The by-gone decade has been revolutionary, at least in terms of the content that Sandalwood has started presenting. Of course, the industry in itself has been subject to a few interesting trends, ten of which we would be looking at in this article.
1. The ‘Neo-Noir’ way
Definitely, in the positive direction, western flicks have had their impact felt on our industry in this decade. Sandalwood filmmakers have become adept at this style, the product of which has been a few exciting flicks at the auditoria. The count is growing & we wish that just like Hemanth M Rao offered a unique version of this technique in 2019’s Kavaludaari, a couple of directors take an innovative route in the ‘neo-noir’ way.
2. ‘Thrillers’ to the rescue
Shivalinga, Aatagara, Rangitaranga & a couple of other films of this genre, ‘Thrillers’ have redefined Sandalwood’s content this decade. Newcomers are hardly wavering from this genre and, we expect that this trend would carry itself to the next decade.
3. Time=Investment
Money is one type of investment in movies & ‘Time’ is the other. The makers of KGF, Avane Srimannarayana and Kurukshetra executed both, especially the latter and came out with convincing results. For the big-budgeted flicks at least, this trend is set to continue.
4. Engineer-turned-filmmakers
Well, that’s the latest fad & thankfully, the likes of Rakshit Shetty, Hemanth M Rao & Adarsh Eshwarappa have set the right example. So then, will production houses now become the latest player in campus placements?
5. The Sequel-Syndrome
KGF Chapter 2 – Awaiting, Mungaru Male 2 – Okay to an extent, but the likes of Victory 2 & Adhyaksha in America flopped at the box-office. Yes, it is easy with the characters already etched, but then, these characters got to be Rocky & Preetham for starters.
6. Diversified Protagonists
That’s a positive shift & something that is taking us back to the ‘Golden Era’ of Sandalwood. A bald man, a ‘torch’ bido huduga, Gaddappa & many more, this is exactly what we expect from an industry that witnessed the movies of Puttanna Kanagal & Shankar Nag in the past.
7. Evolving star-heroes
While Shivanna has completely surrendered himself to experiments, Puneeth, Darshan & Sudeep have started adorning their ‘commercial’ movie careers with a few new interesting subjects now and then. Be it Kurukshetra, Pailwaan or even Mythri, the stars have understood the audience’s demands.
8. BGM, not the same as before
The impact is not the same. While visuals have saturated themselves, to elevate them, BGM has been extremely important. This has defined a few movies like Rangitaranga & Ugramm this decade and of course, ASN is the latest example.
9. The ‘Multi-lingual’ Market
This has begun in the latter part of the decade, thanks to the massive success of KGF Chapter 1. Darshan, Sudeep & Rakshit Shetty have followed suit and it may not be a bad idea to do that in the future as well.
10. Parallel Cinema & Mainstream Cinema coming closer
A Bald Man’s love-story might have been the fancy of Girish Kasaravalli, but then, this movie enjoyed a decent commercial success. So did Gantumoote & of course, the village-comedy Thithi. The ‘divide’ is narrowing down & hopefully, Sandalwood can benefit from this.
Do you have anything to add? If yes then please let us know in the comments below.Â
