The Most Highly Anticipated New Films Coming in 2024
As the new year kicks off, India gears up for some highly anticipated theatrical releases both from within the multiple regions of the country and Hollywood. Here’s a glimpse at the release calendar so far.
From Fighter to Kalki: To New Beginnings
Many new cinematic franchises will be born this year, from Bollywood’s Fighter franchise to Telugu superstar Junior NTR’s next project being titled Devara Part 1.
Starring Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone as Indian Air Force pilots, Fighter is being touted as an Indian counterpart to Top Gun with director Siddharth Anand hoping to start a franchise of aviation-driven action thrillers. As for Devara, not much is known about the April release but its promotional material implies Junior NTR to be taking charge in a period action epic with a swords-and-sandal setting.
One of the most highly anticipated releases this year is also the sci-fi epic Kalki 2898 - AD, which had garnered buzz last year already at San Diego Comic Con. Pan-Indian star Prabhas leads the dystopian superhero action flick along with industry heavyweights like Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone and his Baahubali co-star Rana Daggubatti.
From Pushpa 2 to Dune 2: The Sequels continue
Apart from new franchises, 2024 will also bear witness to a multitude of sequels and spinoffs. While Hollywood is on a lull with its MCU and DCEU offerings this year, many alternate chapters are worth getting hyped about.
Examples include Deadpool 3 and Dune: Part Two (both of which were delayed due to the SAG-AFTRA strike), the Lady Gaga-led musical sequel to Joker, Godzilla and King Kong’s second pairing in Godzilla x Kong: New Empire, Tom Hardy’s third outing as Eddie Brock in Venom 3, and a new chapter in the Planet of the Apes saga.
Even the animated format has some exciting sequels to look forward to, from Dreamworks’ Kung Fu Panda 4 to Disney’s Inside Out 2.
At the same time, this is also the year for new chapters within existing franchises. The void of MCU releases is being filled with other Marvel adaptations within Sony’s own cinematic universe. This will kick off with Madame Web’s release in February, which promises to deliver web-spinning action from not just the titular actor but also many other alternate universe wall-crawlers. Spider-Man’s menacing villain Kraven the Hunter also gets his titular cinematic adventure with Aaron Taylor-Johnson offering an antiheroic take on the character.
As for closer home, Telugu star Allu Arjun will return to play the eponymous character in Pushpa: The Rule, an action potboiler that will conclude the story of 2021’s Pushpa: The Rise.
In Bollywood, Ajay Devgn returns to play the “super”cop Singham in Singham Again, another high-octane chapter in Rohit Shetty’s Cop Universe movies. Horror comedy in Hindi cinema will also see the sequels to some of the genre's biggest hits like Stree 2 and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3.
Coming to Tamil Cinema, Kamal Haasan reunites with writer-director Shankar for Indian 2. The political thriller is a much-awaited sequel that comes more than two decades after the 1996 release of Indian.
Rajinikanth to Mohanlal: The Year of Superstars
Many of India’s biggest actors are eyeing multi-genre projects this year. Tamil star Rajinikant is set to open the year with the sports drama Lal Salaam, a release that will be quickly followed up by Dhanush and Malayalam superstar Mohanlal in the period action epics Captain Miller and Malaikottai Vaaliban. Junior NTR and Prabhas’s efforts in the Telugu industry have already been mentioned while Bollywood’s top heroine Alia Bhatt aims to wow audiences with the prison break drama Jigra.
Safe to say, this is going to be one happy new year!
