Crossing 100 Crores mark has become more of an unusual craze in Bollywood. Many movies frequently pass this benchmark and conquer the 200, 300 & 400 Crores title. Grossing 100 Crores has become an effortless and regular task. We as individuals have this strange habit of declaring a movie, hit or flop, judging upon its earnings. When your movie has star cast like Salman Khan or Shah Rukh Khan, the success is guaranteed irrespective of the storyline. The stars have such a great fan following that even if the movie is next to shit, it will be a hit on the box office.

What do we like to watch? Romance, Comedy and Salman Khan, that’s it. No other genre succeeds as much as them in Indian cinema. If such a movie doesn’t reach the 100 Crores mark, it still manages to earn a respectable amount. Then the critic in us comes to life, why the fuck Indian cinema doesn’t make good movies? Producers and directors make what sells in the country; they make what guarantees them a good profit i.e. romance and comedy. We go, watch and contribute to shit.

Undoubtedly, Bollywood has given us some seriously good quality movies, Gangs of Wasseypur, A Wednesday, Raman Raghav, Masaan, Udaan etc. But why these movies failed to gross a whopping amount like the rest of the movies. There’s this dialogue from Gangs of Wasseypur, “Jab Tak Iss Desh me, Cinema Hai, Tab Tak Log Chutiya Bantey Rahengey”. And yeah, movie critics are also bribed to create unnecessary hype.

So, here’s the basic formula to create a 100 Crores movie: A good star cast, Glamour, 2-3 item songs, cheap and illogical exaggerated comic scenes, double meaning jokes and a story in between if possible. If you go to watch a movie and look for something that would help you learn and inspire, you would end up empty-handed most of the times. Most of the movies are produced as an opportunity to convert black money into white. Hardly matters if the movie even made any profits or not, they will still display enormous revenue, pay off the taxes and convert the outstanding percentage as white. Hence, they care too less about the movie’s content or its quality.

Our actors and actresses are moving towards Hollywood. It isn’t that they are not getting any more opportunities here; they are getting an opportunity to make our nation proud worldwide. Or maybe because they have realised that doing an art film won’t be respected in their home country. Then there’s this guy, Akshay Kumar, astonishing the audience with each movie in the past 2 years. Delivering 6 movies in a year is not necessary but giving one class piece of the act is appreciated. The young blood of this industry should understand the impact their movies can make in a person’s life. Bollywood is more than just a money-making industry.

Here are some reasons to debate why Bollywood can never be compared to Hollywood:

• Each Indian movie has a song for every occasion and mood. Lyrics that may sometimes express each emotion. However, in Hollywood, there are no or very few songs (that too in the background) unless the movie is of the musical genre.
• Bollywood is a big-money industry. With approx. 1,000 movies released each year, the industry is growing by each passing day. The revenue of Hindi cinema reached $4.5 billion in the year 2016 itself.
• Bollywood is way behind Hollywood if we talk of technology. In fact, these two are literally incomparable. We doubt if Bollywood could even come close to Hollywood after 10 years to what Hollywood offers today. Comparing special effects and animation, can you compare Zootopia/Star Wars with Ra One? We guess you already have an answer.
• Bollywood lacks originality. A majority of producers shy away from experimenting with scripts. A large number of Indian movies have been inspired or are rather copied from several Hollywood movies. If they don’t copy one, they would make a remake or sequel to some old/Tollywood hit. There is always scope for creativity and movie such as 3 Idiots, Gangs of Wasseypur, Sholay etc. have been a huge success.
• There is too much drama. Tooooooooo much drama, which is not so common in Hollywood.
• Firstly, you are made to see a shitty storyline. Secondly, this shit goes on for 2-3 hours. Too much torture for any sound non-Bhai fan. The duration of any standard Hollywood movie ranges between 90 to 126 minutes.

One of the most real and war actors that ever stepped in Bollywood, Nawazuddin Siddiqui articulated his displeasure with the current Indian film scene and said that there is a need to advance further in terms of creating stimulating content. Nawazuddin is one of the few adaptable actors who have portrayed inspiring and considerable acts in various movies. He courageously acknowledged that saleable movies bait filmmakers more than a message-based movie. In a recent interview, he quoted, “It is not that parallel or content-based films are a new thing in the industry. I don’t think much has changed here. Even earlier, there were great films made by directors like Tapan Sinha and Gautam Ghose. I do not find any massive improvement in terms of filmmaking in Bollywood. I think we still have a long way to go till the time cinema is seen as an art by thousands of people. It is not just for a niche audience. So, films should have such a quality that it can be enjoyed by everyone. It should be all-encompassing”.

However, where there are negatives, there are positives as well. Consider how many movies are produced each year and how big this industry is, Bollywood employs lacs of people. The people are actors, producers, directors, assistants, stuntman, distributers, cameraman, drivers, choreographers, dancers, theatre staff, owners etc. A big ecosystem of people relying entirely on the industry.

To conclude things, here are some of the facts about Bollywood you didn’t know before:

• Director, Subhash Ghai make a cameo in all of his films.
• Mughal-E-Azam was shot in Hindi, Tamil and English. The Tamil version flopped miserably.
• Initially, actor Amjad Khan was rejected for the role of Gabbar as his voice sounded too weak for the role.
• Amitabh Bachchan is so punctual that he used to open the gates of studios himself as he used to arrive at the sets even before the watchman or gatekeeper.
• Mohammad Rafi was a big boxing fan. On his tour to Chicago, he requested the organisers to get him to meet Mohammad Ali. Ali agreed and proceeded to meet Rafi in his hotel room.
• Dharmendra charged on Rs. 51 in 1960 for his debut movie “Dil Bhi Tera, Hum Bhi Tere”.
• The first choice for Shah Rukh’s role in “Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge” was Saif Ali Khan.
• Ranbir Singh's “Rockstar” was shot in reverse order as the makers didn’t want to disturb Ranbir’s hairstyle.
• The first Hindi movie ever to have two intervals was “Mera Naam Joker”.
• Hrithik Roshan once placed an order of 50 books on ‘How to Stop Smoking’ and then donated all of them to his pals.