Aamir Khan has taken a break from acting. The actor is 58, but his appeal may not have lessened to the extent some imagine. Khan became the poster boy for youthful charm after the spectacular success of Mansoor Khan’s romantic tragedy Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988). The first young superstar of his generation and its most consistent performer at the box office for a number of years, he takes his own sweet time before signing on the dotted line.
Khan’s last two films have been box-office bombs, one of them the period adventure film Thugs of Hindostan (2018) helmed by Vijay Krishna Acharya. The other film was Advait Chandan’s social drama Laal Singh Chaddha (2022), which underperformed because it was a remake and also because of Khan’s sudden unpopularity on social media. The actor had reportedly said in 2015 that a sense of ‘fear’ and ‘insecurity’ was on the rise in India. His controversial take on so-called intolerance at the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism awards started circulating again before LSC hit the marquee. That hurt the film, at least in the Indian market.
Considering he is not young, should Khan have taken a break? The actor has taken that risk because he cannot afford to make another error of judgement. While he is giving quality time to his family at the moment, he definitely realises that one more failure will hasten the end of his career as the leading man.
BIG-BUDGET BOMBS
Much has changed since the not-so-distant days when the Covid-19 pandemic forced us to live inside our homes. Work on films came to a standstill, while theatres remained shut for a long time. Rohit Shetty’s cop action drama Sooryavanshi with Akshay Kumar in the eponymous role released on November 5, 2021, became a blockbuster that revitalised the theatrical business. After that big-budget success, Kumar has delivered not one or two but five successive theatrical duds. Who would have thought that was possible, especially after Sooryavanshi’s unlikely success when most people were afraid of going to the theatres?
The year 2022 ended on a disappointing note as Rohit Shetty’s ensemble cast period comedy Cirkus failed to attract viewers. After the spectacular success of Siddharth Anand’s action thriller Pathaan at the start of the year, Rohit Dhawan’s action drama Shehzada, one of Bollywood’s many remakes, brought bad news for its male lead, Kartik Aaryan. Farhad Samji’s action drama Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan, another remake, impressed few while emerging as a mediocre performer because of the support of hardcore Salman Khan fans.
UNEXPECTED GOOD NEWS
While upcoming big-budget films such as Atlee’s crime thriller Jawan, Maneesh Sharma’s action drama Tiger 3 and Om Raut’s mythological Adipurush will click if they tick some of the right boxes, production of big-budget films will continue to be a highly risky affair until the makers of such films discover new ways to make films with mass appeal. At the same time, some small and mid-size films will surprise everybody by becoming unexpected hits.
The latest in that list is Laxman Utekar’s romantic comedy Zara Hatke Zara Bachke starring Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan, which was made with an estimated budget of Rs 40 crore. Stories from life in urban middle-class society attract Utekar, who had previously made the romantic comedy Luka Chuppi (2019) about a live-in relationship in a small town and the comedy-drama Mimi (2021) about a woman who opts for surrogate motherhood.
ZHZB centres around a middle-class couple who must do what they can to procure a flat they can call their own. A reasonably good story with a relatable theme, decent music, the lead pair’s onscreen chemistry and good support from actors around them, have combined to produce a family entertainer that is attracting viewers to the theatres.
Last year saw the success of Sooraj Barjatya’s adventure drama Uunchai, an unusual film from the director known for his lavishly mounted romantic films with an ensemble cast led by Amitabh Bachchan. Ashima Chibber’s legal drama Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway released this year did not fare badly either. Most significantly, 2023 has also seen the stupendous success of Sudipto Sen’s social drama The Kerala Story, a small-budget film dealing with the conversion and radicalisation of women.
Many Bollywood films have premiered on OTT platforms in recent times. Among them are Shashank Khaitan’s comedy thriller Govinda Naam Tera starring Kaushal, Bhumi Pednekar and Kiara Advani, Shashanka Ghosh’s psychological thriller Freddy (2022) featuring Aaryan and Alaya F and Shantanu Bagchi’s spy thriller Mission Majnu starring Sidharth Malhotra and Rashmika Mandanna. While the number of direct-to-digital releases will increase, viewers will occasionally wonder if films such as those mentioned here would have become successful theatrical releases.
Times have changed, and so has the business of entertainment. As the industry tries to fulfill the expectations of modern-day viewers, we must get used to more big-budget disappointments — and the occasional pleasant surprise.
The author, a journalist for three decades, writes on literature and pop culture. Among his books are ‘MSD: The Man, The Leader’, the bestselling biography of former Indian captain MS Dhoni, and the ‘Hall of Fame’ series of film star biographies. Views expressed are personal.
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