Bollywood’s biggest crime and tragedy? Gorgeous stars like Janhvi Kapoor, glossy sets, and no good writers

Dubai: I sat through Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari with one thought running on loop in my head: why on earth is Bollywood still not investing in good writers?

On paper, SSKTK had everything going for it. A glossy Dharma Productions package, money poured into the set design, a soundtrack with its hook steps engineered for Instagram reels, and a ridiculously good-looking quartet — Janhvi Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Rohit Saraf, and Sanya Malhotra — set up for a romantic quadrangle.

Nepo babies and non-nepo talent, check. Big-budget promotions, check. Yet what we got on screen was the same reheated thali: limp one-liners, half-baked jokes, and a love story that had the emotional spark of a flat soda.

Here’s the truth: promotions and choreography can’t carry a film if the writing is weak. And Bollywood seems determined to relearn that lesson with every release. When will they realise that you can’t market your way into good cinema?

Gloss is not great cinema

It’s almost insulting to the audience at this point. Just because you dress your stars in couture, make them dance in exotic locales, and spend crores on promotions doesn’t mean you’ve fulfilled your duty to cinema. That’s the bare minimum. The actual commitment should be to storytelling. Instead, what we got in SSKTK was a script so uninspired you wonder if anyone in the writers’ room even tried.

Meanwhile, streaming giants like Netflix are throwing billions at original content. They workshop scripts, bring in diverse voices, and—here’s the kicker—actually pay their writers decently because they know story is king.

Compare that to Bollywood’s obsession with repackaging clichés, and it’s no wonder viewers are tuning out.

Take notes from Kerala, please

If Bollywood really wants to learn, it doesn’t need to look to Hollywood or Netflix. Just look south. In Malayalam cinema, if you set up a quadrangle romance, the script doesn’t automatically tip the scales to favor the biggest star or the producer’s favorite.

A frothy comedy like Bro Daddy with Mohanlal, Prithviraj, Meena, and Kalyani Priyadarshan worked because the writing was clever, balanced, and fearless. Everyone got their moments. No one was shoehorned into the spotlight just because of legacy.

Anurag Kashyap once said in an interview with me that an ensemble Western like The Rifle Club could never be made in Bollywood because of egos. And watching films like SSKTK, you can see he’s right. Scripts get bent out of shape to serve the inner circle — often the same “chosen” faces, again and again.

Take Fawad Khan and Vaani Kapoor's recent romance Aabeer Gulaal, too. On paper, it had the star power of a Pakistani hearthrob and an Indian star, great songs, and stunning visuals. For a while, it even entertained. But it lost its way because, once again, the writing couldn’t hold up. Gloss and glamour are not substitutes for a compelling narrative. They’re just missed opportunities dressed with stars who are runway ready.

The real reboot Bollywood needs

It’s 2025. We’re living in the era of AI, global streaming wars, and audiences with more options than ever before. And yet Bollywood is still serving reheated leftovers.

When will they get the memo? Good scripts don’t just magically appear — they need investment, time, and yes, respect for writers.

As a viewer, it’s heartbreaking to see so much money, talent, and ambition wasted on half-baked scripts. Each time I walk out of films like Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari, I don’t just feel disappointed — I feel cheated. Because Bollywood has every opportunity to get this right. It has the stars, the budgets, the global reach. But until it starts valuing writers as much as it values six-pack abs and designer lehengas, we’ll keep getting the same glossy mediocrity.

And honestly? That’s the real tragedy of Bollywood right now.