Why Patriotic Films Are Not Working In Bollywood Now?

Previously with films like Alia Bhatt’s Raazi, and Vicky Kaushal’s Uri working out big time at the box office, Bollywood immediately shifted gears to producing a lot of patriotic films that are centred around real stories of army personnel. However, barring Adivi Sesh’s Major, no other film that banked on real incidents has worked out big time.

In recent times, Vicky Kaushal’s Sam Bahadur, Kangana Ranaut’s Tejas and now Hrithik Roshan’s Fighter, were all woven around real incidents, real lives of men and women from the armed forces, but they fell flat at the box office. At a time when ‘The Kashmir Files’ worked, sadly ‘Fighter’ is centred around the Pulawama suicide-bomber attack which killed 40 soldiers, didn’t appeal to the audience. These films that are woven around the real incidents sound like mere documentaries, but the lack of drama and lack of focus on the real elements of patriotism is said to be the culprit here. Except for top-notch actor combinations, the films are offering nothing new on the screen.

Whether the taste of the audience has changed, or these filmmakers are not living up to the expectations will be another discussion that gets triggered when these films are being discussed. Surprisingly, there are a dozen more patriotic films in the pipeline that are being readied to hit the box office soon, including Varun Tej’s Operation Valentine, and the fate of such movies hanging in the balance now.