5 Important Lessons We Learned From Bollywood In 2018

The year 2018 has been an eye-opener in so many ways. Bollywood, for all its creative aspirations, is still fairly ruled by formulas. As a result, it is of little surprise that every year we see a slew of formula driven films not only being dumped on us but often these are the films that work at the box-office. This success further emboldens many filmmakers and big studios to cash in on formulas and thus the cycle continues.

But this year, not only filmmakers and studios broke away from this circle but also witnessed widespread appreciation and even box-office success for films which dared to go against the current and vice-versa. Here are a few important lessons that we learned from Bollywood in 2018.

Khans Are Not The Mr. Dependables Anymore

The year 2018 will go down in the history as the year in which the Khan triumvirate of Bollywood failed to deliver. Salman Khan’s Race, Aamir Khan’s Thugs Of Hindostan and finally Shah Rukh’s Zero were all major letdowns. This is a clear indication of the fact that Khans are not the Mr. Dependables of Bollywood anymore and just having Khans in the movie won’t guarantee success.

Ultimately It Is All About The Story

This year was a major triumph for writers as only the films with good stories are the ones which entertained audiences. Budget, star-cast, genre everything aside, 2018 heralded the new wave of Indian cinema that is surely undergoing a major change in the palette. The lesson is simple, a film with a good story will work and the one without a good story won’t.

People Want To See More Women Spearheading Films

One of the biggest reason for lack of pay-parity in Bollywood has always been the fact that apparently, the audience does not prefer women spearheading film and a film with a woman heading the narrative is not going fetch the same numbers as those with men. But this year, most of the major and talked about hits had women spearheading the film. From Padmaavat, to Raazi to Badhaai Ho to even Veere Di Wedding all had one thing in common apart from being some of the most successful films of the year- they all had women at the center of the narrative.

Patriotism Does Not Have To Be Jingoistic

For years, patriotism has been one of the sure-shot formulas of success in Bollywood because honestly, it is perhaps one of the most powerful emotions at least in our country. However, unfortunately, the template for patriotic films have become somewhat tone deaf in nature. This year, films like Raazi and Mulk not only garnered widespread appreciation but there fresh take on patriotism reminded us that we do not need to take chest-thumping and jingoistic approach to patriotic films in order make the films work or fill our chest with a swelling pride in our country.

Re-Invention Works

On the parts of many directors, this year was a year of redemptions of sorts. Most directors in Bollywood, bitten by the formula bug, nurture the notion that it is safest to stick to their comfort zones and only that will make things work. But directors like Anubhav Sinha and mainly Amit Ravindernath Sharma proved that all it took for their films to soar high them coming out of their  comfort zone and re-inventing their tastes and approaches to filmmaking