Twitter
Advertisement

How Shah Rukh Khan's 'Dilwale' trailer showed us everything that's wrong with Bollywood

When you think about it, the 'Dilwale' trailer looks like a mash-up of a Romeo-and-Juliet-meets-Josh on Fast and Furious cars in front of Windows 98 wallpapers.

Latest News
article-main
File Photo
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

Whew, it’s been two days since Shah Rukh Khan spammed everyone who's ever interacted with him on Twitter, with the Dilwale trailer. At first glance, the trailer looks amazing. But when you really think about it, you realise it's just a mash-up of Romeo and Juliet meets Josh on Fast and Furious cars in front of Windows 98 wallpapers (hat tip to Twitterati). Blogger Arnab Ray commented: “Even an Amit Shah speech fills me with greater anticipation.”

Frankly, the trailer, in 3:17 minutes, demonstrates everything wrong with Bollywood. Here are some things that struck me: 

India is very, very, very tolerant

On his 50th birthday, Shah Rukh Khan held forth on the topic that has been hitting headlines in the nation for a while – intolerance. Frankly, the unstinting way the audience tolerates the mediocre fare that Bollywood dishes out, should re-assure SRK about the nation’s extremely high tolerance levels and should’ve been a point used by Anupam Kher and co. during their ‘tolerance march’!

There are zombies among us

It seems like half the people in this nation are now zombies without the ability to think. Don’t believe me? Just check any of the first responses any star receives from their fans on social media. It’s hard to believe that there are real, evolved Homo sapiens with opposable thumbs that are actually typing those comments. That also explains why people are willing to dole out their hard-earned money to watch whatever movie that Bollywood puts out, despite knowing fully well that it will be horrible. 

The Khanploitation of Bollywood

Ever since Salman Khan's Dabangg became a hit, the Bollywood fraternity came to the conclusion that to make a movie a hit, they'd require a Khan or a Khan-lite (Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Hrithik Roshan), an item girl, a Honey Singh party song and high-budget fight sequences. It doesn't matter how good the plot is or how well it is executed, the audience will constantly flock to the hall simply to see their favourite star.

Reports of people willing to dole out Rs 750 to watch Salman Khan seduce someone 20 years his junior, can only evoke responses like this PRDP dubsmash.

Also Read: (The dummy's guide to promoting a Bollywood film)

Selling the same story 

The only good thing about the Dilwale trailer was the chemistry between SRK and (a surprisingly white-washed) Kajol. The saving grace is that at least SRK is romancing someone age-appropriate in a long time. On the other hand, we have to again endure Kriti Sanon (who tortured us along with Tiger Shroff in Heropanti) and Varun Dhawan who will again try to convince us that he is menacing like he tried in Badlapur.  

The Great Spam Story

There was a time when the marketing of a movie was reserved to putting up a couple of posters and releasing the trailer. Now the promotion of a movie has many specific stages like first look, first trailer, first annoying hash tag (#PRDPinTheatresTomorrow and #Fastest9MViewsDilwaleTrailer) and the first time it made Aamir cry, so that by the time it actually hits the screens, we're too sick to actually see it. The release of the trailer saw Shah Rukh Khan taking spamming to a whole new level when he decided to tweet to every single individual on the face of the earth. 

It's sad, because we know how good Shah Rukh Khan can be. But the changing face of Bollywood means we will probably never see performances like Darr, Chak De! India or Swades because producers are too scared to risk anything, which is ironic considering the Khans could probably sell anything if they wanted. 

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement