Beyond star power: Is Hindi cinema entering a film-first era?

The contrasting runs of Hanuman Ansh, Mirzapur: The Movie, Saiyaara, and Dhurandhar 2 have sharpened the debate over what draws Hindi audiences to theatres. This raises the question whether stars still matter, or whether films now need a stronger proposition of their own.

In Short

• Hanuman Ansh grew through word of mouth despite lacking conventional star backing
• Mirzapur's theatrical leap showed streaming worlds can command big-screen loyalty
• Awarapan 2 tapped cult memory, music and melancholy as audience currency

Hindi cinema has traditionally been driven by star power, but the contrasting journeys of Hanuman Ansh (2026) and Dhurandhar 2 (2026) raise a larger question for Bollywood: are audiences increasingly choosing the film, its story and its world before the star at its centre?

For decades, a major Hindi film’s theatrical prospects were closely tied to its leading actor. A star’s name could determine the opening, shape the marketing and give audiences an immediate reason to buy a ticket. But the recent success of Hanuman Ansh (2026), the theatrical return of the Mirzapur universe, the cult following of Awarapan 2 (2026) and the breakout of Saiyaara (2025) point to a more complicated equation. The star still matters, but the film itself is increasingly becoming the selling point.

Trade and business analyst and producer Girish Johar sees this as an evolution rather than the end of stardom.

“The stories have huge potential. We as an audience or ticket-buying public don’t tend to go blindly with stardom,” Johar says, adding, “I would not say that stardom is completely diminished. It is a little on the downside, but it is still not gone.”

Johar points to the 1970s and 1980s, when stories and performances helped create stars such as Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna. Over time, the equation shifted, with established stars increasingly becoming the primary selling point. He believes it is now moving back towards a model in which the film has to earn its success.

“Right now, stars alone cannot guarantee your success,” Johar says. “They may assure a good start, but the success of a film will be only because of the story and the content,” he adds.

Actor Tisca Chopra similarly views this evolution through the lens of a far more exposed audience.

“I don’t think story has ever stopped being central to cinema,” Chopra says, adding, “Most stars became stars because audiences first fell in love with the films and characters they inhabited.”

For her, the primary catalyst behind this current shift lies in the changing expectations of the viewer. “With access to extraordinary storytelling across theatres, OTT and YouTube, audiences are more exposed, more discerning and far less patient with weak material,” Chopra says, adding, “You can see that in the response to films like 12th Fail (2023) and Laapataa Ladies here, and in phenomena like Backrooms (2026) and Obsession (2026) internationally, where the world, the idea and the storytelling itself become the draw.”

Hanuman Ansh is perhaps the clearest example of that change. Made without conventional star machinery and released on a modest scale, the spiritual drama grew through word of mouth as audiences responded to its devotional subject and the emotional experience it offered.

For Johar, that amounts to a different kind of stardom.

“There is no traditional stardom here. I think the stardom is the divinity. It has a very simplistic, purist writing, and you can feel that emotion on screen,” he says.

That emotional connection, Johar argues, is not restricted to any particular genre. Dhurandhar 2 (2026) taps into patriotism, Hanuman Ansh into devotion and Saiyaara into romance.

“Whichever film has done well at the box office, one common critical line is the emotional connect. It is genre-agnostic,” Johar adds.

Actor Nitish Bhardwaj, best known for playing Lord Krishna in the 1988 television series Mahabharat, believes the audience itself has changed. Exposure to pan-India spectacles and global content has expanded what viewers expect from a theatrical experience.

“This is the age of the new audience, who wants the best of stories, irrespective of the stars,” Bhardwaj says, adding, “They don’t mind quality content in any form of presentation.”

He points to films such as Baahubali (2015), RRR (2022) and KGF (2018), alongside the explosion of global content on OTT platforms, as forces that have broadened audience expectations. Viewers, he argues, are now more willing to discover a film on its own terms.

“Audiences have a simple logical demand — give us joy, move our emotions, give us hope, make us laugh or cry or elated but tell us a relatable story; that’s it,” Bhardwaj says.

The shift is also visible when audiences already have an emotional investment in a fictional world.

Mirzapur: The Movie (2026) took a universe built on streaming and brought its characters to the big screen. Its appeal came not simply from the actors in the cast but from the familiarity of the world itself. Audiences were returning to characters and relationships they had already invested in through the series. The theatrical experience, in that sense, was built around an existing fictional universe rather than a conventional standalone star vehicle.

Awarapan 2 (2026) offers another version of the same phenomenon. Its appeal is tied to the accumulated memory of Awarapan (2007) — its music, melancholy, characters and cult following. Emraan Hashmi’s association with the franchise remains part of that appeal, but so does the emotional memory of the film itself. The audience is returning not simply to a star, but to a world and feeling it already knows.

Actor-producer Unni Mukundan experienced a different version of this equation with Marco (2024). While he was an established star in Kerala, he lacked that level of regional fame in non-Malayalam markets, making the film's cross-border success — particularly in Hindi dubbed belts — a true test of content over star pull. With audiences outside his home state coming in without prior loyalty to his name, it was the raw, high-octane action and spectacle of the film that drove theatrical footfalls.

“In the Hindi-speaking markets, where I did not have that established familiarity, it was essentially the same quality of the film that brought audiences into theatres,” Mukundan says, adding, “Ultimately, the quality of the work is what stays.”

His experience also illustrates how a character can eventually detach itself from the actor’s existing identity. Marco was his 49th film, but audiences began identifying him through the character itself.

“I believe audiences ultimately remember a star through the characters he portrays,” Mukundan says, adding, “The star may initially bring the audience to the character, but the real achievement is when the character eventually becomes the star.”

Then there is Saiyaara, perhaps the clearest reversal of the traditional model. Actors Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda did not enter theatres with established theatrical stardom. The film’s music, romance, characters and emotional appeal created the audience first, and its success subsequently turned its young leads into names audiences wanted to watch.

The film did not need established stars to create its initial audience. Its success helped create the stars.

Yet that does not mean Hindi cinema has moved beyond star power. Dhurandhar 2 remains a reminder of how formidable an established star, a large-scale production and a strong franchise proposition can be. Border 2 (2026), too, draws on the legacy of Border (1997), its patriotic associations and the actors carrying that legacy forward.

Bhardwaj points out that films of this scale may still require major stars to secure the budgets needed to mount them. The difference is that the star cannot automatically guarantee what happens after release.

Mukundan is equally clear that the changing equation should not be mistaken for the decline of stardom.

“No amount of good cinema, or the success of a non-starrer, can take away the glory, charisma and aspirational effect that a star brings to the screen,” Mukundan says, adding, “I don’t see the rise of character-driven or film-first cinema as a threat to stardom. I see the two as capable of co-existing.”

That may be the more accurate reading of where Hindi cinema stands today. Stars have not stopped selling films. But audiences appear less willing to buy a ticket on that promise alone.

As Johar puts it, “Obviously, it should be a film first. I really hope that it is a film first, but I think we are moved in that direction.”

Hindi cinema may not be entering a post-star era. A star can still bring an audience to the theatre, but increasingly, the film itself has to give that audience a reason to care.

- Ends