Industry
Ensemble cast back in vogue as filmmakers spread bets across stars
Summary
- As top stars fail to fetch adequate returns on budgets that often balloon in pursuit of scale and grandeur, trade experts say that the respective fan bases of multiple stars can potentially help in grand openings and lifetime box-office collections.
The Hindi film industry that had been trying to ride star power of individual male actors is now starting to place bets on multiple actors and ensemble casts, as big guns fail to fire at the box office.
Take, for instance, Ranveer Singh’s upcoming untitled film. It will feature Sanjay Dutt, Akshaye Khanna and R. Madhavan while the new Housefull instalment stars Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh and Abhishek Bachchan. Kumar’s other film Welcome 3 features an even bigger cast— Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty, Arshad Warsi, besides Raveena Tandon, Lara Dutta and Disha Patani, as producers aim to draw a wider set of audiences to the theatres.
As top stars fail to fetch adequate returns on budgets that often balloon in pursuit of scale and grandeur, trade experts say that the respective fan bases of multiple stars can potentially help in grand openings and lifetime box-office collections. Further, marketing becomes easier with an ensemble cast and the film usually manages to generate substantial pre-release buzz, enough to sail through the first weekend before word-of-mouth takes over, especially if the stars coming together haven’t been seen alongside each other in the past.
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“The verdict of the audience is to mount films at a certain scale and give them their money’s worth, so collaborating with and bringing a bunch of people together can be one way of putting together an exciting and compelling proposition at large," film distributor and exhibitor Akshaye Rathi said. A star by himself may be able to manage a modest opening-day number, but when combined with another big name, the results can be dramatically better, trade experts like Rathi say. For example, even though Tiger Shroff is a bonafide action star, bringing him together with Hrithik Roshan for Yash Raj Films’ War 2 in 2019 had resulted in total box office collections swelling to ₹318 crore.
Ashish Saksena, chief operating officer, cinemas, BookMyShow, said that after the early 2000s, audiences slowly diverged to more niche and character-driven stories which often suited solo leads. Many gravitated towards genres like romantic comedies, thrillers and biopics, typically centred around single protagonists. A cult-classic with an ensemble cast, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, released in 2001 before the audience choices began to diverge.
The ensemble cast trend
An ensemble cast is a dramatic production that has many protagonists, all with meaty roles to essay.
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The trend that started picking up and that became more prevalent in that period was big stars doing surprise cameos in films like Om Shanti Om to keep the interest of the audience alive. “However, multi-starrer films are now making a comeback, fuelled by the changing tastes of audiences hungry for diverse and dynamic narratives that a star-studded cast can deliver. The global success of ensemble films has proven their commercial appeal," Saksena added, referring to multi-hero stories from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) such as The Avengers.
To be sure, while one challenge with multi-starrers can be spiralling costs if all stars on board do not rationalize their fees, trade experts also point out that some of the heavylifting may actually be done by one big star, who is then supported by others in meaningful and impactful roles.
“It seems like one sensible, plausible way of filmmaking, going ahead. There is a lot of intrigue value associated with multi-starrers as seen in the success of a film like Kalki that brought Hindi and southern industry names together," said Rahul Puri, managing director, Mukta Arts and Mukta A2 Cinemas.
