Audience psychoanalysis

I was watching Jammy's Bhediya review and thoughts occurred on why BW movies are failing now. Most of it has been discussed already.

1. Pre-pandemic audience was used to Bollywood dishing out crap and didn't have a choice

2. They got exposed to better content during pandemic

3. Audience still doesn't trust Bollywood to deliver entertainment, entertainment, entertainment.

4. They know something was worthwhile with remakes and sequels.

5. With spectacle, they're at least getting spectacle.

6. Some stars, like Karthik, have a track record of delivering entertainment.

7. So they go to those movies which promise them entertainment in return for their hard-earned cash.

8. They are reluctant to put money into something new because Bollywood's track record.

9. So Bollywood will have to prove itself. Actually get good writers and technicians. Cut down unnecessary expenses like foreign locations and silly songs which don't contribute to the movie. Cut star prices. If it's a smaller film, prepare a different marketing strategy that relies more on wom than a splashy opening.

I don't like this notion that only churns crap and rest of the world don't. That's not true at all.

Infact, movies that have worked post pandemic - KGF and Pushpa are literal craps .

Only 7th point is little valid that Audience want entertainment. Specially in post pandemic times. People have become more conscious in how they spend their money.

Also the evolution of OTT is the most important factor here.

Why should I spend so much money to go watch a movie in theatres , when i can easily watch it on my laptop in just a month?

Movies like RRR, PS1 and Brahmastra worked because they answered this question - For the spectacle, for vfx. Just to get the feel you will never get on OTT. (You should have watched Brahmastra in theatres in 3D 😆)

There are already many problems in all our lives. For 3 hrs I want to forget all of them and get transported to an alternate universe. Where the Hero triumph. Good wins over evil.

All the movie that had worked post pandemic - from Bhool bhulaiya 2 to Drishyam has that element.

I agree with 9th point. It's valid for most of industries today. Not just Bollywood. There is general dearth of good writers .

Also. No cutting down on songs yaar. Gaane ke bins kya mazaa.... Music actually elevates every situation, every emotion imho.

I even novels with music on. I have a playlist for every character i have ever read. Every situation .

Originally posted by: M.Wheeler

I don't like this notion that only churns crap and rest of the world don't. That's not true at all.

Infact, movies that have worked post pandemic - KGF and Pushpa are literal craps .

Only 7th point is little valid that Audience want entertainment. Specially in post pandemic times. People have become more conscious in how they spend their money.

Also the evolution of OTT is the most important factor here.

Why should I spend so much money to go watch a movie in theatres , when i can easily watch it on my laptop in just a month?

Movies like RRR, PS1 and Brahmastra worked because they answered this question - For the spectacle, for vfx. Just to get the feel you will never get on OTT. (You should have watched Brahmastra in theatres in 3D 😆)

I agree with 9th point. It's valid for most of industries today. Not just Bollywood. There is general dearth of good writers .

It's the crap to not crap ratio😆. Every industry has crap, but Bollywood's ratio has been high for a while.

And by not crap I mean movies which entertain in some way. It doesn't have to be high brow.

I don't agree that people will wait for a month. Case in point is Drishyam. This would be an OTT film by definition. And I mean definition provided by KJo types. Ajay is an aging star. In fact, no stars below 50 in it😆. No VFX. No songs. No smut. No foreign locations. Sure to come on OTT in a few weeks. But people are flocking to the theaters.

Because it's entertaining.

Same for Bhool Bulaiyya. Same for Kashmir Files.

Pushpa and KGF were not spectacle films. Yes, they were crap as in plot and writing, but they were entertaining.

OTT is not assaulting Bollywood, and specatcle is not the weapon to fight with. Bollywood is defeating itself and will continue to defeat itself if it believes spectacle is the answer.

Writing is the core of any entertaining film. I disagree that Bollywood has a dearth of good writers. Look at Monica. Look at Hirani's movies. KJo, YRF types don't want to hire good ones or will make good ones fit their parameters.

Anyway, these people are not ready to learn their lessons yet. A couple of spectacles films will have to flop badly for them to go back to square one and figure out what actually went wrong.

Originally posted by: M.Wheeler

Also. No cutting down on songs yaar. Gaane ke bins kya mazaa.... Music actually elevates every situation, every emotion imho.

I even novels with music on. I have a playlist for every character i have ever read. Every situation .

I mean, don't break the plot to break into a song. 😆 Montages have their place.

there is recession

there is alternate choice of watching movies especially ott

great movies are also not being made

your analysis is good

The stories have to be good

An these days I’m finding myself transfixed of the real life stories . I don’t know if you saw Last Dance. ( a ten part documentary about Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls) That was better than any movie I saw in 5/6 years

https://youtu.be/N9Z9JtNcCWY

I think I said I’m looking forward to The Docu series about Salman more than Tiger or Bhaijaan movie 😂

Originally posted by: Maroonporsche

The stories have to be good

An these days I’m finding myself transfixed of the real life stories . I don’t know if you saw Last Dance. ( a ten part documentary about Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls) That was better than any movie I saw in 5/6 years

I think I said I’m looking forward to The Docu series about Salman more than Tiger or Bhaijaan movie 😂

That will be something😆. There may be people who take supari out on him if he dares to be honest.

Don't judge me, but I ended up watching Fantastic Fungi on Netflix last week.😆

Originally posted by: HearMeRoar

That will be something😆. There may be people who take supari out on him if he dares to be honest.

Don't judge me, but I ended up watching Fantastic Fungi on Netflix last week.😆

I’m sure you enjoyed it. Good for you

As oppose to last nite on Netflix my cousins found this new Jason Mamoa movie. Slumber Land. It was straight thrash 😆

I think I'm not a right person to do this analysis as I'm not much of a movie buff.. Even if I watched movies, it was Telugu mostly... Rarely watched BW... But still my 2 cents here based on whatever I observed in BWF in these 3 months:

Lately BW is making either bad movies or remakes.

For bad movies people give bad reviews on first day itself. So people stop going to movie from next day. For example Shamshera I can imagine how crappy it must be based on reviews it got on first day, so obviously I would not interested to watch it.

For remakes, it's not that BW never made remakes before. It did for many movies before but since OTT has been available people already must have watched originals, so audience are least interested in watching remakes. Ofcourse there are exceptions for remakes like Dhrishyam-2 where the story and content is the king..A father going to any length to protect her daughter and family with lot of courage and determination. These emotions are universal for the people to connect with the movie even with different actors.. I watched Dhrishyam-1 in Malayalam but when i again watched its Telugu remake I felt the same emotions even with different actors as those emotions were universal. So if they want to make remakes, do it for good movies like Dhrishyam-2 where the content and story is the king but see they are making remake of that lame movie Alavaikuntapuramlo where it worked cuz of Allu Arjun not cuz of story and content!

Also one more point I should take into consideration .. Pandemic affected all the fields including entertainment field. Many movies had to stop shooting and few TV shows got ruined as a side effect of this pandemic. Also people's livelihood got affected to the point that they cant spend so much money on theatre watch.. They would rather wait and watch on OTT if it get good reviews.

One last point I would like to talk is they are putting unrealistically high budgets in making movies.They should make low budget movies with reasonable content. In that way it's easy to get their money back or profits. For Brahmastra they put very high budget.. So even if the movie did good in theatre we can't say it is block buster cuz the budget for movie was unrealistically high.

Rajamouli movies are always exception. Each and every movie was a hit or block buster.. There is no flop in his history except that "sye" movie I guess which was also average, not a flop. Rajamouli is a perfectionist, creative and he know how to hit the nerve of audience.. He is the director to watch out for and other directors should learn from him how to know the nerve of audience. His "Maryada ramanna" movie was neither a high budget movie nor had a big super star as a hero, the hero of that movie was a comedian. Who would have thought he make such an interesting movie with below average looking, random comedian?.. Rajamouli is such a genius!