Bollywood Superheroes Still Have A Long Way To Go. Know Why

Hindi cinema has a lot to offer to the world. There is no other film industry in the world offers a full-fledged package of romance, drama, action, comedy, songs and dance in a single film, stars some of the world’s best-known faces, and rakes in millions in the form of box office collections.

However, Bollywood is yet to master the concept of superheroes. While many big-budget movies have brushed with this concept, like the Krrish series, Ra.One and the least famous one being Drona, it’s sad to state that they are nowhere close to their Hollywood counterparts in handling the fantasy genre with ease.

While India is home to several comic superheroes like Nagraj, Dhruv, Tiranga and Doga, the cinematic part is left untouched by magical hands that can uplift the stand that Bollywood superhero films can hold in international galleries. When we look at Hollywood, superheroes like Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Ironman and the rest of Avengers enjoy a cult fan following in the whole world, and financially, the movies do very well, while the market for Indian superhero films is limited to Southeastern Asia.

Even in India, sensible cinephiles refrain from watching these Bollywood superhero movies, and rely on Friday releases and channels like Star World to air international movies of the same genre. The reason, one might say, is that in Bollywood, even the superheroes have to sing songs in their free time, when they are not running on water or dodging bullets with their hands.

Talking of the genre, both Bollywood and Hollywood love the idea of superheroes showing off their superpowers or mean machines while saving humanity from some impending troubles. However, what Hollywood shows is far different from our in-house movies, because while their superheroes are majorly protectors of earth, our superheroes have a lot of family drama to deal with before they can think of saving people.

With the poster of the upcoming movie The Flying Jatt, starring Tiger Shroff as a desi superhero, released yesterday, we are sure that the path to perfection is far from being paved. Tiger Shroff, one of Bollywood’s most ‘in-shape’ actors, wears a blue and yellow costume, with a large insignia of the Sikh religion pasted on his chest, signifying that the movie would also touch religious angles; yet again falling for the demands of a particular section of society rather than trying something new to cater to the emerging, more sensible class of Indian audience.

This exactly might be the saving grace for Indian filmmakers; that the Indian audience is not yet completely ready to accept great superhero films, and are happy and content with what gets served to them in the form of international movies. This is because a majority of Indian audience still likes to whistle when a superhero saves a school bus from drowning, which sadly is not the case in Hollywood superheroes who merely fight with aliens and scientific geniuses.

The minor class of Indian movie audience which is a fan of better superhero movies would have to wait for a long time before they can boost of good-quality superhero movies made in their own country.