Opinion: Is Bollywood going down the Franchise Route?

Think of a Bollywood film that was a blockbuster this year that got fame and money. Stree 2? Singham Again? Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3? Well, what is the one thing that all these films have in common? They are all part of a franchise and have a universe of their own. But this has turned into an obsession, something Bollywood loves to do.

Whether it is comedy or thriller, they have leaned into the idea of franchises a lot, especially over the past few years. And why won’t they, the audience loves it. Indians are the biggest gossipers in the world because we want to know what happened next, even if it has ended, and that’s why we have television serials that go beyond a thousand episodes.

There’s nothing wrong with franchises because it lets the audience have more of their favourite characters and plots. It also helps the producers to make good money. After all, it's easy to get the audience back by using the characters they love. However, the problem arises when you realise that the pilot or the first film of the franchise is never made to turn the story into a franchise. Look at Singham Again, Bhool Bhulaiya, Race, Dhoom, Don, and others, but the first films of these franchises are complete and independent, and it’s after their success that the producers get greedy to make more profits.

This means that the story for the rest of the franchise is made on a whim, which gives birth to a bad plot and unsatisfying sequels. On the contrary, we have films like Stree, Pathan and Bhramastra, which are franchises planned out strategically. Stree was a standalone movie, but they thought of other standalone films like Bhediya, the upcoming Thama, which can be woven together to make a Monster universe. The same goes for Pathan and the Spy Universe. But the best is the Ashtraverse, which is planned as a franchise from the start.

While it has its monetary benefits, it also has long-term consequences. The Indian audience is already very much into films of Marvel and DC, and they know crossover events will happen. So, it would be hard for Indian franchises to reach that level, but even if they do, there will be a saturation of franchises and universes. Just go a few years back, and there were no franchises, and now there are at least 5, and soon there can be more. This could overwhelm the audience, and they would not be able to enjoy it since all films would be interconnected, and skipping one means not understanding the next. 

If you notice, many Hindi films are now ending their movies on an open-ended scene, just to pick it up from there if the movie works and they can get a franchise out of it. You can see this happening in South Indian films, where each film has multiple sequels.

Overall, it’s obvious that Bollywood will continue to make sequels and prequels, building universes and franchises, till they squeeze out the very last bit of creativity out of it. But by that time, the audience would not be able to go back to independent films.

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