KGF, RRR have illogical stunts, but if SRK or John Abraham does this, people won’t accept: Rashtra Kavach Om writer

In a complete turn of events, Rashtra Kavach Om writer Raj Saluja recently compared how the Bollywood audience are now more accepting of ‘mass’ movies and larger-than-life characters in South films and looks for logic in Hindi films.

The writer’s recent release Rashtra Kavach Om, which is an action film starring Aditya Roy Kapur, was panned by the critics and audience alike after it hit theatres last week, with some calling it a meandering and hollow mess with a “boring screenplay”.

However, even before the film released on Friday, its scriptwriter in an interview took an anticipatory bail of sorts, by saying that the Bollywood audience look for logic in Hindi films of late. He tried to make his point by comparing Hindi action films with that of the South such as SS Rajamouli’s RRR and Prashanth Neel’s KGF: Chapter 2 – both of which went on to become the highest grossers in the country this year.

The actor-scriptwriter said that while doing action films, people have to suspend their disbelief. When characters played by NTR Jr are shown as physically capable of throwing bikes, the makers are taking the audience into their universe. “If you think of making logical action scenes, we won’t have sequences that are unparalleled,” he told News18, adding that the lack of logic is more pronounced in South action films than in Bollywood.

Stating that even though KGF and RRR are packed with “illogical action” scenes and that the makers “leave physics at home”, Raj said the audience have learnt to accept larger-than-life characters when they are played by South Indian stars. He also said that if Shah Rukh Khan was cast in KGF in place of Yash, people wouldn’t have received the film with as much ardour as they did when it was released.

“(Audience) is not ready for Bollywood actors doing such stuff,” he said, adding the viewers are reluctant to accept if John Abraham and SRK perform similar stunts in Bollywood films. Incidentally, Shah Rukh Khan's next two movies – Pathaan and Jawaan – are much-awaited action movies.