When NTR Jr, one of the two high-energy stars of RRR and a hero with a crazy fan following of his own, signs up to play the antagonist to Hrithik Roshan in War 2, it’s an ack- nowledgement of changing dynamics on two fronts. One is the winning mix of an almost-invincible name from the South with a Hindi film hero to energise the commerce. The second is the renewed belief that stronger the antagonist, more powerful the face-off.

It was perhaps the canny Rakesh Roshan who understood the additional thrill a hero would bring if he played the antagonist. After casting routine villains like Amrish Puri and Rajat Bedi in Karan Arjun (1995), Koyla (1997) and Koi... Mil Gaya (2003), RR finally broke new ground when he put together Krrish 3 (2013). Realising the value of hero vs hero, he signed up Vivek Oberoi and Kangana Ranaut to take on Krrish. In fact, he’d taken a lot of trouble to cast the right girl as the shapeshifting Kaya. Names like Chitrangada Singh and Jacqueline Fernandes were considered but RR was clear he needed a pencil-slim heroine who’d fit into the bodysuit of Kaya.

Understanding the need to be different and veer away from scowling faces who’d done villainy all their lives, RR went on to cast real-life brothers Ronit and Rohit Roy as the baddies in Kaabil where Hrithik played a blind man.

“I like to cast antagonists who are talented, physically fit and presentable on screen. It’s they who drive the screenplay,” agreed RR, spelling out the importance he gave to baddies.

Today, it’s become the norm. When John Abraham plays Jim the ruthless killer in Pathaan and Vijay Sethupathi, the heavyweight from Tamil cinema, stands up to SRK in Jawan, it is Hindi filmmakers acknowledging that you’ve got to give as much thought to the opponent as to the hero for showdowns to pack a punch. Commercially, two heroes in one film is also the safety padding filmmakers look for today.

This trend is different from the upright but angry young cop of Zanjeer (1973) who became a full-fledged anti-hero with Deewaar (1975). Or from Joker in The Dark Knight (2008), where the criminal mastermind was designed to fascinate. The darkness of Dracula and serial killers has its own audience. But long before Hollywood’s Joker, our very own Subhash Ghai had done it with Khalnayak (1993), where the villain played the title role. Aditya Chopra too produced the Dhoom franchise with much success, where John the pizza delivery boy, Hrithik the suave thief and Aamir Khan the circus entertainer were the main criminals who overshadowed Abhishek Bachchan the good cop.

Being bad has been good for ageing heroes too, like Sanjay Dutt, who got a new lease on life after Agneepath (2012). He is still playing antagonists, like in KGF2 and the South superhit Leo. Bobby Deol, who lost stardom early in life, said even his mother’s friends found him hot when he turned sleazy in the web series Aashram. Playing villain to Ranbir Kapoor in Animal gives an unexpected extension to Bobby’s acting career.

But it doesn’t always work. Emraan Hashmi was not presented with menacing panache to make an impact in Tiger 3. Unlike Ranveer Singh in Padmaavat and Saif Ali Khan in Tanhaji who added colour as fiery antagonists. But with Arjun Kapoor signing up as villain in the next instalment of Singham, it’s a formula that will be around for a while.

Of course, there is always the odd exception. This year, it came from Sun-ny Deol and director Anil Sharma who didn’t even have a strong opponent like Amrish Puri in Gadar 2 but delivered a genuine blockbuster. I guess when the inimical force is a country called Pakis- tan, the potent sentiment works better than any flesh-and-blood badman.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and author