2023 saw big commercial films like ‘Pathan’, ‘Jawan’ and ‘Animal’, while 2024 is all about film going back to its roots. If the most successful films of this year have proven anything, it’s that Indian audiences wanted a glimpse of culture and roots on screen. ‘Stree 2’, ‘Shaitan’, ‘Kalki 2898 A.D.’, ‘Munjya’, ‘Laapata Ladies’ – most of the critically and commercially successful films of this year have one thing in common. That they are stories taken from around you, either something you grew up hearing, or something that lets you taste our soil.

IndiaToday.in spoke exclusively to industry experts to understand what changes have taken place this year. Director Aditya Sarpotdar, whose film ‘Munjya’ turned out to be a surprise hit by grossing over Rs 100 crore at the box office, said the mindset of the audience has changed. He said people want to experience the feeling of going back home with these stories.

“Let’s go back home”

The director said, “In the 80s and 90s, we wanted to watch films that showed us Switzerland and exotic places. That was our aspiration. We wanted to go there and live that kind of life. We wanted that kind of big experience for ourselves. Today, we have people who are living that kind of life. The audience can access all these places. They are going abroad and living that kind of life. So what is the aspiration now?”

He said audiences are now attracted to simplicity in cinema and want to seek familiarity on screen. “It’s a way of going back to the roots. I meet a lot of people who work and they are always excited to talk about their hometown, to go back to their hometown. They want to see their culture and pass it on to the next generation. They miss it and they want it represented in cinema,” he said.

Aditya also added that the audience has become vocal for the local, and they appreciate such representation on the big screen. Talking about the success of ‘Munjya’ and how its local story drew audiences to the theatres, the director said, “One thing that has really worked in our favour is that we have stayed true to the narrative and the story and not diluted it with business logic like ‘you need a star or a well-known face’, ‘you need a certain number of songs’ or ‘you need a very popular narrative rather than a regional one’.”

He further added, “Our language is local, our characters are very local, our casting is local too, and our story is very grounded. So, it’s all very unconventional and not your quintessential ‘industry-like’.”

“We understand the realities of India”

For Niren Bhatt, writer of both ‘Stree 2’ and ‘Munjya’, the key lies in accepting who we are and where we come from. In an interview with us, he highlighted that writers and filmmakers don’t need to go out in search of stories. He said that anyone who is born and brought up in India is a product of the culture and its vibrancy and that’s where the stories come from.

He said, “I come from a small town. I am connected to my roots. I am from Bhavnagar, a small town in Gujarat. I grew up in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. We come from such places and simple backgrounds. We understand our culture. This is our world, it is not outside. People in the film industry who have grown up in certain areas are not aware of the realities of India. We have lived in these cities all our lives. It is natural for us to bring it into our stories. If we don’t write about our experiences then what else will we write about?”

Niren said one of the reasons behind the huge success of Stree 2 and the entire supernatural universe created by Maddock Films is the story being so rooted. “We understand how rooted our culture is. Even in this supernatural universe, you see, wolf, slithering Or Woman – They are all deeply rooted in our culture. They are like characters from folklore, our ‘Grandma’s stories‘ And our fairy tales. We based our stories on that.”

The same formula applies to ‘Kalki 2898 A.D.’, where director Nag Ashwin reimagines the post-apocalyptic world from the lens of Indian mythology and combines it with science fiction. While the film looks like a big-budget, large-scale, action drama, it is essentially a story about characters and legends from the Indian epic Mahabharata that we have heard in nooks and corners during our childhood.

Even films that have been successful on OTT, ‘Missing Ladies’ and ‘Maharaj’, among others, are deeply rooted in Indian ideologies and old ways. Of course, some stories successfully question these ways and attempt to improve our society, but they do not work in the absence of culture. In fact, they almost celebrate us, our values ​​and even our acceptance of changes in these values.

We instantly connect with films with stories straight out of mythology, folklore and childhood books, like ‘Panchatantra’. Perhaps that is why most of the films that have achieved ‘timeless’ status in the last few years are based on Indian values ​​and have stories that speak to our hearts. Native Heart.