Chaos Cinema has taken over movies over the last few decades. It is a never-ending crescendo of flair and spectacle. It’s a shotgun aesthetic, firing a wide swath of sensationalistic techniques that tears the old classical filmmaking style to bits (Steven Shaviro, 2016). 

Movies franchises like Fast and Furious, Marvel & DC Comics, Need for Speed, Mad Max, among several others are examples of chaos cinema. And while these are all Hollywood films, nobody quite does chaos cinema better than India. The Indian film industry, financially speaking, runs on that concept, for Indians enjoy action sequences like no-one else. 

In fact, looking at the top 10 highest-grossing Indian movies of all time, six can be classified as chaos cinema, and the percentage only increases as we swim further. 

Chaos cinema probably peaked in India, and more specifically Bollywood between 2007 to 2015, after which there was some much-needed experimentation. In 2010, for example, Indians were greeted to movies like Veer, Dabangg, Raavan, Once Upon a Time in Mumbai, Badmaash Company – all of which ran on the same themes of adrenaline-inducing action sequences, highly improbably chases and consequences, and a superhero-esque lead character. 

Comparatively, 2011 was much better, with only Ra. One, Don 2, Ready, Singham, and Bodyguard on the film reel among popular movies. By the time 2015 hit, though, Bollywood had reduced its production of chaos cinema significantly. Instead, fans were greeted with depth of genre with movies like Lootera, Lunchbox, Queen, Drishyam, Dil Dhadakne Do, Piku, Pink, Dear Zindagi being released between 2013 and 2016. 

There was a lot of reason to experiment, too. The new age of movie stars wanted to break the reputation Bollywood has had for years for creating one-dimensional movies. But more importantly, fans wanted much more than the same-old romantic-action recycled rubbish on the big screen. Therefore, these movies explored themes of psychology, therapy, mortality, mystery, unfulfilled romance, and much more. 

And while most of these ended up becoming cult classics, claiming that they were box-office hits would probably be a lie. Unfortunately, the experiments ended as the money did. 

By 2019 – for a number of reasons, Bollywood was back to square one. Movies like War, Article 15, Badla, Kalank, Batla House graced screens that year. Movies involving war and the Indian army, especially started to strike a chord with the viewers, so it did not take long for B’wood to double down on that front. For context, over the last four years, India has released at the very least seven movies involving wars, armies, and historical(ly inaccurate) battles. 

Further, Bollywood has also resorted to making sequels and remakes of old movies to stay on the safer side of things. This is due to a number of reasons. Before the pandemic, when the industry was far from open to experiments, and the movies did not work, they still fetched enough money to pit in other projects or call it even. However, as audiences stopped attending movies altogether, Bollywood had to resort to their comfort zone. Themes that work, movies that have been hit before, and actors who already have an existing huge fanbase. 

This is not to say India does not, or has not been, producing ‘good’ movies. But that the audience for the same is extremely small at this point. To the extent that filmmakers often have to take their ideas and scripts on to OTT platforms, where the risk – and reward — is much lower. 

REFERENCES:

1. Shaviro, Steven (2016). Post-continuity: An introduction. https://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/post-cinema/1-2-shaviro/
2. David, Samrudh (2022). Highest Grossing Indian Films. https://www.imdb.com/list/ls063771441/

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Written by Udhav Arora (33766290)