What 2024 has in store for Hindi Cinema

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Last week, we looked at the 10 most-anticipated Indian films as assessed by the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). The list comprised only 4 Hindi films—Fighter, Singham Again, Welcome to the Jungle and Bade Miyan Chote Miyan. At that point of time, there was also the forthcoming release of 2024’s first theatrical release, Merry Christmas. But there is much more coming from this year in terms of interesting projects.

Next Up

Up next on January 19 is Main Atal Hoon, the first biopic of this year, which features Pankaj Tripathi as the late Prime Minister and poet, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The film is directed by Marathi veteran Ravi Jadhav who has made award-winning Marathi films like Natarang, Balak Palak, Timepass and Balgandharva and also the recent Hindi web series, Taali. This film looks extremely promising due to the heady combination of this stalwart filmmaker and the lead actor.

Sequels Once More

Sequels, by now, are a tried-and-tested genre largely in Hindi cinema. In 2023, six sequels had worked out of nine, but this time, we have as many as eight sequels lined up, of which the biggest—Singham Again, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan and Welcome to the Jungle—have already been mentioned in the last feature.

The six others include the newly-launched Raid 2, featuring Ajay Devgn, Vaani Kapoor and Riteish Deshmukh. The 2018 film, Raid, inspired by true events like the sequel, was a worthwhile experience on the bravery of Income-Tax (Revenue) officers and this one promises a similar tale.

The 2010 film, Love Sex Aur Dhokha gets a sequel in Love Sex Aur Dhokha 2. Directed and co-produced by Dibakar Banerjee with Shobha Kapoor and Ekta Kapoor of Balaji Telefilms, the movie has Bigg Boss 16 fame Nimrit Kaur Ahluwalia and an Italian actress, Rossana Elsa Scugugia in the cast. The earlier film had been Rajkummar Rao’s debut movie.

Stree 2 repeats Rajkummar Rao with Shraddha Kapoor and this 2018 hit that trounced co-release Yamla Pagla Deewana: Phir Se at the box-office is again directed by Amar Kaushik for producer Dinesh Vijan. Tamannaah Bhatia joins the team in what is hoped will be a true sequel—that is a continuation of the story. Besides original composers Sachin-Jigar, the film also has music by JAM8 and Badshah.

In Dono…Metro is a sequel-in-spirit to Life…In A Metro. Directed by Anurag Basu, the ensemble cast includes Anurag favorites Aditya Roy Kapur, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Pankaj Tripathi with Sara Ali Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma and Ali Fazal. T-Series co-produces the film with music by Pritam.

Another biggie is Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, which repeats director Anees Bazmee with Kartik Aaryan. Naseeruddin Shah, Sara Ali Khan and Elnaaz Nourosi co-star in this T-Series co-production.

Akshay, Ajay to the fore

Akshay Kumar, apart from the three films (Bade Miyan…, Welcome and Singham Again) mentioned earlier, will have his normal quota of four lead releases. One is the Soorarai Pottru remake co-starring Radhika Madan and Paresh Rawal and directed by Sudha Kongara. He will also star in the aerial action drama, Skyforce, directed by Sandeep Kewlani and Abhishek Kapur (not to be confused with Abhishek Kapoor of Kedarnath fame).

Ajay Devgn, besides Singham Again and Raid 2, will feature in           his home production, as yet untitled, with R. Madhavan and Jyothika. The movie is directed by Vikas Bahl. Also anticipated is the multi-decade love story, Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha! with Tabu and Jimmy Sheirgill. Neeraj Pandey, again one of our foremost directors, returns to the big screen after the web triumphs of Special Ops and Special Ops 1.5. The film has music by National- and Oscar-awardee M.M. Kreem, returning to pure Hindi films six years after his one-song enterprise, Missing, which was also a Neeraj co-production.

Long title again

And another long title coming up is Teri Baaton Ne Aisa Uljha Diya, a future-based romance that features Dharmendra along with Shahid Kapoor and Kriti Sanon. Directed by debutant filmmakers Amit Joshi and Aradhana Sah for Dinesh Vijan and Jio Studios, this film releases on February 9. Sachin–Jigar, Tanishk Bagchi and Mitraz score music.

Behind the scenes

Aamir Khan and Anil Kapoor are producing women-centric movies in which they do not star. Aamir’s film, Lapataa Ladies, features Ravi Kishan, Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Shrivastava and Chhaya Kadam and is directed by his ex-wife Kiran Rao.

Rajesh Krishnan directs Tabu, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Kriti Sanon with Diljit Dosanjh in Anil Kapoor’s production with Balaji Telefilms, piquantly titled The Crew.

The Dharma offerings

Along with Yash Raj Films and T-Series Films, Dharma Productions is easily the leading banner, also known for multiple star-protégé gifts to cinema. And now Numero Uno Alia Bhatt stars in quirky director Vasan Bala’s Jigra with Vedang Raina of The Archies.

Dharma Productions is also co-producing the Rajkummar Rao-Janhvi Kapoor comedy, Mr & Mrs Mahi, that is being helmed by Sharan Sharma. The third Dharma film is Yodha, which is directed by another duo—Sagar Ambre and Pushkar Ojha—and stars another Dharma protégé like Alia and Janhvi—Siddharth Malhotra—with Disha Patani and Raashii Khanna. This is a co-production with Amazon MGM Studios. Karan Johar and Hiroo Johar co-produce all these movies.

And there will be more to come. Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Ranveer Singh (apart from the Singham Again cameo) and Ranbir Kapoor may also make it to the screen as parts of quickly made films. As also several as yet unannounced projects will come, along with more pan-Indian South releases.

2024 is bound to be an exciting year again.