What happened to the dream?

Bollywood used to be so good at the populist fantasy, whether action or romance. Why is it all slo-mo, dad jokes and crude CGI today?

- Deepanjana Pal

Last week, the Hindi film industry delivered two of its shiniest offerings of the year: Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 and Singham Again.

It was a box-office face-off that had trade analysts and fans buzzing. Asked if this could be called "the Indian Barbenheimer", I just about managed to answer "Not quite", before my brain melted at the thought of Anees Bazmee being our Greta Gerwig and Rohit Shetty, our Christopher Nolan.

Their box-office successes aside, last year's Barbie and Oppenheimer stood out as unprecedented for the creative decisions taken by their directors. They were both bold, novel attempts to tell a somewhat-familiar story in a stunning new way.

Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 and Singham Again, in contrast, take pride in their lack of originality. Irrespective of how much they earn at the box office, the two films are emblematic of a critical problem within Bollywood: a crisis of the imagination.