I was originally replying to your comment on how no one dies in OPM. And yes gore is pretty tame compared to something like Shigurui: Death Frenzy or horror anime for that matter, mainly because it's a part parody of battle shounen.
I mean even MoM , Thor also had mixed reviews. Otherwise MoM would have crossed 1B without China and Thor would have been more than Ragnarok without China
Whatttttt? Saitama literally kills monsters by slapping. Sea beast king (head gets blown), mosquito woman (all organs splattered on wall), that car dude, lastly boros (no hands n no legs). Although I agree that depiction of gore is tame but there are lot of kills almost every episode
Pushpa and KGF are same old story no doubt. That's why I didn't mention their directors. Rajamoulli has created a blockbuster type of movie with bromance (that kind of movie was last done by Sholay). Rajamoulli's last venture was Bahuballi which was different from typical movies. Epic fantasy action movie on a huge scale. Shankar is renowned for trying different things. Mani Ratnam you can see from the movie itself. South is producing great movies which buck the trend. Kaantara is another example.
South has taken over for now. Bollywood need innovative directors like Rajamoulli, Shankar , Mani Ratnam who will break the mold of typical masala and stereotypical romance story which has been done to death 1000s of times.
I think the issue lies here. People didn't appreciate his movies at all (back in those days). Also he had to face issues with censor board all the time. They would almost always delay his movies and sometimes didn't even allow them to release. Another great example would be Tumbaad , which has been best horror movie which came out of India but it didn't do much business.
Because Indian audience was not mature enough to understand. Even the critics didn't understand no smoking movie lmao. It doesn't help that most of the mainstream movies are brainless over the top masala movies so audiences are so used to that. But times have changed now and hopefully people open up. But seeing how movie like kashmir files is sent to film festivals for award contender is hilarious and sad.
It's sad that people don't recognise Anurag Kashyap's talent. His No Smoking movie was far ahead of its time. No one has come closer to making Gangs of Wasseypur