Bollywood unleashes | It’s raining thrillers

BIt’s hot in Hollywood this summer. Halfway through 2024, and so far box office viewing has been slow, especially compared to last year’s record-breaking year, when not one, but three films…Paidan, Gadar 2 AND Javan— set a new benchmark by crossing the Rs 500-crore mark nationwide. So pathetic was the performance of Hindi films in April and May that low attendance forced cinema operators to cancel screenings, opting instead for cricket matches or re-releasing older films (Rockstar, Lakshya, Swades) instead. “What we are witnessing in the Hindi film industry right now is not just a lack of box office success, but a lack of confidence in our own content,” says Akshaye Rathi, director of Aashirwad Theatres, citing the Lok Sabha elections and IPL as contributing factors to the revenue drought. “It wasn’t the audience that let us down, it was the really mediocre content that the industry was putting out. It wasn’t worth the time, money and effort they put in when they came to the theatre.”

The highest earners in 2024 so far Warriorcollected Rs 200 crore in India, which was below expectations considering its budget (Rs 250 crore). Director Siddharth Anand’s aerial action thriller created quite a stir because it is an Indian starrer (Deepika Padukone, Hrithik Roshan) TopGun. But the public didn’t think much of it. Instead, financiers came from the least expected quarters. Satan, The black magic-centric home invasion horror film starring Ajay Devgn and R. Madhavan has emerged as a surprise hit this year, alongside promising female-led franchises such as Article 370, Mr. Laapataa AND Crew. Honor for the greatest sleeper hit though belonged Munjyaa comedy horror film without any star in the cast and with a computer-generated title character, which has so far grossed Rs 85 crore. With these flagship films failing to live up to expectations, exhibitors like Rathi are hopeful that there will be more such ‘mid-segment films’ to beat the box office blues. “It’s a matter of time before one or two big-ticket films click to create momentum not only among the content producing fraternity but also among the audiences who will show up in theaters,” he added. “It’s exciting to wait for movies to come out of the blue and be successful.”

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A completely new world

The list of monsoon movies is diverse, but probably no movie in 2024 will be more popular than Kalki 2898 (June 27), a dystopian sci-fi action drama that was budgeted at Rs 600 crore and had a runtime of three hours. The cast is also star-studded, from veteran actors Amitabh Bachchan and Kamal Haasan to popular actors Prabhas and Deepika Padukone, who were won over by the ambitious vision of Nag Ashwin, a Telugu filmmaker best known for Mahanati. At a recent media event in Mumbai, Bachchan, who plays Ashwathama, praised the young writer-director for coming up with a project “that is so futuristic and so possible.” “It’s such an honour to be a part of it… to work in a company where they have gone beyond what most of us have done our whole lives in the film industry,” he added.

With a landscape reminiscent of Dune and Mad Max films, Ashwin sets his film at a time when Kaasi, also known as Varanasi, is the last surviving city in the world and the Ganga River has dried up. Ashwin gave a taste of his ambition by showing three different ecosystems that he has imagined Kalki 2898. There is “The Complex”, “an inverted pyramid rising into the sky” and one of those that he equates with the land of the privileged because it has resources; Kaasi, whose inhabitants dream of being part of the Complex, and the mystical land of Shambala, which is a “huge refugee camp” that rebels against the Complex. Padukone, who plays Sumathi, a pregnant woman carrying what is believed to be a gifted child, amplified the media hype by calling Kalki 2898 “unlike anything we have experienced or seen before.”

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The last action hero

Interestingly, this is what the creators took care of Kill also claim to offer viewers a more brutal and gory film, as well as a shorter one, running 100 minutes. Produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions and Guneet Monga’s Sikhya Entertainment. Kill (July 5) is set mostly on a train and boasts of a body count of at least 40, which explains its short but effective title. At the film’s trailer launch in Mumbai, Johar described the action film as a “manic bloodbath” and also “ambitious” considering it rests on the shoulders of newcomer Lakshya. “I’ve heard a lot (about nepotism) and I’ve put up with it for so many years,” he said at the premiere. “I felt we had to take this leap because we want the film industry to get one potential movie star.”

WITH Kill, Dzhokhar and Monga we want viewers to know that there is also art in chaos. Quoting movies e.g Train to Busan and John Wick series that elevated action as a genre, Johar said the attempt was not to promote violence but “to show India a choreographed action film… that action is nothing but an art form.” Writer-director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat turned to expert stunt director SeaYoung Oh (Snowpiercer, War) to inject some vigor into his script, which already had a lot of action details. The aim, Bhat told Monga, was to “make an emotional action film.” As opposed to a visually-charged Kalki 2898 AD, the greatest effects used in Kill is 150 liters of artificial blood that is intended to trigger a reaction to the action.

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Flying solo

Where Kill rests on the young actor’s shoulder, Sarfira (July 12) The most prolific actor in the film industry Akshay Kumar plays the role of Suriya, an actor who won a National Award for his performance in the original Tamil film Soorarai Pottru. Inspired by the life of Captain GR Gopinath, who against all odds founded the low-cost airline Air Deccan, Sarfira and“Directed by Sudha Kongara, who also directed the original in Tamil (she also received a National Award for the screenplay).Surarai Pottru it reached a large audience through OTT platforms, but I always wanted to see it on the big screen and doing it in Hindi was an opportunity,” says Kongara, although comparisons with the original, which won five national awards, are inevitable. “I hope Sarfira will be an anthem for the youth,” she told India Today.

Sarfira it involves a change in geographical environment, from Tamil Nadu to Maharashtra. “I think each film will have something unique to offer because of the talent involved and the diverse cultural environment,” says Kongara. “In the remake, we paid special attention to the entrepreneurial journey and the spirit of dreamers.” The question remains whether Sarfira becomes a film that distracts from a busy year or so for Kumar, when his films failed to achieve box office success. But there was no better candidate for Kongara as an inspiring hero than him. “He goes in a different direction, with a different emotional sensibility and a different individuality,” he says.

A blast from the past

Kumara SarfiraHowever, he will have to face the star Kamal Haasan Hindustani: Zero tolerance (July 12), marking the return of freedom fighter-turned-vigilante Senapati (Haasan) after 28 years. In Shankar’s sequel, the angry old hero once again embarks on an intense fight against corruption, this time in the age of social media. While talking to the media in Mumbai, Haasan, who entered politics in the last few years, said voting was the best way to oppose corrupt politicians. “Films like ours only remind us how corrupt we have become,” he said. “Everything will only change with a collective conscience.” Haasan spent three-four hours in the makeup chair, playing rebellious in a matter that defies age when it comes to performing stunts. “He has zero tolerance towards people who are not committed to their art,” said actor Siddharth, who is working with the veteran actor for the first time.

Shankar was always thinking of revisiting the 1996 film until he came up with the idea 2.0 (2018). “It took me a long time to decide what not to do,” he says. The original was set in a single state, but the film’s scale gets bigger in Part II, which involves an event that affects the entire country and forces Shankar to split the film into two parts. Production began before the COVID-19 pandemic and after many delays, some of which were necessary due to accidents on the sets, the film finally hit the screens with expectations that it would become a pan-India phenomenon, just like the makers Kalki 2898 they aim.

Little surprises

If 2024 has proven anything so far, it’s that success can come from the least expected titles. A series of mid-budget films like Bad News (July 19), a comedy starring Vicky Kaushal, Ammy Virk and Triptia Dimri; Ulaih (August 2), a spy drama starring Janhvi Kapoor and directed by Vikrant Massey Sabarmati’s Report (also August 2), which looks to be a controversial political drama Kashmir Files AND History of Keralathey will compete for eyeballs. Another certainty of this monsoon is that Part II Streetwhich kick-started the horror comedy boom after a great run in theaters in 2018, is likely to be a safe bet for Bollywood. Releasing something that will be jam-packed with Independence Day slates Vedaa (John Abraham) and Khel Khel Mein (Akshay Kumar again), viewers will be sure that they will not be bored.