Apart from his tried-and-tested genres, the director also banks on familiarity and star power
With a no-flop record, director Rohit Shetty’s filmograph is only going onwards and upwards. As many as eight offerings from the filmmaker have touched the Rs 100-crore mark. Trade experts are saying he is the only Indian director to have eight consecutive Rs 100 crore films.
The latest entry is Ranveer Singh-starrer Simmba that is still running in theatres and pacing rapidly towards the Rs 200 crore target.
Shetty is known for formulaic films and has worked around either action dramas or comedy flicks. His last offering Golmaal Again emerged as the highest grossing Bollywood comedy of all time. According to a Box Office India report, a Bollywood news portal, even after inflation-adjusted numbers of older films in the same genre, Golmaal Again stands at the top.
Other films in the Golmaal franchise — Golmaal Fun Unlimited, Golmaal Returns and Golmaal 3 raked in Rs 29 crore, Rs 51 crore, Rs 108 crore, signalling that the comedy genre for the director has always proved fruitful.
Apart from making people laugh, the director believes in making larger-than-life films. And this explains the big action sequences that are usually a part of his movies from this genre. What’s more? It is the amalgamation of the two categories that is seen as the success recipe for the director. Business of films like the Singham franchise, Chennai Express (Rs 207 crore), Bol Bachchan (Rs 100 crore) and Dilwale (Rs 139 crore) back this assumption.
Shetty also banks on another factor, apart from his tried-and-tested genres, and that is familiarity and star power. He has worked more than once with Shah Rukh Khan and Ajay Devgn and the latter also played a cameo in his latest venture Simmba. Devgn’s presence in the latest release stems from the idea of offering India’s own extended cinematic universe to the cine-goers.
The director is working on creating a whole cop universe while planning to develop Simmba series as a parallel to the crossover universe of Singham.
Despite having a difficult relationship with film critics, it is popular opinion and box office collection of his blockbusters that make Rohit Shetty one of the most successful directors of the Indian film industry.
In 2019, cinephiles can enjoy another Rohit Shetty production from the cop universe. In Simmba, the director officially announced his next venture, Sooryavanshi, featuring Akshay Kumar as an anti-terrorist squad (ATS) officer.
