CutMirchi's coverage shows the money and the audience both pointing the same way, with originals surviving mostly on the margins.
CutMirchi's coverage over the past month does not show a single cause, but it does show a pattern: franchise films such as Dhurandhar and Drishyam: The Conclusion are posting numbers trade reports call extraordinary, remakes keep getting commissioned even when reviews are mixed, and at least one filmmaker has gone on record blaming the system rather than audiences for the flattening of stories (2, 14, 20, 5). The release tracker itself shows a Hindi slate still dominated by familiar genres, with Drama, Thriller and Comedy accounting for most of 44 tracked titles, leaving limited room to say originals are being crowded out in volume, even as the highest-grossing and most-discussed titles in this window are sequels or remakes(14).
The money keeps pointing at franchises
Koimoi's refreshed ranking of the top hundred Hindi grossers puts Dhurandhar, the 2026 release, at the top with a haul reported as Rs 1,186.32 crore, ahead of its own sequel at Rs 894.49 crore and the Hindi dub of Pushpa 2 at Rs 836.09 crore (14). Drishyam: The Conclusion added to that picture with what Bollywood Hungama's box office analysis called a Rs 174 crore opening weekend, pushing the three-film franchise's combined total to Rs 481.67 crore and putting it within striking distance of the top ten Hindi franchises by gross (20). When a franchise finale alone can add more than half of what its first two films made combined, as the report puts it, it is not hard to see why studios would rather fund a sequel with a built-in audience than gamble on something untested (20).
Remakes are being retooled, not retired
Remaking existing material has not gone away, it has changed shape. Priyadarshan's Haiwaan is described in The Hindu's review as keeping the blind-protector premise of his own 2016 Malayalam film Oppam while chasing bigger star turns from Saif Ali Khan and Akshay Kumar, though the review says the film does not earn the tension the setup promises (5). Koimoi's review of the same film called its plot's core idea "appetising bait" wasted by a script that cannot decide which of its two leads is the real protagonist (10). Meanwhile, Drishyam: The Conclusion took the opposite route, with Ajay Devgn telling reporters in Goa, "Hamari film ek dum alag hai," and confirming the Hindi threequel does not follow Mohanlal's Malayalam Drishyam 3 story at all (4). Mohanlal himself later sent Devgn a message calling it "a befitting end" to the franchise (25). Even Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Parinda has gone the other direction, turned into a Hollywood remake titled Broken Horses, released under a major American studio's banner, which Filmfare's report frames as a rare case of an Indian original becoming the source material rather than the copy (23).
A filmmaker on record blaming the system
Not everyone in the industry is comfortable with where this is heading. At an Editors Guild of India event, director Tigmanshu Dhulia argued that Dhurandhar's plot does not amount to a story at all, telling the audience, "There is a man who is an undercover spy, he goes to Pakistan and creates a ruckus there. This is not a story," while explicitly declining to comment on its box office performance (2). He went further, framing the film as a symptom of a larger problem, saying "Stories are over in films" and that storytellers and what they want to say are "not allowed to be made" (2). Dhulia made these comments while preparing his own dacoit drama for a ZEE5 premiere, a reminder that the people voicing this complaint are often still working within the same industry (2).
Franchises are moving to television and streaming too
The lean toward sequels is not confined to theatres. Dhurandhar The Revenge, the second chapter of Aditya Dhar's franchise, premiered directly on Star Gold rather than in cinemas, timed around the Dussehra period, with the report noting the first film had already pulled in 53 million viewers within four hours of its television premiere, a benchmark now driving expectations for the sequel (27). Student Of The Year, once a theatrical youth franchise under Karan Johar, is being remade as a JioHotstar web series rather than a film, with a source telling Bollywood Hungama the tone is being pitched as something that "has an audience across markets" (1). Vikram Bhatt's 1920 horror franchise is also continuing, with Anya Singh cast opposite her Border 2 co-star Ahan Shetty in its sixth entry, a reunion the makers reportedly pursued partly because that earlier film did solid business (7, 9). Mirzapur: The Movie, built from a five-year-old streaming franchise, is still adding new material to its theatrical run weeks after release, with Excel Entertainment and Amazon MGM Studios releasing a new song built around a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan couplet (12).
Originals have not disappeared, but their footing looks different
It would be inaccurate to say original stories are entirely absent from the coverage. Writer-producer Kanika Dhillon told Bollywood Hungama that the response to Gandhari has made her more convinced that refusing to follow a template is the right instinct, saying her stories are "always pushing the boundaries of black and white and grey zones" (13). Director Navjot Gulati described writing Pooja Meri Jaan from an original draft begun in April 2020, before it took on real-world resonance with the Rhea Chakraborty case (22). Vinod Kapri's Pyre, a quiet Himalayan drama with non-professional leads from Uttarakhand, is drawing backing from actors like Manoj Bajpayee ahead of its October 30 release (29). Krithi Shetty's Bollywood debut is also being framed, in Pinkvilla's report, as a deliberately low-key romantic film rather than a franchise tie-in or pan-India launch (26). These examples suggest original work is still being made and covered, even if it is not generating the box office numbers or trailer-launch spectacle that franchise entries are.
What the coverage does not tell us
This account is built from about a month of one site's coverage, which is a narrow window and skews toward whichever films and press events happened to generate stories in that period. The box office figures cited, including Dhurandhar's Rs 1,186.32 crore and Drishyam: The Conclusion's Rs 174 crore opening, come from trade estimates and box office analysis reports, not audited studio accounting (14, 20). The release tracker itself only covers a window of recent and upcoming films, not a full year, and its genre breakdown of Drama, Thriller and Comedy as the most common categories cannot by itself prove whether originality is rising or falling within those genres. Coverage of filmmaker statements, such as Dhulia's comments at the Editors Guild event, tells us an opinion was expressed and reported, not whether it reflects a consensus within the industry (2). Deeper causes such as studio financing structures, risk appetite among producers, or audience research behind greenlighting decisions are not things news coverage of trailer launches and box office tallies can show directly.
What to watch
Several decisions in the pipeline will test whether this pattern holds. Vikram Bhatt's 1920: Cold Winter, the sixth entry in his horror franchise, is set to start shooting in November with Anya Singh and Ahan Shetty (7). Pen Marudhar has paid over Rs 15 crore for the Hindi rights to Rajinikanth's Jailer 2, betting that a wider national release will succeed where the first film's limited Hindi run did not (19). Kaali Kheti, an original rural horror film from Haris Imtiyaz Khan, has been delayed from October 23 to November 20 (21). And Pyre's theatrical reception on October 30 will be one indicator of how a quiet, original drama performs against the franchise-heavy slate surrounding it (29).
Sources
- Student Of The Year Ditches Films, Becomes A Web Series, reported from Bollywood Hungama, Bollywood Hungama - Main Feed, Google News · Bollywood
- Tigmanshu Dhulia Calls Dhurandhar's Plot Not A Story At All, reported from Bollywood Hungama, Bollywood Hungama - Main Feed
- Drishyam: The Conclusion Drops Remake Tag, Ajay Devgn Wants Mohanlal's Nod, reported from Google News · Bollywood, The Free Press Journal, Hindustan Times Entertainment
- Priyadarshan's Haiwaan Trades Oppam's Tension For Star Wattage, reported from The Hindu Entertainment, Google News · Bollywood, Google News · Malayalam & Kannada cinema
- Anya Singh Signs On As Female Lead In 1920: Cold Winter, reported from The Times of India Entertainment, Google News · Bollywood, Bollywood Hungama - Main Feed
- Anya Singh To Play Female Lead In Vikram Bhatt's 1920: Cold Winter, reported from Bollywood Hungama
- Haiwaan Reviews Split Down The Middle Over Saif And Akshay, reported from Google News · Bollywood, Google News · World entertainment, Koimoi - Movie Reviews
- Mirzapur The Movie Adds A Love Song Mid-Theatrical Run, reported from Bollywood Hungama - Features, Google News · Bollywood, Bollywood Hungama - Main Feed
- Kanika Dhillon Says Gandhari's Success Frees Her To Take Bigger Swings, reported from Bollywood Hungama - Features, Bollywood Hungama - Main Feed
- Dhurandhar Reigns Supreme on Koimoi’s Top 100 Hindi Grossers, reported from Koimoi, India.com
- Pen Marudhar Pays Rs 15 Crore For Jailer 2 Hindi Rights, reported from Bollywood Hungama, Bollywood Hungama - Main Feed
- Drishyam Franchise On Brink Of Top 10 After 174-Crore Opening, reported from Bollywood Hungama - Box Office Analysis
- Kaali Kheti Delayed to November 20, reported from Bollywood Hungama, Bollywood Hungama - Main Feed
- Navjot Gulati Says Pooja Meri Jaan Predates Rhea Chakraborty Case, reported from Bollywood Hungama - Features, Bollywood Hungama - Main Feed
- Parinda 1989 Remake Broken Horses: Nana Patekar Movies Legacy After Death, reported from Filmfare
- Mohanlal Sends Ajay Devgn A Message On Drishyam The Conclusion, reported from Mathrubhumi English, Hindustan Times Entertainment, Hindustan Times
- Krithi Shetty’s Bollywood Debut Isn’t a Launch, reported from Pinkvilla, PINKVILLA
- Dhurandhar The Revenge Cast, Release Date, TV Premiere, CBFC Cuts, reported from Bollywood Hungama - Features, Bollywood Hungama - Main Feed, Koimoi
- Bollywood Giants Back Quiet Himalayan Drama Pyre Ahead of October 30 Release, reported from Bollywood Hungama - Features, Bollywood Hungama - Main Feed, Filmibeat
This analysis was written by CutMirchi's automated Analysis Desk from the stories listed above and from our release tracker. Figures are as those reports gave them; trade figures are estimates.
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