via XThis year, eerie zombies, vengeful witches, and evil spirits are returning to Bollywood, with horror movies making up some of the year’s biggest grossers. The BBC examines how these low-budget movies are generating high profits.
Bollywood experienced a serious battle between the large and the not-so-big earlier this month.
On one side was the star-studded high-budget motion picture Singham Again, and on the other, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, the latest payment of a mid-budget three-part horror-comedy set by the same name.
Singham Again, which featured five of Bollywood’s biggest stars- Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, and Ranveer Singh- managed to pull in 1.86bn rupees ($ 22.05m, £17.06 ) worldwide in four days, according to film analytics tracker Sacnilk.
Although Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, which stars the relatively young and innovative Kartik Aryan, earned slightly less than that period ( 1.63 billion rupees ), its performance was even more impressive.
Aaryan, who also appeared in the next part, is reprised in the movie as a huckster tale hired by a royal family to clean their house of an evil soul.
Packed with experience and laughter, the show’s racy plot has been drawing viewers to theatres in countryside.
The show’s success marks a culmination of a new tendency in Bollywood, where horror and horror-comedy films- when relegated to the fringes- are then leading the box office.
The trend began with Shaitaan, a psychological horror film starring Ajay Devgn, which earned over$ 25m worldwide despite a modest budget. Following that, Munjya and Stree 2: Sarkate Ka Aatank continued the success, with the latter becoming the highest-grossing Hindi film of 2024, grossing over$ 103mn.
The picture, Stree 2: Sarkate Ka Aantank, set in the fictional town of Chanderi, features the strange Stree, who previously targeted masculine men, now facing off against a dragon that enslaves free-thinking people.
While other significant Bollywood works struggled to find an audience, the movie sold out shows for decades.
The industry has gone through through a slump post the Covid-19 pandemic, with most films tanking at the box-office, trade figures show.
Interesting is that many of these horror movies did n’t receive positive reviews; some even criticized the movies for their “lousy” plotlines.
However, their consecutive triumphs appear to have given Bollywood a new lease of life.
Maddock Films via InstagramSo what’s driving this pattern?
” Horror-comedy plays on the most primordial instinct of the viewers- alternating between anxiety and humour”, says Mayank Shekhar, a top movie critic.
” Both are viral. You can hear the laughter and wails in the hallway.
The success of their movies has also helped pictures like Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 and Stree 2.
Shekhar continues,” These movies are notably” critic-proof” because people come to watch them because they enjoyed the movies that followed them.”
” I think we go because we loved the classic movie and want to experience the same charm in the blockbusters”, says Apurva, a radio rider, who watched both movie lately.
Over time, Bollywood’s horror subgenre has also reshaped itself.
Unlike the horror films of the 1980s, which were designed for an adult audience, horror films nowadays have become a collective cinematic experience, fit for family viewing.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Ramsay Brothers ruled the Hindi horror scene with hits like Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche ( 1972 ) and Purana Mandir ( 1984 ), built on a formula of exaggerated ghosts, witches, gore, and titillation.
” The films were profitable but lacked the legitimacy and appeal that could attract big actors and wider viewership”, says Taran Adarsh, a trade analyst.
In the new millennium, producer brothers Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt, along with director Vikram Bhatt, took the reins of the genre.
The Ramsay Brothers ‘ formula, which features chart-topping songs and sensual scenes in their Raaz series, had a significant success thanks to their successful sequel, the first movie that came out in 2002.
But apart from a few exceptions, the charm of horror films remained limited.
The turning point came in 2007, when Bhool Bhulaiyaa’s first part, starring Akshay Kumar and Vidya Balan, hit theatres.
Adapted from the 1993 Malayalam blockbuster Manichitrathazhu, the movie offered a perfect blend of humour and horror and became an instant hit with the audiences.
via XWith the release of Stree in 2018, which merged horror and social themes like patriarchy and feminism, the genre gained more popularity with its newfound family-friendly approach, which tones down explicit content.
Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and 3 director Anees Bazmee claims that a large part of his vision was to make his films enjoyable for kids. ” I wanted them to be on the edge of their seats but never truly scared, like a roller-coaster ride- happy on the ascent, with a thrill of fear on the descent”, he told the BBC.
The majority of these movies are set in small towns and cities, blending local folklore with universal themes of kindness, bravery, and the eventual triumph of good over evil, and not just humour, there are other common elements as well.
Take the film Tumbbad, a bold blend of mythology, horror and moral lessons.
Vinayak makes an attempt to steal a treasure that is being guarded by a cursed creature, but he discovers that greed is a deadly trap. The movie was re-released earlier this year in theaters after its initial release in 2018 and managed to make more money than the film’s original collection.
There is no denying that horror is experiencing a “revival” at the box office this year, according to Mr. Adarsh.
Others caution against simplifying the trend, however.
” Bhool Bhulaiyaa was our first horror-comedy success that established a successful formula”, says Munjya director Aditya Sarpotdar.
” But it took more than a decade to come up with the next big hit ( Stree )”, he adds.
Bazmee says that often, it’s the plot and not the genre that determines a film’s popularity.
” In the end, it’s always the well-made films that work. That’s always going to be a fundamental factor”, he says.