After a lackluster 2022, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman and Ajay are aiming to headline big screen spectacles to dazzle the audience and get them to theatres.
The year 2022 will be a defining phase for the Hindi film industry, in which its most trusted movie stars fizzled out on the big screen. It wasn’t the acclaim that excited Bollywood–because even in a lackluster year, it managed to deliver critical darlings–but the box office glory which remained largely missing. According to various industry experts, the 2022 report card of Hindi film stars, the writing is on the wall:
Go big or go home.After the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, the Hindi film industry restarted its business on a smashing note with Rohit Shetty’s Sooryavanshi last Diwali. Ironically, 2022 closed with another Shetty directorial, Ranveer Singh starrer Cirkus, which opened to disastrous numbers and is on its way to turning into a major box office dud.
Among so many big flops, Bollywood could only manage to deliver superhits like Alia Bhatt-Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi, Anees Bazmee’s comedy Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, Ayan Mukerji-directed Brahmastra, Vivek Agnihotri’s movie The Kashmir Files and Ajay Devgan Drishyam 2.
The future for the industry and its movie stars is filming riding on franchises or the promise of a big-screen experience. Exhibitor Vishek Chauhan tells indianexpress.com that big Bollywood stars “only branded entertainment and franchises.” “If they do originals, they need to amp up their stakes and go all out. Don’t play it safe. Invest big and go big, not small, calculated projects. If you want your audience to be drawn into the theater, you captivate them with scaling. Even in Hollywood, Tom Cruise has worked on Mission Impossible and Top Gun, but his original films have struggled.
They can try their hand at smaller films, or even do OTT projects, but they have to shoot their guns at the box office first. Theatrical entertainment these days seems to be completely branded entertainment,” he says. Vishek believes that faith in franchise films should be there to “revitalize the market” as they have articulated what audiences want to see on the big screen in 2022. In 2022, Aamir Khan returned to the big screen with Lal Singh Chadda, four years later in Hindustan thugs. To put it in perspective, Laal Singh Chaddha’s lifetime collection (a film that received mostly positive reviews) surpassed Thugs, the film shot on its opening day.
His Vikram Vedha, Hrithik Roshan’s big-screen flick, three years after the biggest hit of his career, War, was a box-office success despite widespread critical acclaim. sluggish. Ajay Devgn had his two failings on Runway 34 and the comedy “Thank God” before hitting $200 million and his Drishyam 2. Ranbir Kapoor, who had been on bad terms with Shamshera, delivered his one of the biggest hits of the year in Spectacular his Brahmastra fantasy epic. If Rohit Shetty fails with an original comedy like Cirkus this year, he’s set to rekindle with his Singham Again next.
Once the market returns to big levels with strong momentum with his 4-5 blockbusters, the experiment can be narrowed down a bit to movies. But now you have to make a big movie. Even in Hollywood, big-brand entertainment franchises like Avatar, Marvel, and Maverick are attracting huge numbers. Shah Rukh Khan was the first star to hit the box office in 2024, his action actor pattern being part of Yash Raj Films’ spy universe in Salman’s Tiger and Lythic’s War. Shah Rukh, a filmmaker known for making blockbusters in Tamil, follows his Jawan, his first collaboration with the high-grossing Atlee.
The crowd-favorite superstar will star in the full-blown comedy Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan, following his Tiger 3 on Diwali release. Ajay will make his comeback in 2024 with his highly anticipated sports drama Maidaan and Bholaa. This is a remake of Tamil met Kaithi. Devgan reportedly planning to franchise Bholaa.
