Trendspotting In Hindi Films!

It has happened so often that key themes, plots or storylines of a successful movie has been suitably incorporated in subsequent movies to mirror the box office performance of the first one. What is even more intriguing is the repeat success of the above method on many occasions attaining the status of a formula at times.

Back in the 70s, Megastar Amitabh Bachchan’s “angry young man” image in the initial days was started by the super-hit run of Zanjeer (1973) which ran all the way till vigilante film Shahenshah in 1988. The action blended with drama in movies in the 1970s had ‘deteriorated’ to violence in late 1980s thus keeping the family audience away from theaters at the height of home video and film piracy. This is evident from the box office results of that era which had peaked at 15 crores (Sholay) in 1975 itself but remained stagnant for the coming two decades with some of the biggest movies of the 80s like Kranti, Naseeb and Coolie grossing a below par figure of 10 crores. Towards the turn of the decade Maine Pyar Kiya (1989) came close to Sholay but the trend changed for good only in the 1990s.

The family audience starting returning to cinema halls and they came out in big numbers. It was Salman Khan starrer ‘Hum Aapke Hain Kaun’ which pioneered in family dramas with wedding angles and chartbuster music. This was followed up by Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ which had never-before-seen European locations mixed in a family drama about a guy wanting to marry a girl he loves with the parent’s approval. While DDLJ worked at big cities, smaller centres had a parallel dish served in Raja Hindustani which was a romance marked with rich v/s poor and class conflict. HAHK (~70 crores), DDLJ (~60 crores), Raja Hindustani (~48 crores) and Kuch Kuch Hota Hain (~45 crores) contributed to a multifold increase in cinema attendance and all of them had common ingredients in their script- wedding dramas with enhanced production values for that time making it a big screen experience backed by popular music.

The family dramas catering to the NRI and aspirational NRI audience began losing their steam in the mid 2000s when there was a flurry of such films and every actor dabbled in the genre be it Salman (Yeh Hain Jalwa, Shaadi Karke Phas Gaya Yaar, Lucky: No time for love), Hrithik Roshan (Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon, Yaadein, Mujhse Dosti Karoge), Abhishek Bachchan (Om Jai Jagdish, Shararat, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom) and Saif Ali Khan (Hum Tum, Salaam Namaste, Tara Rum Pum). What is interesting is that an overdose of drama films with little or no action component led to a phase of downfall for Salman Khan for many years when only a select few of his movies did well. Highest grossers of the year like Koi Mil Gya (2003), Veer Zaara (2004) and No Entry (2005) made a cume of around 35-45 crores with only ‘Gadar’ being able to touch the benchmark set by HAHK more than a decade back. This paved way for the action movies.

However, the action movies came back with a twist i.e. most of them were south remakes and those which were not had a major action part and a southern treatment, look and feel. Aamir Khan started the trend with Ghajini (remake of Tamil film of same name) which had become the first movie in India to do net business of more than 100 crores creating a box office club.

This time Salman Khan immediately followed it up next year with Wanted (~65 crores) and he never had to look back again till date. A prolonged sluggish career got revived and scaled new heights with all his films becoming back to back blockbusters. Ajay Devgn entered the big league with his ‘Singham’ franchise and ‘Son of Sardaar’. Rohit Shetty (who began directing movies with the dismal Zameen) made movies out of popular south entertainers according to his filmmaking sensibilities and coupled with the favourable season for south remakes, it resulted in magic at the box office. Rowdy Rathore which remains Akshay Kumar’s best film theatrical performance-wise, an unbeaten 135 crores, was a remake of a Telugu film back in 2012. Interestingly, those actors and filmmakers who did not keep up with the trend (or by now should we say pre-estimate of choices of the paying public) had their careers running on a low trajectory. Shah Rukh Khan did not do a single south remake during this whole time and barring Chennai Express none of his movies were able to sustain well after their opening weekend. Chennai Express, again, had a very southern look and feel that bordered on parody of south films as a requirement of the plot. A similar conclusion could be drawn for Hrithik Roshan movies as well which, after a career high in 2006 (when both his movies took top two spots in highest grossers of that year), could not keep up with the increased box office earnings of his superstar peers post 2010.

The trend of action oriented south masala remakes did not last long and again Salman Khan led from the front, probably after seeing early signs of box office saturation in his movies Jai Ho (112 crores) and Kick (233 crores) which could not grow its business much from Ek Tha Tiger (198 crores). While some actors shifted gears after their films took a drubbing at the box office like Akshay after Boss and Gabbar is Back, Ajay post Action Jackson and Arjun Kapoor after Tevar. Rohit Shetty is back to Golmaal Again after an underwhelming Dilwale!

Star-driven south remakes have made way for story-driven narratives with a penchant for realism in contrast to the outlandish treatment given to films couple of years back. Situational songs have replaced item numbers. Bajrangi Bhaijaan is the most glaring example of it as it did not look like a Salman Khan vehicle, a first.

The result: hordes of neutral audience turned up to watch it besides his fan-base powering it beyond 300 crores. His movies which had struggled to go past USD 10 million mark in overseas territories exceeded those of SRK’s (who has a stronghold overseas) with both Bajrangi and Sultan clocking above USD 20 million.

Another noticeable element is that the films, unless they require otherwise, are increasingly being rooted in heartland India, a significant departure from the craze for foreign locations which had little or no nexus to the script in 1990s and 2000s. Most recent instances are the two wrestling dramas i.e. Sultan and Dangal which were based in villages in the interiors of Haryana. Keeping the above fundamental features intact, some actors made strides at the box office by incorporating female empowerment (Queen, Mary Kom, NH-10, Pink) while some others by patriotism (Baby, Airlift, Neerja, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag).

There is also a minor trend of taking specific plot points to service the screenplay in more ways than one. Aamir starrer Dhoom 3 spawned the concept of using double roles to take the story forward whereas earlier double roles were meant for humour such as Judwaa. This has been subsequently spotted in Happy New Year (Abhishek Bachchan), Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (Salman), Action Jackson (Ajay) and Fan (SRK).

It is all about one movie striking gold at the box office and others repeating its success by applying the formula. Things get murky when one cannot ascertain whether a trend is being followed or created. Ideal way to go would be to spot it in order to have a perennial understanding of the kind of movies working at the box office which, as underlined in the article, becomes crucial for superstars or actors trying to establish themselves as such.

The humongous success of Baahubali 2 could well be the beginning of a new era and a new trend. Will actors from the Hindi industry share screen space with stars from the South, like a Robot 2.0? Or will the future be about bi-lingual films that unite the South and the North – something that Prabhas will be experimenting with when he releases his next film Saaho?

Article by Mohit Maheshwari, a corporate lawyer working in Mumbai. He sent the article as a ‘Guest Post’ and said “I am an avid reader of the website and I wish to submit an article authored by me as a guest post on Indicine. I request you to consider the same for publication and any feedback would be highly appreciated”

NOTE: The views expressed in the article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Indicine.