THE STARS STAYING DIM ON BOLLYWOOD

IT his Diwali, Bollywood has been praying more fervently than ever before to Lakshmi as the fate of two big franchise films—Singham Again and Bhool Bhulaiyya 3—hang in balance at the box office.

- NAMRATA JOSHI

Will both of them bring the fickle audience to theatres over the festive weekend? Or will they split the viewers? Most importantly, will they help make a success of 2024, which has been marked by a slump after an incredible run in 2023? Or will it be back to the gloom and doom of the disastrous 2022 after the hope and cheer of Pathaan, Gadar 2, Animal and Jawan last year?

There has been only one genuine blockbuster so far in 2024—Stree 2, the sequel to another horror franchise— alongside a bunch of sleeper hits like Munjya and Crew. No one seems to be reliable any more—neither big stars and mega budgets, nor legacy production houses and top-rated directors. None can claim to know the pulse of the audience, be it Ajay Devgn with his Maidaan or Alia Bhatt and her Jigra. Even the hypermasculine narratives that were a rage last year have come a cropper. The only success stories of 2024 have been the hero next door like Rajkummar Rao and Dinesh Vijan’s production company Maddock Films that has been raining horror hits like Bhediya, Stree and Munjya, enough to have launched the desi Maddock supernatural Universe of hindi horror-comedies with Ayushmann Khurrana-starrer vampire tale Thama coming up in Diwali 2025.

To be fair, it’s not the first time that Bollywood has been crisis-hit. Back in 2002, nothing worked in theatres except three films—Devdas, Raaz and