Vivek Agnihotri takes a jab at Bollywood films for their abject box office failure since Pathaan’s success.
Bollywood had a great start to the year 2023 thanks to Shah Rukh Khan’s historic comeback in Pathaan. The movie shattered every Hindi movie record that had previously stood, and it went on to gross nearly a billion dollars worldwide. It gave us hope that 2018 would be different from 2022, but we also had a sobering reality check, and Vivek Agnihotri has something to say about it now.
Following Pathaan’s box office success, blockbusters like Shehzada starring Kartik Aaryan and Selfie starring Akshay Kumar and Emraan Hashmi were a resounding failure at the box office. No one anticipated this kind of situation so soon after Shah Rukh Khan’s stunning comeback, therefore it came as a huge shock to the industry. Even the most recent film, Bholaa, starring Ajay Devgn, falls short of the hype.
Vivek Agnihotri criticized Bollywood on Twitter for giving its stars an unprecedented amount of money when they can’t even guarantee their movies will have a successful opening weekend. He said, “Bollywood is in bad shape. Again. Seems as if the entire industry is happy giving unrealistic and exorbitant fees to stars who can’t even guarantee an opening. Most money is wasted on vanity and the lifestyle of stars. What’s going wrong?”
Except for Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan, no other Bollywood film has been able to be a clear hit at the box office, thus it’s time to reflect on what’s going wrong for Bollywood. Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar, the film starring Ranbir Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor, has achieved some success. Yet, well-known apps like Selfiee and Shehzada have utterly failed.
