Karan Johar’s ‘Yodha’ to release on 7 July

Karan Johar’s action franchise Yodha starring Sidharth Malhotra, Disha Patani and Raashii Khanna will release in cinemas on 7 July. The film will be directed by Pushkar Ojha and Sagar Ambre.

Recently, Johar’s Dharma Productions partnered with Viacom18 Studios, part of media and entertainment conglomerate Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd, on four films, including Johar’s directorial venture Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani starring Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt; Raj Mehta-directed Jug Jugg Jeeyo starring Anil Kapoor, Neetu Singh Kapoor, Varun Dhawan and Kiara Advani, Govinda Naam Mera starring Vicky Kaushal and Shakun Batra’s Gehraiyaan starring Deepika Padukone, Ananya Panday, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Dhairya Karwa.

To be sure, Bollywood has realized the value of expanding their film franchises beyond just feature film. For instance, Netflix has announced a two-season original web series on war epic movie franchise Baahubali. What started as a feature film for director S.S Rajamouli has now morphed into a digital show, besides the animated series Baahubali: The Lost Legends aired on Amazon Prime Video. Reliance Entertainment co-producer of Ajay Devgn’s action film series Singham has brought out Little Singham, its animation series on Discovery TV as Johar’s Dharma Productions readies a three-part superhero film franchise Brahmastra.

A lot of it, filmmakers say, has to do with the inspiration gained from Hollywood and its age-old franchises like those in the Marvel Universe.

“Hollywood has certainly been the pioneer of franchises and superhero movies which consistently deliver box-office success around the globe,“ Apoorva Mehta, chief executive officer, Dharma Productions had told Mint in an earlier interview. “The Indian media landscape is evolving at an unprecedented rate with the consumer possessing access to multiple avenues for consuming content. It was only a matter of time before the Indian film industry inadvertently branched out and invested in franchises or large-scale event films.”