A giant leap of sequels in Bollywood

Bollywood seemed to run short of ideas as it witnesses a slew of sequels this year and not all of them clicked

Although Satyajit Ray was among the earliest filmmakers to come up with a franchise (Apu trilogy someone?), it was Hollywood which make the concept increasingly profitable. Even today, not a year goes by without one having to gawk at the astronomical figures Western franchises register on a global scale. Well, 2013 saw a giant leap in the world of Bollywood sequels with 10 releases so far and Dhoom 3 about to hit the theatres. HitList checks how each one of them fared both commercially as well as critically…

Shootout At Wadala
Director: Sanjay Gupta
Verdict: Shootout franchise is gradually gaining hold. After much delay, its second installment opened to favourable critique for Anil Kapoor and an unfavourable one for John Abraham — the respective hero and the villain in the movie. Kangna Ranaut felt left out. Nonetheless, the film did work decently well at the box office.

Krrish 3
Director: Rakesh Roshan
Verdict: We used to lack superheroes on the big screen. And then Krrish walked…flew along actually. The rest is a mystery. There was no doubt that this action sequel had shades of characters we had seen earlier in Hollywood ventures but who cared? It went on to become Hrithik Roshan’s biggest blockbuster ever.

Race 2
Director: Abbas-Mustan
Verdict: This action-thriller centred on a heist opened to negative responses from the critics but the masses would have none of them. As a result, it became the first entrant of the fabled 100 crore club in 2013. By the end of January, it made it way too obvious that a franchise is meant to translate into profit. Anyhow.

Aashiqui 2
Director: Mohit Suri
Verdict: A complete surprise package. Even today, the melodies from this tragic love story are bound to greet you as ringtones and call tunes. When it released this summer, the critics were divided about the overall film but the two leading actors won hearts and the music shouldered the rest of the responsibility.

Murder 3
Director: Vishesh Bhatt
Verdict: Gone are the days when desi filmmakers claimed to be inspired by blindly lifting angrezi plots. Nowadays, it’s a standard practice to buy the rights and adapt. The Bhatt camp did the same with the official remake of Colombian thriller The Hidden Face. It won few hearts and made considerable moolah.

‘Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster Returns’
Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia
Verdict: The director, who is known for writing his own films, didn’t have an exceptional year but compared to his latest venture Bullett Raja, the sequel from March scored far better. The critics were kinder and the film made moderate business as well. But still, it couldn’t match his previous Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster.

Grand Masti
Director: Indra Kumar
Verdict: Whoever said that only Shah Rukh Khan and sex sell, needs to add crass to the list. This sleeper hit of the year dared crack some of the most vulgar jokes we ever heard in our cinema halls. With a guaranteed A certification, it went on to cross R100 crore in domestic revenues alone. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Satya 2
Director: Ram Gopal Varma
Verdict: The less said about this effort, the better. Maybe, all the director had to do was scrap the idea from the word go. But he didn’t and we were left with an unsavoury residue of a film that was trying to match the original. Let’s just hope that this charade ended here itself leaving no space for Satya 3.

Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara!
Director: Milan Luthria
Verdict: When Akshay Kumar appeared in a teaser commanding complete attention from the audience because according to him, films are made with a lot of struggle. He was absolutely right. However, this wasn’t that movie. In hindsight, its prequel scored better in almost all the departments.

Yamla Pagla Deewana 2
Director: Sangeeth Sivan
Verdict: Some sequels shouldn’t take place no matter what. This debacle was certainly one of them. To its discredit, Yamla Pagla Deewana was at least funny. Even though the sequel shared the adorable Dharmendra amongst the protagonists, the cinematic disaster lacked everything associated with a passable script.

Make and break

>> Oldboy, a Hollywood remake of a Korean cult, released last week to much criticism. Hindi cinema too saw a couple of remakes this year with mixed results.

Chashme Buddoor

>> Featuring three funny guys and a cute girl in lead, Chashme Buddoor earned mixed reactions but quite a lot of box office returns.

Zanjeer

>> Zanjeer, starring Ram Charan and Priyanka Chopra, reiterated what the purists have been screaming since time immemorial: Don’t mess with the classics!

Himmatwala

>> It takes foolhardiness to resurrect a film like Himmatwala, which itself was a remake of a Telugu film. And then miserably fail at it.

Policegiri

>> An official remake of a Tamil venture, Policegiri garnered little praise from the critics but more than just broke even at ticket counters.

Ramaiya Vastavaiya

>> Ramaiya Vastavaiya signaled director Prabhu Dheva’s return to his directorial debut as the Hindi film was a remake of his Telugu film.