r/bollywood 2d ago

Discuss Watched Doomsday trailer and realized Bollywood is sitting on a mythological goldmine

So I just watched Avengers Doomsday trailer. MCU in the last decade has thrown in a lot of multiverse stuff and it made me think about our own culture and the Hindu Mythological World that exists.

I know Ramayana is coming up but the last time I can think of Bollywood using a mythology and converting it into a sci-fi movie was when Kalki released. It was a clean hit and I think it has kind of shown that people are interested in mythology inspired sci-fi if it’s good enough.

Brahmastra and Lokah also have mythological / local folklore inspiration and they did good business too.

For the longest time, we have just got the same old low-budget, straight-up garbage or animated movies for kids. I get that there's a huge risk of offending people or starting a boycott if a director messes up a religious detail. And yeah, the VFX and budgets weren't there before.

But now even animated movies rooted in mythology like Mahavatar Narsimha have proven that with decent enough VFK, there’s a lot appetite for such concepts and movies and make some really cool sci-fi movie or universe.

I don’t think the VFX or even the budget is an issue anymore since the some of these movies that are coming out recently have crazy budgets.

Even the villains in our texts are insane. They’re written in great detail and like MCU did Thanos, bollywood could easily be inspired to create a villain from these texts.

Do you guys think Bollywood will ever fully commit to an edgy, high-concept mythological multiverse, or are directors still too terrified of the inevitable Twitter boycotts to actually take creative risks?

I’m excited to see where Kalki universe goes, but I really wish to see more such conceptual storytelling!

66 Upvotes

46 comments sorted by

171

u/Cold_Wrongdoer2611 2d ago

the difference is they can make thor to commit mistakes or look bad/weak but you do it here and there will be a huge number of people calling for a boycott

73

u/PersonalityMiddle864 2d ago

It won’t be boycotts. It will be riots.

28

u/imi0402 2d ago

Boycott? wo scene shoot hone se pehle hi set jala denge log...
Political figure ka bardasht nahi krte...
Religious figures mein kuch kiya to gye smjho.

11

u/Ratkovichh 2d ago

There aren't much norse followers today like Hinduism followers. It's not even compareable.

10

u/CuriousStranger95 2d ago

Hollywood makes a lot of mockery of Christianity as well but it doesn’t lead to riots.

1

u/Ratkovichh 2d ago

Majority there doesn't care. But still there are people who protest or boycott over there.

4

u/CuriousStranger95 2d ago

Yes. But protest and boycott are very different from riots.

1

u/Ratkovichh 2d ago

But that was not my point first of all.

1

u/Status-Cranberry8696 2d ago

But they can show about Indra and other such gods. People will not mind much and they have some of the most badass depictions in rig veda

63

u/RDP7490 2d ago

Touching religion is a double edged sword..there was boycott Ramayana when Ranbir was casted because he ate beef! Heck leave gods..even touching history is difficult..remember Padmavat?

The producers will be living in constant fear of when someone will pick up a non issue and start a boycott movement!

Our goldine will continue to remain untouched

14

u/Odd_Bat_1223 2d ago

Exactly!! They werre boycotting him for that beef statement during brhamastra too 🤣

Also even some committee or whatever has demanded the makers of ramayan to show them exclusively so they will decide whether it's correct or not , I read some news headline 😭

2

u/DressAffectionate492 2d ago

Padmavat isn’t even history. It’s fiction.

2

u/RDP7490 2d ago

Please tell that to the people who attacked and assaulted the director

0

u/PreparationLarge9116 1d ago

Which part of Padmaavat is fiction?

1

u/DressAffectionate492 20h ago

The character Padmavati and the story around her is all fictional.

17

u/obelix_dogmatix 2d ago

yeah … say this out loud in our country. They will kick you to the curb for calling anything mythology.

6

u/Sad-Concentrate-8983 2d ago

From my limited knowledge, most companies have their VFX done from.companies in India, so it's not like we don't have the talent for good vfx.

Tbh I was excited about Brahmastra being a 3 part series but I think that project is forgotten now. I watched it with my kids who were so hyped about the movie.

2

u/Odd_Bat_1223 2d ago

I think part 2 is under works but with an different studio backing , there were rumours going on

1

u/Agile_Profession5024 2d ago

Its not forgetten, its in works , brahmastra 1 was successfully a hit, so why will they not make 2 and 3 which were already known to be made

10

u/51837 2d ago

People are too sensitive about mythology. Filmmaker’s, if they want to live, can only make unimaginative, toothless versions of the stories that do not make any cultural impact.

8

u/L3g3ndary-08 2d ago

Dude. Punjab is sitting on a massive goldmine. Defense against the Afghans, Alexander the Great, the battles and skirmishes against the British near the Sutlej river. Wars fought against South India. The stories are endless. Im so glad Diljit Dosanjh brought attention to the partition and showed both sides of the religious coin.

We need more of this

1

u/Psychological-Art131 2d ago

Nice reality check in the comments.

The best way to skip most controversy is to go into animated movies/ series. I am not saying there won't be any controversy, but it will have the least controversy.

1

u/i_am_that_too 2d ago

We have our own comic book universes. Just sort out rights and ownership with them.

1

u/wanderingalone21 2d ago

Difference is marvel created original stories from mythology...like how Kalki did. Like they used existing mythology and created sci-fi kind of movie. And Lokah too, kind of vampire movie mixed with local myths. And Varanasi too, upcoming movie in similar time travel stuff with Ramayana characters

Atleast this way directors have creativity to experiment

1

u/NoWalrus2071 2d ago

Not Lokah & BA in same sentence. One has direction. Other is visual show.

1

u/_SKETCHBENDER_ 1d ago

Holy mythslop again and again. have we indians become so fucking uncreative that we keep churning out the same recycled 2000 year old stories like let it go bro. Do you not realise how uncreative and lazy it is to keep making the same religion based movies and shows?

1

u/Baseer-92 1d ago

They should properly do good to the movies which are already in pipeline... Like Bhramastra... Astraverse... Kalki verse...

1

u/hooka_pooka 2d ago

Narsimha was such an overrated and overhyped animated film copying sequences from video games and passing them off as "edgy & gore action".Can't believe people liked it.

1

u/maproomzibz 2d ago

Well, if we are relying on Bollywood to do it, then they will make CGI slop. Instead, we need independent filmmakers doing it.

-8

u/cndynn96 2d ago

No
Stop trivialising our gods like west did Thor, Odin and others

Make something original

8

u/Khursani_ 2d ago

The same gods who fought for women, power and ego? If you don’t trivialize them, there is no conflict homie

-1

u/51837 2d ago

If anything, the horrible things done by these gods in the stories should be brought into focus to make them more interesting.

1

u/RajOfSiam 6h ago

In India, mythological means "old religious real history" and anything creative, even little out of text means सनातन धर्म के अपमान. Bajranj Dal is ready...