Is Bollywood Nearing Its End Game?

As Indians, we all have been raised by watching numerous Bollywood films, famously known as Hindi cinema or Bombay cinema from its place of origin – Bombay (now, Mumbai). Since its dawn around 1890, this film industry has been achieving and breaking an enormous number of records in different aspects such as earning, number of hit films, eminent songs and many more.

This field has seen only heroes who have always be victorious to rescue their queens from the claws of dreaded villains and have often succeeded in leaving an imprint over millions of hearts. It has also seen clowns who have fixed the flag of their love in the human souls. But, all this goes into the drain if we don’t take into account the men behind the curtains – directors and producers. Not to mention, the pawns, as their sacrifices always help the king to exercise his control over the world, similarly the crew members of this industry play the chief role in elevating the prominence of the movie across the globe by sacrificing their health.

In this day and age, this blossomed drama industry has been going through many ups and downs as an enormous number of obstacles are coming in its way. First and foremost, the ongoing pandemic situation of Covid-19 is a big hurdle on the road of the evolution of Hindi film industry, as the reel life has been put on the hold because of the risk of spreading this virus. After that, OTT (over the top) platforms have emerged as the new lifeline and stage for movies and theatres have become deserted since Covid-19. But, this stage has not proven such effective for the film industry’s personnel as it can not seize a good chunk of money.

Next, Bollywood recently went through the unexpected trauma of losing an emerging star – Sushant Singh Rajput. After the death of their favourite actor, fans have become furious. They think that Sushant is no more just because of some celebrities, who promote ‘nepotism’. In their view, due to nepotism, an actor like Sushant had failed to acquire a single film and that eventually called for depression and stress in his life, inching him towards death. Hence, they started to troll some personalities on various platforms without knowing the truthfulness of their belief.

This factor aids in spoiling the mood of the film industry and also brings detrimental outcomes on many great minds as they are shocked by the happenings. In addition, after this incident, the discrimination and rivalry atmosphere came up on the floor as many actors started taking sides of Sushant’s fans and blaming their companions for his death.

The main reason that I’m compelled to write this is a tweet from eminent director Anubhav Sinha. The personality who has contributed with his outstanding work such as Mulk, Thappad, Article 15 declared that he is going to resign from Bollywood and has also altered his Twitter profile adding “No Bollywood” label in his name. After Anubhav, two more famous names Sudhir Mishra and Hansal Mehta also revealed their state of mind regarding Bollywood and have mentioned their disgust with it. If this continues, the time is not far away when we will be witnessing the lack of intellectuals in Bombay cinema.

And, last but not least, as per a well-known musician of Indian cinema, today’s music production industry is thoroughly dominated by some famous names and he addressed them using the word ‘Mafia’. How can we turn deaf to the voice raised by the eminent musician A.R.Rehman over his concern on a gang, which runs against him as per his claim.

I felt obliged to share my concern regarding the end game of the blossoming Hindi cinema. Lastly, let’s pay tribute to our young actor by watching his movie ‘Dil Bechara’ and pray that his soul may ‘rest in peace’.