Bollywood projects in limbo amid financial challenges, unpredictable box office

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Several Hindi films starring popular actors have made little progress since their announcement, and continue to remain in cold storage, as producers struggle to find OTT buyers and are unsure of what will work at the box office.

While a big-budget period drama like Karna, which was to feature Suriya and be directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra has been shelved, several others like Sony’s Shaktimaan trilogy, Ranveer Singh’s venture with Tamil director Shankar, and Kartik Aaryan’s film with Dharma Productions are yet to be taken to the floors. Producers do not wish to take the risk of filming without finalising a streaming platform as a buyer, which has meant that a number of projects have fallen by the wayside.

“A lot of high-budget films, especially those requiring heavy VFX (visual effects) work started out with great ambition, but the makers soon realised the effects would need skill and expertise for which there weren’t adequate budgets. Especially with the kind of fee A-list stars demand, the projects just weren’t viable," said a senior film producer, declining to be named.

The producer added that while studios had done mental calculations on how much the stars and production would cost while making announcements, VFX expenses ballooned in the process of pre-production, making recoveries seem impossible. A similar challenge has hit the future instalments of the Brahmastra franchise that were also announced, but haven’t made progress.

“Currently, producers aren’t finding the cost model at which these films can be made," the producer said. To be sure, entertainment industry experts emphasize that not all shelved films belong to the larger-than-life spectacle genre, but this category