At one point, Tamil film directors produced some of the most iconic films that audiences still can’t forget.
Be it S. Shankar’s Sivaji: The Boss, Mani Ratnam’s Bombay, or A.R. Murugadoss’s Ghajini, these films didn’t just find massive success in the South, they were also dubbed or remade in Hindi, making them popular across the country.
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However, today, these legendary directors are struggling to make an impact. In the same year, three of the most iconic names failed to impress.
Mani Ratnam, known for his poetic and profound storytelling, delivered what is possibly his weakest work in Thug Life. Despite massive expectations and Kamal Haasan in the lead, the film turned out to be a major box office flop.
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Meanwhile, S. Shankar has lately been delivering disappointing projects like Bharateeyudu 2 and Game Changer, both of which were such disasters that audiences began losing faith in him.
Let’s not forget A.R. Murugadoss, who once created history with Ghajini, but with his latest film Sikandar, failed to impress the audience even 1% as much as his previous works did.
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These three are considered some of the biggest names in the industry, admired and respected by many.
So why are they failing now?
The answer isn’t simple. It’s not that they’ve lost their artistic brilliance.
Perhaps in the pursuit of creating something big and box office-worthy, they’ve shifted their focus to making mass entertainers that appeal to all, at the cost of storytelling.
It’s also possible that their narrative styles have become outdated, and they simply need to evolve to understand how stories are being told to today’s audiences.
We must also consider that, being such celebrated names, they’re under immense pressure to deliver the “next big thing”, leaving little room for experimentation.
Maybe it’s time these legends either update their storytelling approach or take a step back before they end up tarnishing the incredible legacies they’ve built.
