On Friday 2nd December 2016 the movie “Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh” directed by Sujoy Ghosh and starring the talented Vidya Balan was released. After watching this movie (a part of the “Kahaani” franchise initiated in 2012) I have come to the conclusion that unfortunately not many directors/writers in Bollywood are able to create a quality franchise say like the “Batman series” created by Christopher Nolan. There are a few reasons why the Hindi Film Industry (aka Bollywood) is unable to create a high quality movie franchise. The three major reasons are as follows
1. The “intention” behind creating a franchise
An old adage states that “Nothing succeeds like success” and this axiom quite aptly represents how the “Bollywood” industry works i.e. on success. So if a movie does stupendously well at the box office the tendency, especially by producers is to cash in on the success of the movie and thereby turn it into a franchise. As a result of which the story/screenplay, an essential ingredient of any movie is compromised which leads to the quality of the franchise in totality being affected.
2. The media hype created
The success of any movie in Bollywood then leads to intense speculation within media on whether a franchise should be created or not. In turn this speculation spreads like wildfire throughout the industry which results in external pressure being applied on the makers (i.e. director and writers) especially by producers to create a franchise. This pressure then results in the writer/director creating a product in order to cash in on the previous success and not to tell a story that they truly believe in thereby leading to poor content quality. Thus, it is this lack of quality in the content itself that reflects quite clearly onscreen even if the performances by the cast or the direction is high class as seen in many cases.
3. Directors/writers falling prey to the lure of cashing in on previous success
Now in movie making the director along with the writer are supposed to be like the “Pilot and Co-pilot” of the project i.e. supposed to have complete control over creativity. Unfortunately, though in Bollywood a majority of the director’s fall prey to the pressure and lure of cashing in on the success of a movie and thereafter build a franchise. As a result of which they compromise on the quality of content instead of taking time to create a story that is worth telling.
The simple truth is that in Bollywood today there are few directors such as Rajkumar Hirani (creator of the brilliant Munnabhai series)who are capable of making quality franchises. And unfortunately it looks like the trend of making an average franchise in the Hindi movie industry will continue to exist unless the creators i.e. directors and writers stop falling prey to the pressure especially exerted by the producer whose only intention is to make “big money”.
Also read, about the two best franchises in Bollywood
Also read, read the preview of Kahaani-2read the preview of Kahaani-2
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