Franchise loyalty finally broke the jinx. It was the year’s most hectic week so far with Akshay Kumar’s Khel Khel Mein (remake of the Italian Perfetti Sconosciuti/Perfect Strangers), John Abraham’s Vedaa (caste atrocities topped with endless action) and the horror-comedy Stree 2 clashing at the box-office and cashing in on the long Independence Day weekend. Additionally, Srijit Mukherjee, Aniruddha Guha and Rohan Sippy plonked Conan Doyle’s detective in Bengal, signed Kay Kay Menon to play him and gave Sherlock Holmes a Bengali avatar in the OTT show Shekhar Home.
One went cross-eyed watching so much but it was the horror-comedy universe of producer Dinesh Vijan that was the clear winner, emerging victorious even before Stree 2 was released. Opening collections of over ₹50 crore are unheard of in these bleak times. Neatly budgeted at ₹60 crore, the Rajkummar Rao-Shraddha Kapoor starrer is poised to breast ₹200 crore within 10 days. It’s the bonus earnings of a franchise that endeared itself to its audience six years ago, leading to the creation of a horror-comedy universe.
Of course, Rohit Shetty must be given the credit for India’s first cinematic universe with his Singham-driven cop galaxy where khakhi-clad heroes (Ajay, Ranveer, Akshay, Tiger et al) swagger in and out of one another’s films, entering in the nick of time to pull a colleague out of distress. For contemporary gender balance, Deepika Padukone has also come on board as a kickass policewoman.
YRF followed with its spy universe led by SRK, Salman and Hrithik. Now Alia Bhatt too, toplining the banner’s first female-centric spy thriller Alpha. Alpha has two other interesting elements. It’s directed by Shiv Rawail who had earlier helmed The Railway Men, a successful series on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. Shiv is the son of director Rahul Rawail (who launched Kumar Gaurav’s career in Love Story and Sunny Deol’s in Betaab) and the grandson of H.S. Rawail (Mere Mehboob and Laila Majnu). It makes Shiv a third-gen director. Alpha also features Sharvari Wagh, who made her big screen debut with YRF’s Bunty Aur Babli 2, a box-office dud that proved every hit cannot promise a successful sequel. Sharvari was earlier seen in Kabir Khan’s The Forgotten Army, a web series on Subhas Chandra Bose’s INA. Fortuitously for her, she has not just survived but is actually thriving. After effervescent performances in Munjya, Maharaj and the recent Vedaa (where she, and not John, has the title role), the granddaughter of a well-known politician-businessman is here to stay. Sharvari’s maternal grandfather Manohar Joshi was the first CM of Maharashtra from Shiv Sena and a Lok Sabha Speaker as well.
Speaking of lineage, Rajkumar Hirani has got over the disappointment of Dunki, the one film that didn’t have his trademark message-wrapped-in-humour, and has locked his next script to his satisfaction. Meanwhile, he’s also been keeping an eye on son Vir’s acting career. Raju who once flirted before the camera in ads like the Zor lagake haisha campaign with an elephant for Fevicol, was initially thrown by Vir’s decision to become an actor.
After graduating from RADA, London, Vir has been active in Mumbai, making his debut in the play Letters of Suresh directed by Feroz Abbas Khan. With a charming personality, Vir plays young student Suresh, skilled at origami. Perhaps a metaphor for the letters folded and unfolded between him and a priest in Japan. Relieved after watching Vir’s performance, Raju invited his close gang of Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani and Dia Mirza, also Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Anurag Basu, Sriram Raghavan and others to see the play. Incidentally, Sriram has been busy wrapping up Ikkis, his film with Dharmendra and Agastya Nanda. The director of thrillers like Badlapur (2015) and Johnny Gaddaar (2007) is always on the hunt for fresh, young talent.
