Bollywood's Sequel Obsession: Why Every Hit Now Needs a Franchise

Remember when Bollywood movies were standalone stories? You watched them, you loved them (or didn't), and you moved on with your life. The characters lived in your memory, not in a multi-film "universe" designed to extract maximum ticket revenue across a decade.

Those days are over. Welcome to Franchise Bollywood, where every hit immediately spawns a sequel announcement, every popular character gets an "extended universe," and the biggest box office weekends are dominated by films with numbers after their names.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing. But it's definitely a thing, and it's worth examining how we got here and what it means for Indian cinema.

The Numbers Don't Lie

Look at the top-grossing Hindi films of the last five years. The majority are either sequels, franchise entries, or connected-universe films:

• Pathaan (2023) — part of the YRF Spy Universe
• Jawan (2023) — standalone (but sequel speculation is rampant)
• Gadar 2 (2023) — sequel, 22 years after the original
• Animal (2023) — standalone (Animal Park sequel announced immediately)
• Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 (2024) — third installment
• Singham Again (2024) — Rohit Shetty's Cop Universe
• Pushpa 2 (2024) — sequel to a Telugu blockbuster, pan-India release
• Stree 2 (2024) — Maddock's Horror Comedy Universe

The pattern is unmistakable: original films still exist, but the biggest box office events are increasingly franchise-driven.

How Did We Get Here?

Bollywood has always had sequels — Sholay begat (failed) imitations, Dhoom spawned a trilogy, Krrish continued from Koi... Mil Gaya. But the current franchise obsession started accelerating around 2015-2018, driven by several factors:

Rising production costs: Making a big Bollywood film now costs Rs 150-300 crore. At those budgets, studios want guaranteed returns. A sequel to a proven hit reduces risk — the audience already knows the characters, the brand is established, and marketing costs are lower because you're building on existing awareness. The Marvel effect: The global success of the MCU demonstrated that interconnected franchises could generate cumulative audience loyalty. Indian filmmakers noticed. Rohit Shetty explicitly cited Marvel as inspiration for his Cop Universe. YRF built its Spy Universe with the same logic. Audience behaviour: Audiences increasingly choose films based on familiarity. In a world of infinite entertainment options, a known quantity — Golmaal 5, Tiger 3, Dhoom 4 — feels safer than an unknown original. This is a global phenomenon, but it's hit Bollywood with particular force. Star insurance: A franchise gives aging stars a guaranteed vehicle. Salman Khan doesn't need a new character — he has Tiger. Akshay Kumar had Sooryavanshi. Ajay Devgn has Singham. The franchise becomes bigger than any individual film.

The Universe Builders

Three major franchise ecosystems dominate Bollywood right now:

Rohit Shetty's Cop Universe

Singham (2011) → Singham Returns (2014) → Simmba (2018) → Sooryavanshi (2021) → Singham Again (2024) → Golmaal crossovers rumoured

Rohit Shetty was the first Bollywood filmmaker to explicitly build an interconnected universe. His formula: honest cops, bombastic action, flying cars, patriotic messaging. The crossover moments — when Singham, Simmba, and Sooryavanshi appear together — generate the kind of audience euphoria that Bollywood rarely achieves outside of festival releases.

YRF Spy Universe

Ek Tha Tiger (2012) → Tiger Zinda Hai (2017) → War (2019) → Pathaan (2023) → Tiger 3 (2023) → War 2 (upcoming)

Yash Raj Films built its spy franchise around the star power of Salman Khan (Tiger), Hrithik Roshan (Kabir), and Shah Rukh Khan (Pathaan). Pathaan's massive success validated the universe concept, though Tiger 3's underwhelming reception showed that star power alone can't sustain a franchise if the individual film is weak.

Maddock's Horror Comedy Universe

Stree (2018) → Bhediya (2022) → Munjya (2024) → Stree 2 (2024) → multiple films announced

Dinesh Vijan's Maddock Films pulled off something remarkable: a franchise built not on superstars but on genre, tone, and world-building. Stree 2 — crossing Rs 600+ crore — became one of the biggest Hindi films ever, proving that a well-built universe can transcend individual star power.

The Creative Cost

Here's the uncomfortable truth: franchises are great for business and often terrible for art.

When a filmmaker knows they're building a sequel, the storytelling changes. Characters can't have definitive arcs because they need to return. Stakes are undermined because the hero obviously survives. Villains are designed to be replaceable rather than memorable. The first film in a franchise tells a story; subsequent entries service a brand.

Stree (2018) was a charming, self-contained horror comedy. Stree 2 was entertaining but noticeably structured around universe-building — characters from other films appearing, sequel hooks planted, mythology expanded at the expense of narrative tightness. Singham (2011) was a complete story about an honest cop. By Singham Again, the character had become a symbol rather than a person, serving the franchise's needs rather than his own arc.

The Original Film Crisis

The flip side of franchise dominance is the struggle of original films. When audiences and exhibitors prioritize franchises, original concepts get squeezed:

Fewer screens: Multiplexes allocate maximum screens to franchise releases, leaving original films with limited showcasing. Marketing disadvantage: A Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 has built-in audience awareness. An original film with the same budget needs to spend significantly more on marketing to achieve the same awareness. Audience fatigue for the unfamiliar: After being conditioned by franchises, some audiences hesitate to invest in an unknown story with unknown characters. "Is it connected to anything?" has become a genuine ticket-buying question.

When Sequels Work

Not all sequels are cynical cash grabs. Some genuinely improve on their predecessors:

Baahubali 2 (2017) — elevated everything about the first film and became a cultural event. Pushpa 2 (2024) — expanded the scope and deepened the character. Gangs of Wasseypur Part 2 (2012) — the second half of what was essentially one long film. Drishyam 2 (2022) — a worthy continuation that found new dramatic territory.

The common thread: these sequels were driven by story, not just commerce. The filmmakers had something new to say, not just a brand to exploit.

What Happens Next?

The franchise trend isn't slowing down. Studios are actively developing more connected universes, more sequel announcements come with every hit film, and the economic incentives all point toward more of the same.

But there are cracks. Tiger 3 underperformed despite the franchise brand. Several announced sequels have been quietly shelved. Audience sophistication is increasing — they can tell when a sequel exists because the story demanded it versus when it exists because the spreadsheet demanded it.

The healthiest version of Bollywood's future is probably a mix: franchises that earn their sequels through genuine storytelling, existing alongside original films that get adequate marketing and screen allocation. But achieving that balance requires studios to resist the temptation of guaranteed returns and occasionally bet on the unknown.

The sequel isn't the enemy. Lazy storytelling is. And as long as Bollywood can tell the difference, there's hope for both franchise entertainment and original cinema to coexist.

Whether the industry actually will tell the difference? That's the sequel nobody's written yet.