Vicky Kaushal on why Bollywood films are flopping: 'If the film resonates...'

Vicky Kaushal is considered one of the finest actors of his generation. After breaking out with a lead role in Neeraj Ghaywan's 'Masaan', he has delivered several acclaimed performances in films like 'Raman Raghav 2.0', 'Raazi', 'Manmarziyaan', 'Uri: The Surgical Strike', and 'Sardar Udham'. He can currently be seen in 'Govinda Naam Mera', a film that he said chose because he wanted a break from "serious" films that he had done before. Also starring Bhumi Pednekar and Kiara Advani, the Shashank Khaitan directorial was released on December 16.

While speaking to Indianexpress.com, Kaushal has spoken about the failures of recent failures of several Bollywood films. The actor said good films are still working.

"People, in fact, have made it very simple. If you see the graph, they’ve made it so simple, that if the film resonates with them, no matter what the language, genre or scale is, they will give it a lot of love. The audience has made it very simple, that humein picture acchhi lagni chaahiye (we should like the film). You see a Bhool Bhulaiya (2), KGF (2) or RRR, Drishyam (2), none of them fall in the same box, they’re neither the same language, genre nor the scale, they didn’t even have the same marketing plan."

He added, "Even three years ago, it was directly proportional, aap jitni marketing karoge, utni aapki film chalegi (the box office returns were proportional to the film's marketing), but it’s not like that anymore. Today, if people like a film, they just take it up.”

A handful of Bollywood movies worked in 2022, and many analysts have suggested that this has to do with the rise of films in South Indian languages that have gone way beyond their own markets in the north thanks to high production values and wide availability of dubbing and some films are even shot simultaneously in Hindi.

Also denting the market of Hindi films is all the content releasing on streaming services, including 'Govinda Naam Mera', which released on Disney+ Hotstar.