Since morning, Information has been inundated with telephone calls from worried producers, tense writers, fearful actors and concerned distributors and exhibitors after the dismal initial taken by this week’s new releases — Runway 34 and Heropanti 2 (in cinemas other than the PVR-Inox chain of multiplexes where concerned people ‘purchased’ tickets of the latter film, in bulk, to give the film an initial boost). One understands where all the callers were coming from. The question uppermost in their minds was whether Bollywood films had become a strict no no after the warm reception given by the audience in non-Southern states to the dubbed versions of the three recent South films viz. K.G.F. Chapter 2, RRR and Pushpa: The Rise Part 1? The common question being put up by the frantic callers has been the same: Is the audience rejecting Bollywood films?
The answer is: NO! The audience is not rejecting films because they are from Bollywood. They are giving these films the thumbs down only and only because the content is not up to the mark. If we talk of Runway 34, the audience is quite liking the film’s first half but almost rejecting the post-interval portion. Instead of making the film a human drama, the writers and director Ajay Devgan have made the second half so technical that the public loses interest in it. Although comparisons are odious, a quick look at Neerja, which was also about an in-flight incident, like Runway 34, would not be out of place here. Ram Madhvani’s Neerja had a terrific human drama which appealed to the audiences and made them cry buckets. As we all know, audience’s tears most of the times translate into box-office collections and smiles for the producers, distributors and exhibitors. There was a hidden human drama in Runway 34 too but the makers chose to give that a go-by and instead, they concentrated on the technicalities involved in the aircraft-landing operation. How many among the viewers are pilots or interested in flying an aircraft that they would watch a technical drama unfold — that too, after Captain Vikrant Khanna (Ajay Devgan) has saved the aircraft and the passengers in it in spite of a near-impossible situation. The writers and director could’ve easily exploited the angle of the sole dead passenger from among the 150 passengers, to draw tears from the eyes of the viewers, but for reasons best known to them, they never went on that path. The speed of the wind, the dimensions of the runway, the photographic memory of pilot Vikrant Khanna don’t really impress the paying public because much before this drama about the technicalities starts in the courtroom, the audience knows that the pilot has saved the aircraft and the passengers. In a way, they lose interest in the second half of the drama for the reasons mentioned above. The technical portion of the film, which effectively means a good part of the post-interval portion, therefore, is lost on the audience.
Coming to Heropanti 2, it looks like a clear case of milking a franchise without working hard. Sequels and franchises are in vogue and there’s nothing wrong with making a sequel or part 2 or 3 or 4 of a series/franchise. But there’s so much wrong with the second film in the Heropanti franchise that it’s not funny. The film has flashbacks which don’t register if the audience is not cent per cent attentive. Actually, I was completely attentive and within minutes of the film starting, I even sternly told the two persons sitting next to me in the preview show in which I watched the film last evening (April 28) to remain quiet and not disturb me with their non-stop chatter. Yet, I did not follow the flashbacks and had to later speak with writer Rajat Arora to understand certain points about the screenplay. I have access to Arora but the general public has nobody to turn to for explanations and clarifications. So then what happens? The word of mouth that such people spread is negative because they have not quite understood the film. The paying public has a very clear philosophy when it buys tickets to watch a film: “Don’t expect us to rack our brains to understand what’s going on on the screen, better explain everything in a simple manner. We’ve paid money to enjoy the film, not to decipher what’s going on. In other words, we are not here to do what you writers and filmmakers ought to have done.” Director Ahmed Khan seems to have made Heropanti 2 as a rush job. None of the three South films mentioned above appeared to be rush jobs. Every scene, every single shot and every frame was worked on patiently.
So what is being rejected is not films from Bollywood but sub-standard films. Before this, the public did not have a choice, so they had to accept what was on offer. Today, they have a choice in the form of dubbed South language films. Therefore, they are not in a mood to shower their love on films which are not genuinely and painstakingly made or which offer stuff that does not hold their fancy.
Bollywood writers, producers, directors and stars need to learn from their mistakes and refrain from committing them over again. It’s not the end of the road for them. If they offer good content, even their films will prove successful, hits and super-hits like the dubbed versions of South films. So, they need to cheer up, pull up their socks and get serious.