15 Years of Wanted: How Salman Khan, Prabhu Deva combined to set the trend for Bollywood actioners' massy makeover

The word ‘mass’ came into Hindi film-watchers’ lexicon sometime in the mid-2000s when the hit Telugu action film Mass began airing on cable television in its Hindi-dubbed version (titled Meri Jung – One Man Army). This, coupled with the Hindi dubs of other south hits like Indra, Sivaji, and Pokiri, entrenched this term in, well, the masses. These films began to be known as mass actioners and the treatment of the hero came to be known as ‘mass elevation’. But Bollywood action films stayed away from this trend, relying on slickness in Don and Dhoom, and intensity in Ghajini. Mass action truly entered Hindi films on this day, 15 years ago, when Salman Khan and Prabhu Deva rewrote the rules of Bollywood action.

Wanted was not a film that carried much hype. To understand why, one must look at how precariously Salman Khan was placed in his career at the point. He hadn’t had much solo success at the box office in the few years before that. The film had Ayesha Takia as the female lead and not a ‘big’ name. The villain Prakash Raj was an unknown commodity in Hindi films, and Prabhu Deva was a novice director. Yet, the film defied expectations to be a smash hit, grossing Rs 128 crore worldwide.

The success of Wanted was due to a combination of factors, not the least of which was Salman’s screen presence. But the biggest novelty was an unabashed massy treatment of the hero. The way Wanted projected Salman was new to Hindi cinema, almost a progression of Amitabh Bachchan’s larger-than-life appearances in the 70s and 80s. Prabhu Deva brought the essence of Pokiri (of which Wanted was a remake) and set it in modern-day Mumbai.

The audiences had seen all of it earlier too. The chase sequences, the fights, the face-off between the hero and the villain – nothing was new. What was new was how cleverly Prabhu Deva presented it. An entire generation of young cinegoers, who had grown up watching dubbed versions of south mass actioners on TV, now watched their own hero in a similar style. And they loved it. The action was slick but had an element of hero-worship to it. Salman’s stardom carried it off beautifully, and a new grammar of cinema was born.

The seeds were sown in Wanted, and Salman carried it to the next level the following year with Dabangg. Then Akshay Kumar joined in the fun with Rowdy Rathore, and Ajay Devgn followed suit with Singham and it was official, mass action was here to stay in Hindi cinema. In fact, the legacy of Wanted can be felt in the fact that when the biggest superstar of the last 30 years – Shah Rukh Khan – had to attempt a comeback to the big screen in 2023, he did it with two mass actioners – Jawan and Pathaan.

With Jawan, Animal, Tiger series, and the Cop Universe, the massification of Bollywood action is almost complete. And it all began on September 18, 2009 with Salman Khan and Wanted.

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