Masala movies back in action!!

Six fights, four songs, a couple of tear-jerking emotional scenes and a clichéd storyline had always defined Indian cinema. Over the last few years, however, this genre of cinema had taken a hiatus as multiplex audiences had moved on to the “Karan Johar genre” of family drama in Bollywood and college and youth-oriented stories in Tollywood. But just when we thought Indian cinema had moved on from masala films, along came Dabangg and Robot that not only re-established the might of masala films but broke all records.


Film critics and trade analysts claim that audiences in stand-alone theatres had always remained loyal to masala flicks but filmmakers like Karan Johar had started targeting audiences abroad with storylines centred on NRI families.
“Ask any film buff and he will say that he wants entertainment and wants to forget his worries for sometime. The audience want to watch desi movies but for dollars, dirhams and pounds, our movie makers shifted their focus to NRI based stories. The viewers in stand-alone theatres couldn’t connect to it. It is like trying to force a guy who has had Indian thalis all his life to have a Russian dish. The box office revenues of Dabanng and Robot prove that moviegoers are tired of “NRI” movies and want desi cinema and that the genre is evergreen,” says Taran Adarsh, Bollywood trade expert.


“Stories that are ‘thought provoking’ and full of NRI issues are saturated now and it is masala that audiences now want,” adds Adarsh.


In Tollywood too, the Balakrishna starrer Simha was a blockbuster and resurrected the actor’s dwindling career. The movie had heavy dialogues, bloody scenes, sentiment, family drama, three heroines and an item song. Just what the audiences wanted.



Since Telugu cinema over the past five years had seen exponential growth in “youth oriented stories”, the success of Simha came as a pleasant surprise to many. “Commercial cinema with fights, songs, senti scenes and family drama are always a hit. It is just that we should treat the story well and make sure that there’s something for all audiences. In Simha, we didn’t have too many lengthy dialogues and it was a hit with young audience,” says Boyapati Srinu, director of Simha.
The sc-fi Robot was made with Rs 180 crore and it has reportedly raked in Rs 205 crore worldwide over this weekend alone. Theatre owners. They inform that the audience’s tastes change every six months. “When a masala movie clicks, its collections are several times higher than a hit movie with a ‘college’ story because unlike youth-based movies, a masala movie is watched by people of all ages,” says Vijandar Reddy, senior exhibitor and member of AP Film Exhibitors Association.


“Masala films are everlasting. With masala as the premise, the sensibilities of youth should be added for it to do wonders at the box office,” says director N. Shankar.