A giant leap of sequels in Bollywood

Although Satyajit Ray was among the earliest filmmakers to come up with a franchise Apu trilogy someone it was Hollywood which make the concept increasingly profitable Even today not a year goes by without one having to gawk at the astronomical figures Western franchises register on a global scale Well 2013 saw a giant leap in the world of Bollywood sequels with 10 releases so far and Dhoom 3 about to hit the theatres HitList checks how each one of them fared both commercially as well as critically 39Shootout At Wadala39 Director Sanjay Gupta Verdict Shootout franchise is gradually gaining hold After much delay its second installment opened to favourable critique for Anil Kapoor and an unfavourable one for John Abraham the respective hero and the villain in the movie Kangna Ranaut felt left out Nonetheless the film did work decently well at the box office 39Krrish 339 Director Rakesh Roshan Verdict We used to lack superheroes on the big screen And then Krrish walkedhellipflew along actually The rest is a mystery There was no doubt that this action sequel had shades of characters we had seen earlier in Hollywood ventures but who cared It went on to become Hrithik Roshanrsquos biggest blockbuster ever 39Race 239 Director AbbasMustan Verdict This actionthriller centred on a heist opened to negative responses from the critics but the masses would have none of them As a result it became the first entrant of the fabled 100 crore club in 2013 By the end of January it made it way too obvious that a franchise is meant to translate into profit Anyhow 39Aashiqui 239 Director Mohit Suri Verdict A complete surprise package Even today the melodies from this tragic love story are bound to greet you as ringtones and call tunes When it released this summer the critics were divided about the overall film but the two leading actors won hearts and the music shouldered the rest of the responsibility 39Murder 339 Director Vishesh Bhatt Verdict Gone are the days when desi filmmakers claimed to be inspired by blindly lifting angrezi plots Nowadays itrsquos a standard practice to buy the rights and adapt The Bhatt camp did the same with the official remake of Colombian thriller The Hidden Face It won few hearts and made considerable moolah 39Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns39 Director Tigmanshu Dhulia Verdict The director who is known for writing his own films didnrsquot have an exceptional year but compared to his latest venture Bullett Raja the sequel from March scored far better The critics were kinder and the film made moderate business as well But still it couldnrsquot match his previous Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 39Grand Masti39 Director Indra Kumar Verdict Whoever said that only Shah Rukh Khan and sex sell needs to add crass to the list This sleeper hit of the year dared crack some of the most vulgar jokes we ever heard in our cinema halls With a guaranteed A certification it went on to cross R100 crore in domestic revenues alone Not bad Not bad at all 39Satya 239 Director Ram Gopal Varma Verdict The less said about this effort the better Maybe all the director had to do was scrap the idea from the word go But he didnrsquot and we were left with an unsavoury residue of a film that was trying to match the original Letrsquos just hope that this charade ended here itself leaving no space for Satya 3 39Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara39 Director Milan Luthria Verdict When Akshay Kumar appeared in a teaser commanding complete attention from the audience because according to him films are made with a lot of struggle He was absolutely right However this wasnrsquot that movie In hindsight its prequel scored better in almost all the departments 39Yamla Pagla Deewana 239 Director Sangeeth Sivan Verdict Some sequels shouldnrsquot take place no matter what This debacle was certainly one of them To its discredit Yamla Pagla Deewana was at least funny Even though the sequel shared the adorable Dharmendra amongst the protagonists the cinematic disaster lacked everything associated with a passable script Make and break gtgt Oldboy a Hollywood remake of a Korean cult released last week to much criticism Hindi cinema too saw a couple of remakes this year with mixed results gtgt Featuring three funny guys and a cute girl in lead Chashme Buddoor earned mixed reactions but quite a lot of box office returns gtgt Zanjeer starring Ram Charan and Priyanka Chopra reiterated what the purists have been screaming since time immemorial Donrsquot mess with the classics gtgt It takes foolhardiness to resurrect a film like Himmatwala which itself was a remake of a Telugu film And then miserably fail at it gtgt An official remake of a Tamil venture Policegiri garnered little praise from the critics but more than just broke even at ticket counters gtgt Ramaiya Vastavaiya signaled director Prabhu Dhevarsquos return to his directorial debut as the Hindi film was a remake of his Telugu filmu00a0