The Failure of ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ (2022): I am one of those people who have a soft spot for Bollywood’s good remakes of old Hollywood classics. Wait, before the cinephile community proceeds to cancel me, considering all the free makes that Bollywood has been churning out to make money when I say good remakes, I mean the ones that pay respect to the original. My appreciation towards Bollywood’s remakes of old classics also stems from the awful remakes that the West makes of Korean, Japanese, and various other country’s movies.
It is the fear of one-inch barriers in Hollywood that gets me. Hollywood knows most Western audiences don’t like to read while watching a film. So, they just remake non-English films in the hopes that this time around, the general public won’t get to know of the original. They don’t honor the original in any way. That’s my real beef with how Hollywood does remakes. All my favorite remakes honor the original in some way, shape, or form.
Anyway, this is why I tend to have a soft spot for Bollywood’s remakes of old Hollywood classics. Even though there are only a handful of good remakes Bollywood has made, they definitely pay respect to the original in some way or another. Despite this, I was highly skeptical of “Laal Singh Chaddha.” Don’t get me wrong, “Forrest Gump” is one of my all-time favorite movies, but I thought there wasn’t a way to get the remake right in a year like 2022 when times have changed so much, and Aamir Khan, in his 50s, was set to portray a character’s journey from his college years to old age.
However, to my surprise, the film won me over because of its sheer earnestness. I laughed and cried, my heart warmed up, and most importantly, I was reminded of the Bollywood I fell in love with as a child. After watching the film, I was almost 80% confident that it would make huge numbers at the box office. It had everything going in for it in terms of a commercial hit.
However, the movie’s failure completely caught me off guard. After learning about its fate at the box office, I pondered what went wrong with it. For a fleeting moment, I was in disbelief that such a sincere piece of filmmaking bleeding with Bollywood’s sentimentalism – despite being a remake of a modern Hollywood classic – tanked badly at the box office. The failure of “Laal Singh Chaddha” is nothing but a depressing moment for Bollywood that makes me extremely concerned for its future. Now, you must wonder, why am I even thinking so highly of a Hollywood classic remake’s failure so much? Well, let me try to elucidate my stance in a refined and elaborate manner.
The Failure of ‘Laal Singh Chhadha’ Makes Us Question the Volatile Taste of Indian Audience
It’s no-brainer that the Indian audience has a highly volatile taste. This same audience makes a propaganda-infused A-rated film like “The Kashmir Files” a smash hit and, at the same time, deprives inventive and highly entertaining films like “Merry Christmas” of any box office success. So, it is highly possible that this volatile taste of Indian audiences came in the way of the box office success of “Laal Singh Chaddha.” This is a hard pill to swallow for a person like me because I grew up watching highly emotional Bollywood films that raked in big box office numbers. I always have a hard time understanding the Indian audience.
The volatile taste of the Indian audience is a classic example of the chicken and egg paradox. Is it the industry that feeds its audience junk? Or is it the audience that demands to be fed junk? I don’t know who started it, but it is something worth contemplating. And it is not like “Laal Singh Chaddha” is some high art that demands a lot of intellect. It is a perfectly accessible mainstream Bollywood movie that embraces sentimentalism so that it gets the most number of eyeballs. Yes, it has a protagonist who has a low IQ and mumbles his way through life, but then it also has good emotional sequences to make the audience shed some tears. I fail to understand our audience’s needs sometimes.
Have people stopped embracing vintage Bollywood anymore? Will stories with emotional weight and big production houses no longer perform well in Bollywood? Do mind-numbingly generic blockbusters only satiate our audience? These are the questions that keep bothering me after Laal Singh Chaddha’s crashing failure, but unfortunately, there seems to be no easy answer to any of these questions.
Boycott Trends Influence Box Office Reception in ‘Modern Bollywood’
I agree that “Laal Singh Chaddha” is not a perfect movie. In fact, it is the farthest thing from a perfect film. It is highly schmaltzy, emotionally manipulating, and propelled by a somewhat weak lead performance. However, despite all this, it has its heart in the right place. And there was a time when the Indian audience was a sucker for these kinds of films. I mean, what other explanation can be made for the spectacular successes of Karan Johar’s films in the early 2000s, the movies that were nothing but festering cauldrons of cheese and schmaltz? But this is modern Bollywood we are talking about.
In modern Bollywood, if there’s one thing that has substantially influenced the box office collections, then it’s the boycott trend. Unfortunately, “Laal Singh Chaddha” couldn’t steer clear of this trend and bite the dust because of it. With the release of “The Kashmir Files” in March 2022, the religion-based propaganda in the nation was at its peak. To make the situation even worse, a statement by Kareena Kapoor that was deemed arrogant and asking people not to watch the film if they don’t want to went viral all across the internet.
I was one of those people who used to think that the boycott trend had absolutely zero merit and could never influence the box office collections of a movie. However, the fate of Laal Singh Chaddha gave me this crushing realization that boycott trends can indeed affect a movie’s numbers and irrevocably ruin its reputation. Well, I suppose this is modern Bollywood, and for all unfortunate reasons, we must learn to live with it.
Aamir Not Busting Blocks Anymore is Agonizing to Witness
In recent times, Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” and “The Fabelmans” became box office failures. The box office fate of both these movies completely depressed me as he was the guy who very much realized the notion of blockbusters in Hollywood. Aamir Khan holds the same reputation in Bollywood. Whether it’s a remake of “Memento” (“Ghajini”), a book adaptation (“3 Idiots”), or a biopic (“Dangal”), with each of these films, Aamir has proved his mettle as the most dependable box office star. His movies not only made big numbers at the box office, but they also provided the audience with high entertainment and messages wrapped in humor. Now, for whatever reason, Aamir is not busting the blocks anymore. “Laal Singh Chaddha” didn’t benefit from the star power of Aamir Khan in the slightest.
Although I am not one of those people who worshipped at the altar of Aamir Khan, it is agonizing to witness his string of failures in Bollywood. “Thugs of Hindustan” was a poorly made movie through and through and deserved to fail at the box office. However, with “Laal Singh Chaddha,” Aamir had everything in his favor; the movie was riding high on emotions, his character was loveable, and there was a lot to chew on emotionally. Yet, the audience didn’t show any love to the movie. You could give multiple reasons for its failure, but no reason can properly justify it.
In a recent interview, Aamir said that the movie failed because his performance was too “high pitched,” which caused the movie to go all over the place. But this definitely isn’t a fitting explanation for the movie’s failure. While Aamir did overact a bit in the film, it cannot be the sole reason for its failure. It is definitely the amalgamation of boycott trends, the volatile taste of the Indian audience, and bad marketing of the movie.
Is Bollywood Leaning Towards Cynicism?
The failure of “Laal Singh Chaddha” only suggests one thing: there is little scope for emotional stories in Bollywood. And with the spy universe and other mind-numbingly generic as well as problematic blockbusters like “Animal” flourishing, it is highly possible that cynicism will take over Bollywood soon, and the vibrancy and warmth of Bollywood that used to give it a distinct flavor will cease to exist. I am the last guy to tell anyone how to consume art.
People are free to vibe with what moves them. But, there’s one thing that cannot be denied: the high illiteracy in the masses when it comes to what gets popular or duplicated. So “Laal Singh Chaddha,” a genuine love letter to “Forrest Gump,” gets ignored and tanks at the box office, whereas generic action movies that are indistinguishable rake in millions. This is nothing but a depressing moment for Bollywood and only suggests that the industry’s future is teetering towards bleakness.
