POV: Diwali releases today just don’t hold the same hype they once did!

Festive season and Bollywood releases have become synonymous over the years, but have they really sustained the legacy they’ve built? Let’s discuss!

As a kid who grew up during the golden age of Bollywood aka the early 2000s, the bar for not just festival releases but content in general was pretty high. At a time when OTT wasn’t a thing, big screen releases and Friday to Friday entertainment was all people looked forward to! I remember the Diwali of 2007, when Sanjay Leela Bhansali introduced two newcomers, Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor with Sawariyaa. On the same day, Farah Khan introduced Deepika Padukone with Om Shanti Om alongside Shah Rukh Khan and the film went on to become a cult classic!

I watched both films on the big screen, one gave me all the Bollywood feels and the other did not have an intriguing story but nevertheless gave me a new actor to crush over. The excitement of it all made my family go to the cinemas twice that weekend and theatres were packed for both films. That’s the tradition I grew up on and as an avid cinema-goer, it was such a treat to see two films so different in nature, colour palette, music, aesthetics, all come to life in front of me.

But the tradition of keeping audiences hooked and bringing families together at the cinemas has been something that has existed since the dawn of time. Baazigar (1993), Andaaz Apna Apna (1994), were all Diwali releases that re-defined Hindi cinemas as we know it. But that’s not all! Aditya Chopra’s debut directorial, DDLJ to Karan Johar’s first film, Kuch Kuchh Hota Hai were all Diwali blockbusters that hold a very strong recall value even today! Even Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham opens on a Diwali day scene in the Raichand house and the visual of seeing that on the big screen back in the 2000s is cemented in my mind till date. Other movies like Hum Saath Saath Hain, Mohabbatein and the Golmaal series, continued to bring audiences to the cinema halls during the festive season as well!

Also Read: POV: If K-drama characters could RSVP to my Diwali party, I’d be sending out invites faster than a chaebol heir dodging feelings!

But with time and the growing hunger for content, the hype for Diwali releases just isn’t the same anymore. From a plethora of OTT platforms giving us easy access to movies today, to a swarm of new stories coming at us every week, it’s become rather overwhelming to keep track of everything. Having said that, blaming it all on OTT is not the only reason why Diwali releases aren’t passing the vibe check anymore. It’s no news that Bollywood has been at its lowest lately and box offices have been heavily banking on re-releases for almost two years now! 

What once was known as a ‘clash’ at the box office that had the audiences divided in two parts, has now become an opportunity for the makers to claim an entire festival for themselves. This year except for Ayushmann Khurrana’s Thamma, there’s nothing else to look forward to at the theaters on Diwali. Whether the story is interesting or not, with families coming together during festive season, the film already recovers most of its revenue and is touted as a success with little to no competiton.

And even when we do get two movies coming out on the same day, last year’s Singham Again and Bhool Bhulaiya 3 is proof enough to know that there’s little to zero thought put into stories. It’s all about bringing all of Bollywood under one roof with the pretense of expecting entertainment when it's really just another 'universe' in the making for some quick box office returns. There’s a fine line between brain rot and plain rot and lately our stories seem like they’re forgetting that! With festivals being all about families, these stories barely give us anything to relate to. I mean would you choose watching ABCDEFGHI on-screen and singing along or watch three hours of Ajay Devgn being Ajay Devgn? You take your pick!

Seeing the current state of cinemas today, it often makes me wonder if there’d ever be a Diwali again where I’m anticipating a movie more than the festival itself? Will future generations ever experience the magic of Bollywood like we once did? Time travel is a popular trope in movies, maybe it’s time we get to use that IRL to re-live the excitement of early 2000s Diwali releases yet again!

On that note, let us know what you think about festive releases lately!

For more entertainment, follow us on @socialketchupbinge