Why Bollywood doesn’t appeal to people with a wide spectrum of movies watched? There is a very ‘logical’ reason behind it. Requirements: Read it till the end open-mindedly.
My first point of reference to portray it would be the list of highest grossing Indian movies in India as of now:
In this list, the utter mediocrity level movies are abundant such as Dhoom 3 on 6th, Dilwale on 11th followed by Kick and Happy New Year on 13th and 15th places respectively. Seriously? A highly mediocre and plagiarized version of Fast and the Furious is the 6th best movie Bollywood has to offer?
If this is the kind of movies that make moolah, why should a Vishal Bhardwaj or an Anurag Kashyap invest into one with substance? Why slog hard to make good, original music when no one cares if you rip-off an Asian artist, or an African one? Why focus on honing one’s acting skills when all you need to land a movie role is a pretty, manicured face and a good, toned body?
Why?
Unless there is a reaffirming answer to the above questions, this industry will continue to churn out dull, uninspiring romantic flicks, prep them up with the same, formulaic songs, and the coming generations of the Kapoors, and the Khans, and the Roshans will keep laughing at the naivety of us Indian movie-goers, while stroking each others’ egos on Koffee with Karan.
Another point here would be,
One big thing Bollywood misses is the Method acting style of performance. I have to step down and say it, Bollywood actors have become too accustomed to a luxury life to even put in a little effort for the role they are in. Shia LaBeouf took acid for Charlie Countryman, Heath Ledger locked himself in a hotel room for about a month to prepare for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight, even Jared Leto did. That's dedication. Tearing off your branded clothes on the set isn't. I've seen tons of Bollywood movies to say that in 90% of the roles, the actors seem as if they didn't even understand the character they were playing. Seriously, think of it.
Also, the lack of good actresses
Kahaani, The Dirty Picture, and Queen were the last movies with female lead characters, were box office hits and were pretty darn watchable. Guess who has the most Academy awards in Hollywood? Katharine Hepburn - an actress. There are tons of other brilliant actresses who can dynamically lead and totally conquer a leading role in a movie in Hollywood. Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Hilary Swank, are just to mention a few. The purpose of an actress is to act, not to dance an item number or to play the damsel in distress being saved by the hero. Female actor industry has made their topmost requirement as good looks over good acting moving actresses such as Bipasha Basu and Parineeti Chopra going higher and higher in the charts with wonderful method actresses such as Richa Chadha trailing behind.
And finally,
What is the basic necessity of any movie? Yes, a plot. Bollywood seems to forget that totally. It seems like a 10-year old got an amazing idea to write a book, got bored and ran out of thoughts in the middle and somehow managed to end it with plot holes so big that the Hulk could fall through them. A movie is a process.
A man comes up with an idea. Pens it down. A director finds the idea and realizes that he can put it on the giant screen. People fit for the character in the story are found. They try their best to adhere to the needs of the story. The cinematographer films. The editor edits.In Bollywood, a man with some money wants to make some more money. He finds the best selling actor in the market at that time. Even though, his persona doesn't fit the character at all. He finds the hottest girl who will be willing to shed a few threads off her body. Add in an item song. Cinematographer only rotates the camera around her boobs and butts, and viola, we have a weekend blockbuster.
Bollywood needs a serious jolt to the head to wake up. For that, we need to educate the masses. Education is the answer to 99% of India's problems, and, fortunately, Bollywood is one of them.
NOTE: Maximum portion of the article is taken from various answers about the questions related to the topic on Quora, the rights belong to the respective writers and not me. I only stitched these answers because I thought I should promote this topic and widen the audience reading this phase of the subject.
