In the last 4-5 years, Bollywood has experienced a string of unsuccessful movies that were released amid huge anticipation among the viewers and starred superstars of the Hindi film industry
Our Bureau
Mumbai
Lately, Indian cinema, especially Bollywood, has witnessed underwhelming performances from films such as Kangana Ranaut-starrer ‘Emergency’, Shahid Kapoor’s ‘Deva’ and Abhishek Kapoor’s directorial ‘Azaad,’ among others. Salman Khan’s Eid release, Sikandar, also did not open to great reviews.
When Meena Iyer was asked why movies are losing their sparkle, the veteran journalist discussed several factors that might have contributed to Bollywood’s recent struggles. “We have stopped thinking about our scripts. Ek beimani agai hai (There’s dishonesty now). Be it the audience or media, or distributors, everyone is now disappointed. Filmmakers should realise that they can’t fool anyone. They should put efforts to provide quality and sensible cinema to audience. Today, concentration is not so much on art…. People are not thinking about the script. They feel they have a superstar in the film and they can then do anything with it and then the film will become hit…It does not happen like this. There should be a proper focus on the script,” she opined.
Meena Iyer feels that Bollywood needs to work on its storytelling. “Please engage a good scriptwriter, a good editor, a good music director. Please engage the finest talent and give us sensible cinema. This brain-dead cinema that you’re giving us week on week is not helping you. It’s not helping me, it’s not helping the viewer. We have good makers who have the talent to bring commercial and sensible cinema together….why just lean so much on superstar or star or anyone….and not back them with good script or good plot..why?” she emphasised.
Three months have passed since the start of 2025, and so far, the only major blockbuster we’ve seen is Vicky Kaushal’s film Chhaava. Hopefully, moviegoers will be pleased and experience quality cinema in the upcoming months.
In the last 4-5 years, Bollywood has experienced a string of unsuccessful movies that were released amid huge anticipation among the viewers and starred superstars of the Hindi film industry.
While many attribute this downfall to the emergence of OTT platforms, film trade expert Komal Nahta believes that the laziness of the scriptwriters is the only reason for the series of Bollywood.
Nahta called the lack of passion among scriptwriters the reason for the downfall of good stories in Bollywood. He said that nowadays, writers don’t revise or rehash their stories as they expect their first draft to be accepted as the final draft. When asked about the reason for the series of flops in Bollywood, film critic Nahta said, “Only and only Kamchori (Laziness). Whoever finalizes the script thinks that it is right that I have finalized it. It is not like that. There is a team.
It has to pass through a lot of processes. You have to write it again and again.”
While citing the example of scriptwriter and director Rajkumar Hirani, Nahta highlighted the passion for writing in successful filmmakers to produce good stories.
“Rajkumar Hirani and Abhijat Joshi, their writing team, they said that how many times we have written 80% of the script and say that it is not working, let’s cancel it.”
Recently, the Salman Khan starrer Sikandar was leaked online, and film trade expert Komal Nahta was among the people who first discovered it on the online website.
“This morning, I spoke to seven or eight people in the trade, and they confirmed that the film had been leaked. I was also told that Sajid Nadiadwala and the authorized team worked hard to remove the film from many piracy websites. But by then, the damage was already done. It spreads very fast,” the analyst said
Nahta also added how piracy can severely affect a film’s Box Office performance, especially when it happens just around the time of its release. ANI reached out to producer Sajid Nadiadwala’s team for a response. While they did not confirm the leak, the team shared that their piracy agencies are actively working to handle the issue. ‘Sikandar’, directed by AR Murugadoss and starring Rashmika Mandanna, was released on March 30.
