Some of the best action movies of the modern age have come out of Bollywood, and while that somehow continues to remain a somewhat under-the-radar factoid, the tides could finally be changing. Action fans often tend to have some of the most international, multi-cultural perspectives of any genre aficionados since action flicks are very much a worldwide genre. Outside of Hollywood, Hong Kong action movies hold tremendous reverence among action fans as practically a genre all its own, thanks to both the territory’s legacy of martial arts films and John Woo’s pioneering of gun-fu. Indonesia has also become a big hotspot for action fans in recent years after the impact of The Raid movies, while numerous other Asian and European territories also have their own unique culture of action films. And few such action movie cultures are as unique and as vibrant as that of India.
In the West, Bollywood films tend to be thought of largely in musical terms in the public consciousness due to Bollywood’s well-known predilection for extravagant musical numbers. At the same time, Bollywood filmmakers have been bringing that same degree of flash and flair to stunts, pyrotechnics, and fight scenes for decades, and it’s only been relatively recently that Bollywood’s culture of action and martial arts films has really started to gain considerable attention in the West. The recent trailer for Dev Patel’s upcoming action film Monkey Man has drawn highly positive reactions for its fantastic fight scenes, and the movie delivering on the “John Wick in Mumbai” sales pitch it’s been pushed with. However, Bollywood itself hasn’t let such action movie potential go untapped either.
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Like Hollywood action heroes like Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, and Dwayne Johnson, Bollywood has a collection of butt-kickers all its own, and the growing Western theatrical releases of Bollywood action movies have given increased exposure to the physical talents of local stars like Akshay Kumar, Vidyut Jammwal, Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, and many others. Pre-pandemic, one of the biggest Bollywood action hits ever at the time, 2019’s War, made in-roads in U.S. theatres, with the movie bringing all the energy of a Tom Cruise-led Mission: Impossible movie to its stunts, chases, and fight scenes with leading men Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff. 2022’s RRR subsequently became a worldwide phenomenon, opening the Western world up to Bollywood action like never before, and that only seems to be a growing trend.
Indeed, the Bollywood action movie industry has also begun a noticeable amount of cross-pollination with the West in recent years. The U.K. has served as a filming location for such Indian-produced action flicks as Vidyut Jammwal’s 2019 movie Commando 3 and 2023’s Tiger Shroff-led martial arts fireworks show Ganapath: A Hero is Born. Stars and stunt people known for their work in the West have also made the leap to Bollywood both behind and in front of the camera, such as in the 2016 Bollywood MMA movie Sultan, which includes American and Chilean-born martial arts stars Marrese Crump and Marko Zaror as two of the antagonists facing Salman Khan’s Sultan in the finale. Ganapath similarly enlisted frequent Scott Adkins collaborator Tim Man as fight choreographer for the movie’s amazing fight scenes, with Monkey Man fight choreographer Brahim Chab as Tiger Shroff’s final opponent. And it isn’t strictly Western-based talent who have helped shine a light on Bollywood action films recently either. Jackie Chan Stunt Team alumni Andy Long Nguyen served as fight choreographer for both Jammwal’s Commando 3 and Sanak, adding a distinct flavour of Jackie Chan-style Hong Kong action to the Bollywood action movie scene.
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With such an embedded culture of action films gaining more and more attention in the West and even bringing Western talent into the fold with growing frequency, Bollywood could, and quite arguably should, become a territory on the level of Hollywood, Hong Kong, and Indonesia for action and martial arts movie lovers. As a Hollywood-produced action film set in Mumbai, Monkey Man might help open the Bollywood door to Western action fans even wider, and there’s a lot of fun to be had should they finally walk through en masse.
