Even as fans and audiences rave over the Dhurandhar frenzy, I cannot but help reiterate that just as one swallow does not make a summer, a few films that grossed high numbers does not constitute a good year.
For what else has Hindi cinema got to show for 2025? Chhaava and Saiyaara, and to an extent, Thamma. That’s it. The all-Indian phenomena that are Mahavatar Narsimha and Kantara: A Legend—Chapter 1 are originally Telugu and Kannada respectively anyway.
Add a handful of tepid Hindi successes or hits (Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat, Tere Ishk Mein, Housefull 5, Sitaare Zameen Par and Raid 2) and we see a ‘grand total’ of 10 ‘plus’ films among an estimated 100-plus movies that were released in theatres! And that’s an ominously low 10 percent success ratio, when movies in the 1970s and 1980s and even early 1990s showed a 60-70 percent figure! (And against the prevalent hype, even pan-Indian South cinema was a dud—for all the other films released in Hindi were disasters).
Let us analyze areas in which Hindi cinema needs correction—pronto!
Thunders Raj Bansal, veteran distributor and exhibitor, “That 2025 was marginally better than 2024, which had only Stree 2, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 and the South’s Pushpa 2: The Rule as big hits is no consolation! According to me, there are areas on which our industry must work!”
He goes on, “First and foremost, we are not paying heed to content at all. We are not spending on stories and scripts, but just reveling on mirages like sequels and prequels! Look at the Salim-Javed decades where these vital aspects mattered!”
Bansal also rues that older successful filmmakers are “now sitting at home” because of this lack of content among market forces. “Random assistants are turning directors with the ethic, ‘Kaam chalaa lenge!’” he says. And the final nails in the coffin, he notes, are the corporate bookings done in the initial days or weeks and the social influencers.
Adarsh adds one more vital point: “Make your content relevant to Tier-2 and Tier-3 centers, like Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat, Saiyaara and Tere Ishk Mein. It is that area we are missing out in a big way, as this year’s fare has shown.”
A Vital Force—Music
The music is another casualty. For more than seven decades, music was one of the mainstays of popular Hindi cinema, but now, with a fetish for not spending either on song creation or filming, things have gone south! This fetish has come both to needlessly “appease” the fad of “realism” and global audiences—ironically negating the very primary reason why Hindi cinema has been loved around the world—our songs!
Agrees Bansal, “Look at the hits—Dhurandhar has a fantastic score. Saiyaara’s songs as well as those of Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat are examples where even today music is like a magnet, irrespective of other pluses in a film!”
Notes writer-director Anees Bazmee, whose proven box-office record (Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, No Entry, Welcome, Singh Is Kinng, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and BB3) has straddled three decades, “In the past, songs were created for situations. That is why they are alive even today. Look at the outstanding use of Na to karvaan ki talaash hai in Dhurandhar! Even the youth that has never heard the original from Barsaat Ki Raat 65 years ago are connecting with it! The same was the case with Arjun Vaily from Animal, a folk song used multiple times earlier, with one version even by Jagjit Singh.”
Star Prices
A root cause of all these evils, Bansal points out, are the preposterous star prices. “If 50 percent of a film’s budget goes in paying a star and his entourage, the filmmaker is compelled to compromise on all other aspects, be it the heroine, the music and the scripting!” he declares. “Today, even smaller actors—we all know them!—who lack the clout to command even an initial audience, demand—and are getting!—fees that exceed even the lifetime collection of their movies!”
This, incidentally, also forces filmmakers to promote films on television shows, tours and malls to balance the skewed economics, factors that have never helped any movie. Way back in 2009, just before 3 Idiots released, Vidhu Vinod Chopra had declared, “All promotions will fail if my content is not up to the mark!” So Bazmee adds, “Every film has a right budget that cannot be reduced—or increased wrongly!”
But are stars important at all now? The people have rejected Sikandar, War 2, De De Pyaar De 2, and Son of Sardaar 2, while Kesari 2, Sky Force and Jolly LLB 3 are no blockbusters. Opines trade analyst Taran Adarsh, “Stars are important, but in the end, it all boils down to content, Star power ensures a good opening, but after Day 1, word-of-mouth spreads faster than fire!”
Bazmee concurs, “Audiences need something extraordinary to spend moneys in these days, and so word-of-mouth is very important! And with audiences now connected via OTT to great choices from around the world, they will not spend on ordinary or mediocre stuff that can be, if at all, watched on OTT eight weeks later. But we are spinning proposals like factories. The passion and motivation are missing!”
Sabse bada rupaiya!
Coming to the cost of watching a film today, Aamir Khan has been hollering about the need for affordable movie-watching for years now, and Shah Rukh Khan has also emphasized this at a recent convention. Bansal admits that multiplex prices are “killing”, which explains the increased viewership when tickets are made available at Rs. 99 on Tuesdays.
Agrees Bazmee, “Aisa lagta hai ki watching a film is only meant for the rich! A middle-class family has to think 10 times before watching any film as even the F&B is exorbitant!”
The smaller nitty-gritties
There is one more factor: India has too less theatres. “China has almost 10 times the screens we have, though we produce more films. But right now, especially for Mumbai’s producers who will not tale the right risks, the main problem is the content!” proclaims Bansal.
A related glitch today is of poor awareness of a film, with many non-social media addicts (an underrated quantum!) unaware of releases like Sky Force, Param Sundari or Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari. Says Bazmee, “Money splurged on promotional tours and malls is rubbish! There is nothing like a good trailer to boost a movie!” I would add, “And a couple of good songs!”
Yet another negative factor is the fact that, today, publicists, managers and agencies are said to even vet scripts before they reach stars! Bazmee, ruefully accepting this fact, makes a very valid point. “I believe in narration! A director’s vision cannot be read. Look at Sholay’s iconic line, ‘Kitne aadmi the?’ How bland will it look on paper!”
Now, who will bell all these multiple cats? Here’s looking forward optimistically to a more productive and profitable 2026.
