Why do college flicks click at the box office?

Just as chick lit is read by both men and women, college flicks are often enjoyed by the youth and oldies alike. Youngsters watch them because these films reflect the happenings in their personal lives. Elders go for them since they remind them of their fun-filled days as students. 

A good film of the genre can do a booming business. The industry has produced many films of this genre, therefore, among them those that have delivered serious moolah in the producer’s accounts. 

 

An upcoming college flick everybody is talking about is Punit Malhotra’s Student of the Year 2, which stars Tiger Shroff alongside newcomers Tara Sutaria and Ananya Panday, the daughter of Chunky Panday. 

Student of the Year 2 is the sequel to Student of the Year that was helmed by Karan Johar in 2012.  The latter stars the-then newcomers Siddharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt. Immensely popular with the youngsters, in particular, SOTY’s story told in an extended flashback is largely about days in college. It has all the larger-than-life qualities one expects from a Johar film, and it definitely did work at the BO. 

 

The college flick offers a variety of thematic possibilities. Aamir Khan acted in two such films: Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Rang De Basanti.

3 Idiots starring Aamir, Sharman Joshi and R Madhavan takes the viewer inside an engineering college, chronicling the bromance of three buddies and dealing with subjects like stress during examinations, placements and the need for relevance in professional life. The remarkably directed film became a huge success. 

Mehra’s RDB starring Aamir, Siddharth Narayan, Soha Ali Khan and Kunal Kapoor is a brilliant coming-of-age drama in which youngsters sharing the same space come from different walks of life. They lead footloose lives until life takes a turn towards the unexpected, and they end up starting a revolution. The gripping film compels the viewer to think beyond the obvious, a standout quality resulting in critical acclaim and commercial success.

 

One college romance that rocked the box-office was Karan Johar’s directorial, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.  The film starring Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Rani Mukerji is a love triangle that takes the viewer inside a college campus where haute couture is normal. The college is also that place where students fall in love and sing and dance with gay abandon. KKHH became a trendsetter, redefining, among other things, street fashion in urban India. 

Farah Khan’s debut Main Hoon Na starring SRK, Zayed Khan, Sushmita Sen and Amrita Rao was a quintessential masala-spiked entertainer set in a college. Another film in which students showcase designer wear, this one has everything a happening college campus does: love, fun, a super hot teacher, and great bonding between friends. Unsurprisingly, it was a blockbuster.

Young filmmaker Ayan Mukerji made an interesting coming-of- age drama, Wake Up Sid, starring Ranbir Kapoor and Konkona Sen Sharma. The film has a central character from a wealthy family, who is indifferent towards studying and has no plans for life after college. The carefree protagonist is relatable and so is the temperamentally opposite girl he falls in love with. The film found viewers, mostly in urban areas, becoming a commercial success. 

 

Each one of us spends a few years in college, experiencing highs and lows in studies, extra-curricular activities, friendships and romances. Filmmakers go through such experiences, too, which help them impart a semblance of authenticity to their films. Most such films are vehicles for youth fashion statements and glamour, of course, and why not? What Bollywood does today, India does tomorrow. 

Some subjects are exceedingly familiar.  Think of Abhishek Varman's 2 States in which a North Indian boy played by Arjun Kapoor meets Alia Bhatt’s character of a South Indian girl in the campus. They fall in love, but their parents don’t like the match. Now, how common is that? 

Abbas Tyrewala’s Jaane Tu…Ya Jaane Na takes us back to those days when friends fell in love with their friends. What makes the film endearing is the self-assured manner in which it deals with issues related to love, such as not acknowledging or even realising that one loves one’s friend, finding wrong partners, and starting a relationship that, possibly, was never meant to start. The film touched many hearts, and the masses loved its lead pair of Imran Khan and Genelia D’Souza. 

Remo D’Souza’s F.A.L.T.U, a remake of the Hollywood film Accepted and starring Jackky Bhagnani, Puja Gupta and Riteish Deshmukh, is a reminder that getting admission in a good university is a grave concern in India. The country doesn’t have as many universities as is necessary to accommodate a huge population of pass-outs every year, which makes the subject of the film a familiar one.

Mrighdeep Singh Lamba’s  Fukrey, starring Pulkit Samrat, Manjot Singh and Richa Chaddha, is a hilarious comedy dealing with issues like the desire for making some extra cash somehow, getting admission in a college, and, of course, using jugaad to solve our problems in life.

 

Divya Khosla Kumar’s Yaariyan starring Himansh Kohli, Rakul Preet Singh and Nicole Faria is a story of friends who participate in a competition against Australians in an attempt to ensure that their college, which has been bought by an Aussie businessman, isn’t demolished and a casino built in its place as the latter wants. The story is rather average; yet, its youthful energy made viewers gravitate to the theatres.

SOTY 2 will join the list of college flicks the Hindi film industry has produced over the years. The fact that it is the sequel to a successful film should give it a decent start. How it will perform thereafter will depend on whether or not the film has the right ingredients to entice its target audience.