Bollywood sees flight to safety as moviegoers raise the bar

Top actors are increasingly cautious about which projects they sign up for as audiences have become more demanding in the wake of the pandemic, industry experts told Mint.

Ayushmann Khurrana, who recently walked out of a biopic on Sourav Ganguly, and Ranveer Singh, who exited a project called Rakshas, are proof of this, they said, as is the slowdown in new announcements of late. Stars also don’t want to dish out more of the kinds of movies that audiences have already seen, they said, adding that biopics and dramas are now mainly seen as streaming genres.

For the past few years, films were being put together with the assurance that streaming platforms would buy anything that featured a big star. That enthusiasm has since dwindled and projects have become more challenging to execute as audiences’ demands have increased, producer Yusuf Shaikh said.

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“There are films that sound attractive on paper but audiences are no longer paying for movies that don’t offer them something unique. Actors have to be choosy at this point to bounce back. Nobody can afford another flop,” Shaikh added.

Akshata Samant, head of creative development at Civic Studios said, “There has been a significant change in the theatre-going audience's behaviour since the pandemic, leading to relatively few box office successes over the past couple of years. While there is no clarity on why actors have exited such projects, it’s understandable for actors and producers to be extra cautious in such a market.”

Star power waning?

A senior film producer, who did not wish to be named, also said while stars have traditionally had significant control over script and direction, producers are increasingly putting their foot down, leading to high-profile exits. “Actors tend to make tons of changes both at the start of a project and while making the film. It’s important for producers to let the stars know that the film can’t just be about them,” the producer said.

That said, most stars are currently gravitating towards “safe” projects that can all but guarantee bumper openings, the producer added, owing to a spate of flops and audiences’ changing tastes, especially since covid.

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Another factor at play is that certain actors commit to several projects at once in the hope that at least some of them will see the light of day. If some projects are delayed and the final dates for two or more of them overlap, actors have to take a call on which ones matter the most to them, Samant added.

In such a market, actors’ decisions on which movies to take up next are often a reaction to the success or failure of recent releases, experts said. For example, sports biopics such as Maidaan and Chandu Champion have failed to make a mark at the box office this year, so actors are less likely to dabble in this genre.

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