Akshay Kumar, Kartik Aaryan, John Abraham take on terrorists in films that could become top grossers in the genre

Actor Kartik Aaryan in 'Dhamaka'. The film was put together in just 10 days last December. (Image: screen grab)

Two Hindi films releasing in November deal with the subject of terrorism. This isn't all; come January, one more will be arriving in this genre. That makes it three action flicks on terrorism in three months.

The three films are Sooryavanshi, Dhamaka and Attack.

Akshay Kumar-starrer Sooryavanshi, which was supposed to release last March, is releasing in theatres this Diwali weekend. Kartik Aaryan's Dhamaka is a Netflix film. It was put together in a jiffy (just 10 days) last December, and has made a thumping impact with its edge-of-the-seat promo. Attack has John Abraham essaying the role of a 'super soldier'.

So, what is it about this genre that entices the audience? Why do most films in the genre turn into box office successes? After all, some of the biggest Bollywood grossers have terrorism as their core subject.

Read more: 8 films confirmed, ‘one-man industry’ Akshay Kumar set to revive Bollywood

Case in point: the Tiger franchise. Tiger Zinda Hai (Rs 199 crore) almost reaching the 200 Crore Club, and Tiger 2 saw box office collections of Rs 339.25 crore. No wonder, Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif are being joined by Shah Rukh Khan and Emraan Hashmi in Tiger 3.

The biggest box office grosser of Bollywood in recent times, War, too has terrorism at its core. The film was released two years ago in October 2019, a few months before the pandemic struck. Directed by Siddharth Anand, and featuring actors Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff, it enjoyed both a bumper opening and a sustained run.

Curtain raiser

Akshay Kumar's Sooryavanshi will be the first film to play in many theatres across India after months of lockdown and restrictions.

Of course, Akshay Kumar is no stranger to the terrorism genre. He has scored a century already with Holiday, which has one of the best narratives structured around foiling a terrorist attack. His Baby (though it missed the 100 Crore Club by Rs 5 crore) is still considered to be one of the best films in this genre. No wonder director Neeraj Pandey went ahead and curated a web series Special Ops around the same theme.

Ditto for John Abraham, who has two major films belonging to this genre: New York and Batla House. One has to admit that the actor has delivered two of his career-best performances in these films. While in New York (Rs 45.4 crore), he played a wronged man who went on to become a terrorist, Batla House saw him enact the part of a top cop who eliminated the terrorists but then was investigated for the 'supposed crime'. The latter also missed the 100 Crore Club by the thinnest of margins (it made Rs 95.5 crore at the box office).

Read more: Actor Kartik Aaryan hits a six, with a potential Rs1,000 crore riding on him

Similarly filmmakers Kabir Khan and Ram Madhvani definitely know a thing or two about making movies about terrorism and geopolitics. Kabir Khan in fact holds the record for delivering the maximum number of successes in this genre. He started with the modest Kabul Express (again starring John Abraham, along with Arshad Warsi) and didn't quite achieve success with Phantom (53 crore) - though it was a well made movie. Khan is also the architect of the Ek Tha Tiger franchise, and has brought the genre closer home with New York.

Ram Madhvani is expected to do the same with Dhamaka. His Neerja, with Sonam Kapoor and Jim Sarbh, did quite well by shocking audiences with on-screen detailing of the real-life terrorist attack that had happened aboard an aircraft. Now he is all set to make some noise with his Dhamaka in which a terrorist blows up the Bandra Worli Sea Link in Mumbai.

The explosion on the big screen will start, though, with Sooryavanshi, in which Akshay Kumar returns into his 'save the country' avatar all over again after Bell Bottom. While latter is already fetching record numbers for Amazon Prime Video on OTT, one hopes that something bigger happens at the box office too with the Rohit Shetty directed film where the superstar takes on the terrorism.

May good win over evil this Diwali....again!

Top-10 box office grossers among films based on terrorism

Tiger Zinda Hai - Rs339.25 crore

War - Rs 318 crore

Ek Tha Tiger - Rs 199 crore

Holiday - Rs 113 crore

Batla House - Rs 99.5 crore

Baby - Rs 95.5 crores

Baaghi 3 - Rs 95 crore

Neerja - Rs 75.65 crore

Phantom - Rs 53 crore

New York - Rs 45.4 crore