Bollywood movie titles are becoming embarrassing to say out loud

From Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri to a plethora of other films, movie titles are getting more and more unhinged by the minute and it’s time we talked about it!

There was a time when telling someone which Bollywood film you were watching required no hesitation. You could say it casually at a ticket counter, to a neighbour in the lift, or to a relative who asked what you’d been up to over the weekend. Today, that same question can cause a pause for many reasons. Because somewhere along the way, Bollywood movie titles stopped being something you could comfortably say out loud. This isn’t about prudishness or longing for nostalgia. It’s about a growing awkwardness, the feeling that the title itself tires you out before the film does, often relying on innuendos or slangs that feel less bold and more juvenile. 

Back in the early 2000s or as I like to call it the golden age of Bollywood, I felt rather excited to discuss movies with anyone and everyone I could. There was Om Shanti Om, Kal Ho Naa Ho, Wake Up Sid, Swades, Parineeta, Chak De! India, the list can go on! The titles not only made sense but also felt good to say out loud and brought out the emotion the film wanted us to feel even before we watched it! The title of your film is the first thing that the audience gets to know and the last thing they will remember it by! So how is it that over the years, such little thought is put into something so crucial to a film?

Also Read: Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri review: For how long will Bollywood piggyback on the success of what once worked?

Now we have titles like Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri, Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Waala Video, Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar, Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya, Sunny Sanskari ki Tulsi Kumari, Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat amongst a sea of other embarrassing titles. Since when did we normalize making the title as long as the film and am I seriously expected to say these titles out loud? No one has the time or patience in today’s time to commit to getting these titles right in one go! Bollywood has never shied away from emotion or sensuality. Older titles managed to convey desire or intimacy without spelling it out. They trusted metaphors to do their jobs. Even when films were bold, their names carried a certain linguistic elegance, compared to today’s trend of blunt phrasing and wink-wink wordplay! The cleverness has been replaced by volume. Where titles once invited you in, now often become the reason to contemplate going to the cinema halls at all!

The irony is that movie titles are meant to travel by word of mouth. They’re meant to be spoken of excitedly, proudly, casually. A title you can’t say comfortably is a title that has already failed a basic test of connection. Maybe it’s time Bollywood realizes an ‘off beat’ title does not always mean it’s a progressive film.

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