A Minecraft Movie has proven to be a surprise juggernaut at the box office by grossing upwards of $300 million at the time of writing. At the centre of the film is a 55 year old leading man with a good amount of white in his beard who has become the go-to movie star when it comes to films targeted at a younger audience. I’m of course talking of Jack Black.
The wildly expressive, roly-poly ball of joy who is characterised by his enthusiasm and bravado. Over the last decade he has appeared as an actor and done voice over work for the following franchise films: Jumanji, Kung Fu Panda, Goosebumps, Super Mario Bros. and now of course Minecraft.
These films have raked in record box office numbers in large part due to children being an extremely loyal, and impassioned fanbase.
Even through the 90s Hollywood had the likes of Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, and Brendan Fraser who were catering to children but turn your attention back home to Hindi cinema and there seems to be a glaring void for a star that caters primarily to an audience of kids and young adults.
While Bollywood has had plenty of larger-than-life heroes, none have carved out a space that speaks directly to kids or teens in a consistent, joyful manner. Even when our films take an ‘all ages’ approach to stories it's more often the comedic actors like Johnny Lever or Rajpal Yadav who get the track aimed at kids.
While these actors may be loved by all ages, they’re not positioned as central, aspirational figures for kids.
Not that efforts weren’t made by mainstream actors to make children’s movies, but they’ve been far and few in between.
Take the three big Khans for example.
Shahrukh Khan is known as the king of romance, but his outings like Ra.One, One Two ka Four, and Baadshah, which tried to incorporate slapstick and appeal to kids, found themselves in a tonal mishmash and none of them were a success at the box office, despite Ra.One using the most cutting edge technology of its time.
Aamir Khan’s two forays into kids fare would be Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke (1993) where. despite the promising young cast, the focus was his romantic pairing with Juhi Chawla and Taare Zameen Par (2007), a film involving a child protagonist, which was a serious, emotional drama with educational themes rather than a fun ride in the way that most Hollywood children’s films are designed to be.
I don’t know how many even remember Salman Khan’s 1993 fantasy drama Chandramukhi other than die hard 90s cinephiles but that was not a good film. Salman did produce the delightful Chillar Party from 2011 but did not star in it.
There was also Ajay Devgn’s take on Mary Poppins titled Raju Chacha from 2000 that failed to take flight at the box office.
The underlying reason why stars don’t gravitate towards projects that are made for kids is because we make very few of them. There tends to be some ambiguity in our industry in understanding the difference between films about kids and films for kids.
An endearing film like Stanley ka Dabba or Dhanak which have child actors in the lead are made on modest budgets and usually have no room for mammoth star salaries.
They are also a far cry in subject matter from the IP driven, multi million dollar CGI spectacles that Hollywood churns out.
A curious case in the recent past was the 2017 Ranbir Kapoor starrer Jagga Jasoos. On paper it seemed to have all the ingredients to be a success. An actor-director duo who had delivered a hit with their previous collaboration (‘Barfi’), Disney studios backing the project, and an adventure story at its heart. Despite this the film bombed. The marketing failed to convey its unique musical-fantasy presentation, the censor board gave it a “U/A” certificate and a series of planned sequels never took off.
The industry which often takes the wrong lessons has hesitated to place a major star at the centre of a film aimed at children since.
Another major factor is the underdeveloped animation industry in India. Jack Black’s association with Kung Fu Panda turned him into a global superstar among children. But Hindi voice acting for animation is still treated more like an afterthought than a career-defining choice.
There was an interesting experiment to test this out back in 2008 in Roadside Romeo, India’s first 3D animated film where Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor provided the voice for the lead canines. The film, while charming, did not make enough of an impact to make this the norm.
One can make the argument that actors have made more of an impact on young minds on the small screen.
Farida Jalal and Shruti Seth still mention in interviews how they get recognized for their work in Shararat - an Indian take on the 60s sitcom Bewitched, Dilip Joshi is an unlikely star amongst kids thanks to his role as Jethalal in the long running Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah and think what you may of his recent exploits, there’s no denying that Mukesh Khanna impacted a generation of children as the superhero Shaktimaan.
Perhaps before we get a true blue star for kids the need of the hour is to write and produce regular, high-quality, age-appropriate content for them, and then maybe Govinda might have a second innings on the big screen to fill that Jack Black shaped void, or else the kids will have to wait it out for Hrithik Roshan’s return with Krrish 4.
(Abbas Momin is a stand-up comic, podcast producer, and freelance writer with over a decade of experience in digital media, comedy, and content creation. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)