In many ways, 2024 has been a horror show for Bollywood. Audiences paid a lot of money to experience the horror in theaters, but the whole business left those involved pale. Throughout the year, exhibitors have complained about the erratic flow of films that have persuaded producers and distributors to offer nostalgia to audiences looking for happy memories after the pandemic.
According to industry insiders, business was down 20% to 30% last year compared to a staggering 2023.
OTT platforms have also failed to usher in the media’s promised renaissance and are undergoing course corrections through mergers, cutbacks, and self-censorship, leaving filmmakers in a creative limbo. There is. And viewers are looking for more control than just twiddling their thumbs when choosing between mobile gadgets.
While Hollywood superheroes are fatigued, Bollywood audiences are embracing the heroism that comes from the South. One of the enduring images of 2024 was of young people climbing a specially built structure on Gandhi Maidan in Patna to catch a glimpse of Pushpa Raj (Allu Arjun). Ironically, the film is the Hindi dubbed version of the Telugu blockbuster sequel that saved Bollywood from blushing.
From rom-com to ho-com
In 2024, horror has become mainstream in Bollywood as creepy stories rule the hearts of audiences. Four of the Top 10 Money Makers delivered a heady gimmick packed with chills and thrills, along with plenty of laughs. At a time when the politics of hurt feelings prevail, the genre has emerged as a powerful tool of subversion in the hands of imaginative filmmakers like Amar Kaushik and Anees Bazmee.
If Stree 2 asserted that the female protagonist’s braids had the power to defeat the patriarchy, Bhool Bhulaiyaa-3 argues that hunger is the greatest specter and calls for sexual diversity in horror-comedies. He sent a message of respect. Shaitan and Munja also packed things to read between their mumbo jumbo. A re-enactment of Soum Shah’s “Tumbbad”, in which human greed takes the form of a ghost, was also well-received by the audience. With Ayushmann Khurrana taking on vampire form along with Tama in 2025 and Soum promising to recreate Ramsay’s cult film, this trend shows no signs of slowing down.
agent provocateur
A section of Bollywood continues to offer this burly muscled cop as the answer to all our problems. Considered a safe bet in the age of the eternally excitable troll mob, violent state agents who disobey SOPs are portrayed as offering some form of agency to ordinary people. Rohit Shetty’s “Singham Again” popularized this formula and became a box office success, and its variations “The Fighter” and “Article 370” also received critical acclaim. Revenge and retribution will remain a continuing theme for Skyforce and Chava in 2025, as Bollywood weaponizes history to fight today’s political battles.
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In 2024, it becomes clear that the math is wrong as Bollywood invests a disproportionate portion of its film budgets in the salaries of its stars and their entourage. Considered a massive case of self-goal, a movie that earns 10 billion at the box office is still considered a failure. The failure of Ali Abbas Zafar’s Bade Miyan Chote Miyan shows the dangers of bringing unsustainable oversized products to market.
write on the wall
The overwhelming response to Zygra and Vanvers underscores that reliable acting can’t redeem a bombastic script. But instead of investing in storytelling, the Bollywood giants chose to keep their productions secret by Friday by culling news programs. The crew and the catchy Tauba Tauba songs drew attention to the vapid stuff like Bad Newz, so lowbrow humor wrapped in swagger is still safe.
In contrast, inspired scripts led to films such as Laapata Ladies, Amar Singh Chamkira, Buckingham Murders, I Want to Talk and Kill. The size of the film has penetrated people’s hearts and history. The films belonged to different genres: satire, musical biopics, social thrillers, dramas, and action, but each one struck a raw nerve with its intention and execution of socially relevant themes.
Amar Singh Chamkira. (From left to right) Diljit Dosanjh as Amar Singh Chamkira, Parineeti Chopra as Amarjot Kaur in Amar Singh Chamkira. Cr. Provided by Netflix © 2024 |Photo Credit: MUBEEN SIDDIQUI / Netflix
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As the reach of South Indian blockbusters expands deep into North Indian territory, the argument is that language and lifestyle no longer seem to be a constraint for films to cross the Vindhyas. is gaining momentum. Is it the Hindi film audience or, as exhibitors and distributors complain, are the internationalist Bollywood filmmakers pushing audiences south for culturally-rooted experiences? I wonder if it is? Love for the original caused the remake business to decline. While Sarfira and Baby John tanked, Pushpa and Devara became household names.
Call for collaboration
With formulas in flux and streaming platforms demanding box office reports before buying films, stars are exploring collaborations with successful filmmakers from the South. In 2024, the gambit failed and Baby John was limping at the wicket, but in 2025, Salman Khan joins forces with AR Murugadoss for a traditional Eid release, Sikandar and Shahid Kapoor He will be co-starring with Roshan Andrews in Deva.
beyond the obvious
In exotic spaces, Fairy Folk, Girls Will Be Girls, Deathpatch, and Berlin made deep impressions, but they also left young filmmakers pandering to the foreign gaze. Questions also arose about trying to avoid censorship by making films that were a little too insensitive for general audiences. With the release of Sandhya Suri’s Santosh in January this year, this trend will come under scrutiny once again.
There was a growing trend of re-screening old movies so that audiences could see what they were missing in theaters. The unprecedented success of Sajid Ali’s Laila Majnu reveals that romance remains in demand, with Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar and Yash Chopra’s Veer Zara also making successful returns to multiplexes It showed that the audience missed the purity and poetry of their love story.
props for politics
Even in an election year, theaters were still showing propaganda films and biopics of powerful figures in the right-wing ecosystem. Mein Atal Hoon, Article 370, Swatantriya Veer Sabarakar and the Sabarmati Report were fine-tuned by provocative texts and strong performances, but they were not the focus of elections or the ruling party’s ideological manifesto. Several other papers, which indulged in blatant propaganda, became obsolete. Ironically, Kangana Ranaut’s ‘Emergency’, which has also been a target of politics over hurt feelings, may release in 2025, as can Vivek Agnihotri’s ‘Delhi Files’.
issued – January 1, 2025 5:21pm IST
