Column | Bollywood is crazy about South

Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor in a scene from ‘Singham Again’.

Another day, another groundbreaking Bollywood remake of a Tamil/Telugu/Malayalam film – that was the lasting sentiment for the Varun Dhawan starrer at the end of the media show last month. baby johnDirected by Callies. The film is the official Hindi remake of the 2016 Tamil action thriller theriStarring Vijay and directed by Hit Merchant Atlee (who produced it baby john,

In the film, after the murder of vengeful mob boss Babbar Sher (Jackie Shroff), super-cop Satya Varma (Dhawan) fakes his death and hides himself (as John D’Silva) in a sleepy town in Kerala. Creates a new identity for his younger daughter. His wife and mother were ambushed. When his daughter’s teacher Tara (Vamika Gabbi) tries to speak to John in Malayalam, he says that he does not know the language. Soon after, when John encounters someone he knows as Satya, he lets out a stream of stilted Malayalam, which surprises Tara and alerts her to the fact. That something is wrong here.

Varun Dhawan in ‘Baby John’, the Hindi remake of the 2016 Tamil action thriller ‘Theri’, which starred Vijay.

Amid an identity crisis, a Hindi-speaking hero chooses (poorly) to impersonate a dyed-in-the-wool Malayali. I can hardly think of a more appropriate moment to explain the ongoing creative crisis in Bollywood.

Over the last four-five years, Bollywood has become increasingly dependent on Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam language films. Every major star has remade films from these industries, with Hindi-language results ranging from Madhya (Ajay Devgan). gullibleIt is a remake of Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Tamil film kathy) absolutely terrible (rebel 3N. based on linguswami Vettai) -with the odd notable exception like Pushkar and Gayatri Vikram VedhaAn improvement on his already polished eponymous Tamil film. Some of the biggest Bollywood hits of recent times have come from Tamil and Telugu writers, such as Atlee. young Or Sandeep Reddy Vanga AnimalIncreasingly, directors from these industries are invited to remake their films in Hindi as Bollywood does not trust even its own creators to make commercially successful replicas. Kannada filmmaker A Harsha has been announced as the director of the upcoming Tiger Shroff film rebel 4For example.

(Left to Right) Actor Vijay Sethupathi, director Atlee and actor Shahrukh Khan at the promotion of their film ‘Jawaan’ in Mumbai in September 2023. Photo Credit: Getty Images

Local star for good PR

The commercial/marketing impact of this incident is significant. One concrete development is that almost every big budget film nowadays, regardless of industry, has a ‘mixed’ cast.

There are representatives from different industries covering the North and the South – it’s easier to promote a film with a ‘local’ face, the thinking goes. To cite just two recent examples, baby john South star Keerthy Suresh is one of the lead actresses in the film, the latest Rajinikanth action-thriller Vettaiyaan Amitabh Bachchan was in an important role in this. Rajini’s next film Coolie It has cameos by Nagarjuna (Telugu), Aamir Khan (Hindi) and Upendra (Kannada). Kannada actor Yash’s kgf-Prasiddhi is all set to play the role of Ravana in Nitesh Tiwari’s Hindi language film. RamayanaWhile Ranbir Kapoor and Sai Pallavi play the roles of Ram and Sita respectively.

A scene from the Tamil action-thriller ‘Vettaiyan’.

And this is hardly the only way the nuts and bolts of the Hindi blockbuster are changing. Bollywood action segments are starting to resemble the scenes seen in Prabhas or Yash films. Cartoon-like adventurers dispatch a horde of attackers while the camera pans out, making dozens of fast-moving cuts in a minute or two. The fast-paced, over-the-top editing style leaves no room for the scene to breathe, or even to effectively convey the emotional stakes of the fight, etc. The hero barely raises his fist and the villains fly through the air in outwardly expanding circles.

The third big change is of the hairy persuasion – Bollywood heroes are going for big, shaggy-dog-like beards a la in allu arjun Pushpa in films or fame kgfAmong the most recent big budget Bollywood releases Singham AgainThe villain ‘Danger Lanka’ (Arjun Kapoor) is apparently based on a mix of famous Tamil and Telugu-film characters. His beard is so big and thick that you can expect birds to fly during intermission. When Ranveer Singh’s (clean-cut, military-mustachioed) character Sangram sees his enemy for the first time, he even says: “What a dangerous look you have, Danger! Very South Indian Hero Mafik (What a killer look you have Danger, you look like a South Indian hero).”

Ranbir Kapoor in ‘Animal’.

once upon a shave

Now, I’m conscious of the fact that sometimes beards, like all visual markers, are informed by cultural osmosis. And yet, one must resist Bollywood’s current one-size-fits-all approach. Under the tutelage of Sandeep Reddy Vanga, first Shahid Kapoor and then Ranbir Kapoor hid their faces under layers of Amazonian lip-moss. They are ‘South’ Of Hero’ now, visually and spiritually.

And so, regardless of how many times Dhawan copied Vijay’s signature mannerisms baby john (the bracelet-wearing style, the tap dance-on-cocaine choreography), I didn’t ‘buy’ the illusion. Bollywood may repeat this trick again and again but it is a cynical performance, guided more by box office pressure than anything else. Even a good copy needs unconditional love In fact Work.

The author and journalist is working on his first non-fiction book.