Page 14 - Seniorstoday October 2023 Issue
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But at best this is a limited audience, and successful run of Akshay Kumar comedy
unless they rediscover their mojo quickly films preceded by the action blockbuster
they and all the allied industries will sub-genre. In short, we had variety and
continue to bleed. that is what Bollywood, in my opinion
How can Bollywood rediscover its mojo needs now. But variety which is not created
while staying quintessentially Bollywood? by rehashing old forms but by out-of-the-
It certainly needs an injection of fresh box fresh thinking. There will always be
content. Think of movies like Dil Chahta movies like Pathaan and Jawan that will
Hai, which upon its release spawned a have a demographic-spanning universal
whole new sub-genre within Bollywood. appeal. But equally maybe there is room
And while that genre did not appeal to for everything from minimalist low-budget
everyone (impossible in a country as vast movies and art films, to epics, romantic
and diverse as ours), it had its dedicated comedies, action blockbusters and thrillers
fan base comprising mainly the urban to all co-exist. Bollywood also needs to
youth. We therefore had the Dil Chahta stay away from the temptation to turn
Hai genre for the urban youth, we had the filmmaking into some set formula. This
Shah Rukh Khan K-movie genre for the will drive it even further into oblivion.
diehard romantics, we had the Salman The silver screen is where dreams and
Khan genre that catered again to a whole aspirations come alive. And Bollywood
different audience and we had the hugely once again needs to dare to dream.
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