Zero, PadMan, Hichki: Bollywood hopes to cast a one-word spell on box office 2018

Bollywood filmmakers across genres are keeping it short and sweet — and, perhaps, more impactful — when it comes to their movie titles. Trade experts and filmmakers tell us why this works.

Bollywood is pretty serious when it comes to movie titles. Numerology holds plenty of sway with film-makers, and there’s no lack of evidence of offbeat spellings for common words in film names. However, there’s an interesting trend on the up and up this year: short, quirky, one-word titles are gaining purchase in B-Town, and this year’s movie roster has a lot of entries that don’t extend beyond a single word.

One-word film titles seems to be the big trend in 2018. One of them is Dhadak, which is the Bollywood launch vehicle of Janhvi Kapoor and Ishaan Khatter.

At least 17 big-budget films are set to release with single-word titles this year. While the first half of the year will see films such as R Balki’s PadMan, Neeraj Pandey’s Aiyaary, Akshat Verma’s Kaalakaandi, Prosit Roy’s Pari, Siddharth P Malhotra’s Hichki, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmavati, Rajkumar Hirani’s Sanju (tentative title), Meghna Gulzar’s Raazi, and Shaad Ali’s Soorma, the second half will see the release of Reema Kagti’s Gold, Shashank Khaitan’s Dhadak, Aanand L Rai’s Zero, Abhishek Kapoor’s Kedarnath, Girish Malik’s Torbaaz and Rohit Shetty’s Simmba. Ayan Mukerji’s much-talked about fantasy adventure trilogy starring Ranbir Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan and Alia Bhatt, that releases next year, has been titled Brahmastra.

“A title is like a window to the film,” says trade analyst Atul Mohan, adding, “Film-makers are thinking that if they can convey everything in one word, then why not? Sometimes, even long titles fail to convey the essence of the story. Also, in today’s day and age, especially for the younger generation, everything needs to be short, simple and attractive.”

Radhika Apte and Akshay Kumar in a still from their upcoming film, PadMan.

It’s all about the kind of impact a title has, feels Prernaa Arora of KriArj Entertainment, which has PadMan, Pari, and Kedarnath lined up. “A title creates the first impression, and keeping it short and crisp helps. Also, it defines the level of intensity. One-word titles are, at times, quirky and fun,” she says.

Anushka Sharma’s look in Pari has generated quite a buzz among cinegoers.

Malhotra says the title for his film Hichki (starring Rani Mukerji) resonates with its story of a teacher who suffers from Tourette syndrome, a condition that causes facial tics and involuntary sounds. He says, “The title of the film needs to engage and intrigue audiences at the same time. It tells the viewer what to expect from a film. Rani plays Naina Mathur, who has a nervous system disorder. She has a ‘hichki’ in life, and our title resonates with this thought. The title is also a broader take on discrimination in our society. The film shows that Naina might have a physical hichki, which is evident, but we as a society, too, have a huge hichki when it comes to judging others. This hichki is not always seen; this hichki has become a part of our existence, whether we like it or not.”

Rani Mukerji’s character Naina Mathur suffers from Tourette Syndrome in Hichki.

Choosing a title is like naming your child, according to Amit V Masurkar, the director of last year’s hit, Newton. “The title of a film highlights the kind of audience you are targeting. It also explains the tone of the film. But at the same time, I was not thinking that my film must have a one-word title. We just zeroed in on it because it was apt,” he says.

Saif Ali Khan plays the lead in debutant director Akshat Verma’s Kaalakaandi.

Screenwriter Akshat Verma, who turns director with the Saif Ali Khan-starrer Kaalakaandi, says, “Yes, the title resonates the theme of the film, but it’s usually not intentional to decide how many words the title would be. Currently, single word titles must be in, so many are opting for it. But next year, there may be some other trend.”

The teaser of Shah Rukh Khan’s film Zero has created a lot of interest among his fans.

Mohan opines that the trend is more of a revival of sorts than anything new. “There have been times when films had single word titles (1975 saw Sholay, Aandhi, Amanush, Anari, Julie, Mili and Zameer), so the trend isn’t new. But it has definitely caught up this time. I won’t be surprised if more films with single-word titles are announced soon,” he says.

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