Does rigid fandom affect the quality of Bollywood?

Do you think people will watch trash if it is dished out by a particular actor? Or do audiences watch movies if they are well-packaged/ smart/entertaining?

Do you think rigid fandom ( especially of the Khans and Akshay Kumar) lead to average films doing well at the box-office?

I will also give the example of Ujda Chaman v. Bala. Most people I know found Ujda Chaman a better movie. But Bala walked away with 100 crores just because it had a big name.

Similarly, Notebook(2019) failed to get a good opening and good numbers despite being such a sweet movie. I myself had not even heard of it. But when I watched it on the OTT platform, I loved it.

Here, I am defining fandom as a single-point agenda. But you cannot deny that there are band-wagon fans in every field. People who latch onto the current flavor of the season just because everyone else is doing so. I, myself, would much prefer a rigid fan than an opportunistic fan.

Opinions??

Absolutely. That's why stardom (and even nepotism) exists. Films usually require known faces to get the attention of the general public. Many of Salman's films in this decade haven't been great films but it's his name and the promise of entertainment that bring in audiences. However, great films do work even with newcomers because word of mouth spreads quickly these days. Tashkent Files was a low-budget film that opened quite poorly but people loved it and it sustained at the box office for over 100 days to become a sleeper hit. Films like Notebook or Laila Majnu that have been highly praised among critics do not have that entertainment quality which is why they bombed but a similar film like October had much more reach with Varun Dhawan.

It was more important in the past I feel. But now it’s changing with the so much availability of world content out there.

Yes it does and it's a shame. Watching a film only because it stars a certain actor is stupidity which is done by majority of Indian audience. An actor is always the face of a film. He's the one who always walks away with all the credit, doesn't matter if it's a big team behind the making of a film.

Fans compare box office collections of their favorite's movies with their rival's. Like a film is all about the actor only and no one else. Like saying that my favorite has this many films in 300 Crore club and your favorite has none, it sounds so dumb if you really think about it. Only on internet you can say shit like that and get praises. If you talk to someone like that in person, they would most likely laugh at you and feel that you're weird.

But it's the star culture only which is running Bollywood or any industry in India. Bollywood is not Hollywood which can invest huge amount of money in the making of a film and still afford to loose it. Bollywood needs Superstars which can assure Producers that they would get their money back even if the film turns out to be bad.

A script can't do that because a good movie requires much more than a good script. A million things can go wrong during the making of a film even with an awesome script, which would result in a bad end product. A superstar gives assurance to everyone involved in a film that it would be a success even if the end product somehow turns out to be bad. This also makes everyone including the Superstar lazy because they know that the movie would be a success even if the end product is bad, then why even try making a good film?

But star driven films are required in Bollywood if you want to see content driven films. Vice-versa is not true. Movies like Gangs Of Wasseypur or The Lunchbox are only possible if movies like Bodyguard and Ready are made.

The quality of bollywood is already to trash.It's not just because of star system but lack of creativity and new themes and stories. Even the so called "content cinema" is not that good. Our filmakers start churning out same stories if one formula works. There are hardly any nuances in story telling and performances. Compared to world cinema Bollywood is far behind in terms of quality.

Coming to point star system is the worst thing to happened and its only propagated further by PR of these "stars". Look at Hollywood where big budget movies can be made with unknown actors and still do wonders at boxoffices. We fail to realize that movies make a star not the other way round. Because of this the casting of our movies is so bad. Eg: Akshay Kumar playing Prithvi Raj even though he is much older

Yeah definitely... many people even now will go to watch a film just because so-and-so is in it...

But that is a HUGE win for the said "so-and-so" because that means people are willing to put up with mediocre, dull or even straight up nonsensical storylines and screenplay just because THEY are in it... it means there is something special that the audience have identified in THEM, as an actor and as a person... whether that's good looks, sex appeal, great screen presence, or just sheer acting talent... it means this actor has successfully shown one or more of these qualities in their movie/s, and that has made the audiences love them enough to spend hard earned money just to watch THEM on the big screen...

When the above starts becoming true for any actor, that means they are on the road to achieving superstar status... if they are able to retain and increase said superstar status (through getting more and more fan following, plus higher and higher collections for their films over the years as a result) then they are on the path to becoming a true megastar...

But make no mistake, even superstars end up giving flops when the storylines, characterisation, screenplay, or other actors in the film aren't up to mark! SRK, Salman, even Amitabh Bacchhan all have films that flopped badly, that too long after they already gained massive fan following and gave a lot of big hits in the past... the importance of a good plot, and an overall strong casting can't be underestimated when it comes to making a hit film... it's just that the bigger superstar the lead actor is, the less these other things matter, as there will always be a significant number of people who'll plan a trip to the theatre and pay good money from their own pocket just to see this particular actor!

It also makes more sense financially to cast a superstar when making a very ambitious or big budget movie, as huge numbers of those same people mentioned above (fans basically) will most likely come along to watch the film , making sure that the budget is not only recovered but that there is also quite a lot of profit gained...

The problem you mentioned comes about when writers/directors/casting people rely simply too much on the superstar, and don't do any of their jobs properly... that's when even the superstars give flops... and if the above keeps happening again and again, it's possible for that elusive superstar status to eventually be lost too! A small number of die-hard fans may stick around to keep watching their substandard movies but the masses will eventually move on to someone who has the superstar qualities, but chooses/recieves good movies.

Definitely, here people prefer big names over storylines , talent and content . That’s the reason why the top actors and actresses of Bollywood are below average with limited range and good pr

Also Bollywood has limited genres unlike Hollywood . If I want to see coming of age movie or psychological thriller or horror or sci fi I would turn to Hollywood movies cos Bollywood doesn’t have those .. the content that Bollywood is dishing out is so shitty and unoriginal.

Another problem is Bollywood is known to neglect or sideline some really talented artists for the likes of someone who has connections . I mean how are actors like Salman Khan , Akshay Kumar , Deepika Padukone , Katrina kaif so famous ?! They have limited range with average acting skills

Yes it does.

I love Ranbir Kapoor. This is the reason I wasted my time and money in Bombay Velvet. This is the only time wanted to ask Ranbir why he was a part of such a horrible movie. 😡