Move over feminism and nepotism. There’s a new trend among Bollywood stars, it seems. Everyone is rushing in to compare their Bollywood films with Marvel’s Avengers now and ummm…lol why?
After SOTY 2’s Aditya Seal, recently Ajay Devgn was caught comparing Rohit Shetty’s Singham series to the Marvel Cinematic Universe of superheroes. Apparently his exact words were, “..it’s the same thing as ‘Avengers’.”
More of his exact words were, “Universes have a massive scope in Bollywood. Singham is a strong franchise and then Simmba has become another important series, and now if Sooryavanshi goes to become something like that, which I’m sure it will, it’s the same thing as Avengers. The film got such a big opening worldwide. Either you are an Iron Man fan or any other Avengers’, now that all of them came together for a film, one will definitely go. Every superhero’s fan would go, it’s as simple as that. If these characters also go on to become that strong, then people would wait for something like this. Having a good script is extremely important. If it’s not justified, anybody will fail.”
The Singham series may not be Avengers, but we can give Devgn that a good script is indeed important for any film or TV show. We will not judge the looming irony in his statement because, despite relying on tropes and cliches, the Singham series does have mass appeal and its own dedicated fanbase.
Another pertinent thing Devgn accepted, a shortcoming in a way for Bollywood, was its lack of as massive a budget as some of Hollywood’s more successful franchises. He noted, “The fact is that we don’t have budgets but have to compete with them. The work they do in one lakh rupees, we have to deliver it in Rs 100. The audience doesn’t care what your restraints are. They just see what is visible on the screen.”
He also pointed out that for Indians, cops are just as good as superheroes from outer space and genetic mutation to boot. “So we’re trying to make our world. We are taking it into a more realistic zone,” he said.
A few months ago rumours were also rife that Shetty is considering making another film in the Singham series but with a female lead this time around because Simmba has given him a taste for exploiting feminism, we are assuming.
Devgn was also quizzed about the same and asked who should step in to take on the mantle. He ended up contemplating, “Who cannot play? Any female actor can play the role. Any woman can play a cop. All our actresses are doing so well. All the new girls at least are doing so well – Deepika, Katrina, Kareena and anyone can do it.”
Honestly, we’re blown away with his in-depth analysis.
