Once again, it was a flop show by the men reporting on the business of films. Looking at the bleak September collections of Hrithik Roshan’s Vikram Vedha, they had theorised that remakes do not work anymore, more so if the original is avai- lable on an OTT platform.
Within weeks of their much-aired wisdom, Ajay Devgn’s Dhrishyam 2 sailed in. It was the remake of a Malayalam film released just last year and was also running successfully on Amazon.
How then did the crime drama bring the audience back, breasting Rs 100 crore collections in its first week?
Upsetting the dire analyses of the trade, Drishyam 2 is a clear box-office earner even if its reported cost is Rs 90 crore, half of which would be Devgn’s fee.
Feeling upbeat, he rationalises, “Drishyam is a very successful franchise. For seven years, ‘What happened on Oct. 2?’ has been a buzzword with the audience and they were waiting for the sequel.”
In the same month of November, 31 years ago, the same actor had proved the bookies wrong when he’d ridden to fame astride two motorbikes with Phool Aur Kaante. All eyes were on Yash Chopra’s lavish and stylish Lamhe, starring Anil Kapoor and Sridevi. Nobody had betted on the unknown new actor. But he’d made cinematic history when there was a great upset at the box office with Lamhe fading out and Devgn receiving rave applause.
Since then, it has been an upward graph. It must be recalled that it was Devgn’s Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior which was Hindi cinema’s last genuine hit before curtains came down in 2020. Then, too, the film trade had declared that Rs 125 crore was too high a cost for Tanhaji to recover its investment — it made over Rs 350 crore.
It is a Devgn film once again that has brought cheer to the industry. There is an audible sigh of relief that moviegoers have overcome their mental block of not patronising Hindi films in the theatres. Last Sunday, while launching the trailer of Govinda Naam Mera, a colourfully dressed Karan Johar noted, “Now that the audience is back as we can see from Ajay’s film…”
Devgn himself cautions, “We need three to four more hits like Drishyam before that mental block completely goes away.”
Why didn’t his earlier films — Runway 34 (which he also directed) and Thank God — succeed?
“Runway 34 was appreciated but it was for a niche audience. As for Thank God, I didn’t like the film myself,” he remarks with frankness.
Devgn’s been like the adventurous rider who’s tossed off his horse but gets right back on the saddle. There was an eightyear gap between U Me Aur Hum (2008), the first film he directed, and Shivaay, his second. Runway 34 was released six years later. But Bholaa, the remake of the 2019 Tamil film Kaithi, has already announced a March 2023 release. He negates the horse- rider analogy, “We started shooting Bholaa in February, long before Runway was released.”
In Kaithi, a recently released prisoner fights ferocious criminals to save a truckful of poisoned policemen and races against time to keep his date with his little daughter who’s never seen him and awaits him in an orphanage. It had made more than four times its investment of Rs 25 crore.
Bholaa is more lavishly mounted in 3D. The staunch Shiva bhakt, whose bungalow in Juhu is called Shivshakti, has also added the personal touch of a powerful trishul to the action scenes.
As the father of a daughter in real life too, did Bholaa connect with Ajay on a personal level?
“Definitely,” he replies. “Somewhere there’s always a connect, it’s only human.”
Talking of daughters, Nysa, who’s been lately stepping out stylishly groomed, seems to be oozing signs of stepping into the line of her famous parents.
“She hasn’t told me that so far,” Devgn states. “Nysa is currently studying in Switzerland. For the next three years, it’s going to be studies. Let’s see what happens after that.”
Until then, there will be only sporadic bursts of glamour on social media as Nysa Devgan poses at parties with other celebrity kids such as Aryan Khan and Khushi Kapoor.
Author is a senior journalist and author
