Bollywood Asianculturevulture vibes: Arijit Singh fans lament; ‘Border 2 fires’; ‘Dhurandhar’ online controversy
Our bird in Mumbai reports on why India’s most prolific and popular music artist is stepping away from films, the latest box office blockbuster and why the $100m cinema spy action thriller’s online release has drawn criticism…
By Rodrigues C
MUMBAI is chilling, literally.
It’s been a while since the city has witnessed cold weather this long.
The chills start in Mumbai usually in January but this year it was in December that we witnessed the mercury drop.
As for Bollywood, it’s been a one-hit wonder month as filmdom prepares for a busy year ahead after the end of the festivities.
Arguably, the biggest news of the month was the retirement of playback singer Arijit Singh, who is huge when it comes to Bollywood songs.
The 38-year-old announced the news on Instagram and there was instant outpouring of grief on social media and Bollywood circles.
Well, everybody is talking about it on social media and news articles here, purely because of the fame Singh enjoyed in the country and among Indians abroad.
Take this for example, with 171 million followers and 58 million monthly listeners Singh is the most followed artist on Spotify, 21 million more than Taylor Swift, who of course is much more popular the world over.
Singh first gained eyeballs when he appeared on the reality show ‘Fame Gurukul’ in 2005 but it was the 2013 hit ‘Tum Hi Ho’ from ‘Aashiqui 2’ which brought him into the limelight.
Over the years, he delivered hits such as ‘Channa Mereya’, ‘Agar Tum Saath Ho’, ‘Raabta’, ‘Kesariya‘, ‘Tujhe Kitna’ ‘Chahne Lage’, ‘Satranga’ and ‘Tainu Khabar Nahi’ and sung as many as 700 tracks in languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and Telugu. Singh’s last released song as a playback singer was ‘Matrubhoomi’ from Salman Khan’s upcoming war drama ‘Battle of Galwan’. The song was released to coincide with India’s Republic Day (January 26).
Singh hails from the Indian state of West Bengal which goes to polls later this year and there is now talk of the singer entering politics by launching his own political party.
In 2025, Singh entered the record books by becoming the first ever Indian artist to headline a UK stadium concert; he performed to 50,000 ecstatic fans at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which was his only show in Europe last year and www.asianculturevulture.com covered it. (See link below).
In 2024, he had shocked his fans at London’s O2 Arena by performing Perfect with Ed Sheeran on stage. Later on, the duo collaborated on the hit ‘Sapphire’.
In terms of movie releases, Sunny Deol’s war epic ‘Border 2’ has been making waves at the box office.
Released on January 23, the sequel to JP Dutta’s 1997 hit ‘Border’ has already amassed a massive £28.5 million fortune worldwide.
The film opened to a rousing £2.3m on its Friday release. This was followed by £2.8m on Saturday and £4.3m on Sunday.
It’s now the third highest grossing Republic Day movie in India behind Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Pathaan’ and Deepika Padukone’s Sanjay Leela Bhansali directorial ‘Padmaavat’.
The Anurag Singh directorial, which also stars Deol, Varun Dhawan, Diljit Dosanjh and Ahan Shetty is now competing against Rani Mukerji’s much-publicised ‘Maradaani 3’ which started its theatrical run on January 30.
Among South Indian movies, the Chiranjeevi-Venkatesh-Nayanthara Telugu action comedy, ‘Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu’ has minted £12.3m after its January 12 release. The film is made on a paltry £2.2m budget. The third biggest hit of the month, ‘Anaganaga Oka Raju’ also hails from the Telugu industry or Tollywood as it’s called here. Featuring Naveen Polishetty and Meenakshi Chaudhary in the lead roles, this comedy had now collected well over £5m globally. The best part, the film is budgeted at just about £634,000 making it a hugely profitable venture.
February’s most awaited movie is Vishal Bhardwaj’s Shahid Kapoor-Tripti Dimri-Nana Patekar-Tamannaah Bhatia-Disha Patani action thriller ‘O’Romeo’, which is based on Hussain Zaidi’s ‘Mafia Queens of Mumbai’. The February 13 release has virtually no competition at the box office for the entire month and can have a free run till March if audiences like it.
Other movies of the month which deserve a mention include ‘Do Deewane Seher Mein’ with Siddhant Chaturvedi and Mrunal Thakur and Bejoy Nambiar’s, ‘Tu Yaa Main’ with Shanaya Kapoor and Adarsh Gaurav.
A lasting thought, the mega hit ‘Dhurandhar’ premiered on Netflix and is facing massive backlash from fans in India because it’s been censored.
Many dialogues have been either muted or altogether deleted from the movie.
The duration of the original theatrical release stood at 3 hours 34 minutes – one of the longest in Bollywood’s history – while the small screen version is 3 hours and 25 minutes, nine minutes shorter. In a nutshell, ‘Dhurandhar’ on Netflix is a disappointment for many.
Till next month, Bollywood asianculturevultures…
Arijit Singh – Bird Bites – Welcome to our new design! Our week in the rear view mirror… – asianculturevulture.com
