with great fanfare but the audience response was anything but celebratory. “Sikandar,” which also has Rashmika Mandanna, Sharman Joshi and veteran actor Sathyaraj in key roles, brings together talent from both Mumbai and Chennai the way Jawan did. While Pritam has composed the songs for the film, the background score has been done by Santhosh Narayanan. That apart, the key technicians are from the Tamil movie industry. What does the growing synergy between Mumbai stars and filmmakers and their counterparts in the South portend? More than a commercial strategy, it now seems to be a pressing necessity for a floundering Bollywood.
The writer is an award-winning Indian film critic.