After Hanuman Ansh and Kantara became box-office talking points, a section of Hindi cinema is looking past spies, superheroes and romantic heroes for its next draw: a god. A film on Neem Karoli Baba has found considerable success, and Nitesh Tiwari’s ambitious Ramayana is generating attention well before release.
The new action formula
Trade expert Komal Nahata reads the shift as a familiar industry instinct: success chased by imitation. “Faith is becoming the new action formula,” he says, arguing that the success of Hanuman Ansh and Kantara has prompted a turn towards religious, mythological and faith-based cinema. In his view, the pattern could shape Hindi film for a decade.
That is not quite a new discovery. Trade analyst Sumit Kadel points to Jai Santoshi Maa, released alongside Sholay, as an earlier blockbuster; films on Sai Baba and recent releases such as Mahavatar Narasimha and the Gujarati film Laalo continue the same line. Familiar characters arrive with an audience already emotionally invested.
Familiarity reduces risk, not the bar
- Built-in loyalty: mythology draws on characters the audience already knows, reducing the burden of introducing a new world.
- Higher expectations: larger productions carry heavier theatrical targets because streaming and satellite prices follow box-office performance.
- Authenticity tests: casting, costumes, dialogue and creative interpretation can each become a point of audience scrutiny.
Director Suresh Triveni welcomes the cycle but warns against treating faith as safety. “Faith alone cannot guarantee box-office success; the film still needs compelling storytelling, strong performances and effective execution,” he says. A theatrical release is expensive, so producers are favouring subjects they believe will find acceptance; the challenge is to keep that caution from becoming creative timidity.
When spectacle outruns story
The commercial question around Ramayana is whether reverence itself can become a reason to buy a ticket. Scale can turn a familiar story into a cultural event, but it also raises the cost of failure. Mahesh Mathai puts the creative risk plainly: faith and patriotism have long been part of Indian cinema, but making either more important than the story “is not going to work for very long.” For him, great stories are the only durable engine.
Sensitivities are part of the economics
Nahata adds a practical warning: creative liberties in sacred stories require care. One wrong move, such as making Ravan the hero and Ram the villain, could provoke controversy or calls for a ban. The audience may allow cinematic liberties, but only if they are exercised with visible understanding of the faith and its followers.
The emerging wager is that cultural attachment can be converted into a theatrical occasion. It has worked before; it is not guaranteed to work again. The films that endure will likely be those that respect the scale, the source material and the story in equal measure.
Source: CNBCTV18
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