Hindi cinema, or 'Bollywood' as the aficionados call it, is the world’s largest film-producing industry, producing over 1,500 to 2,000 movies annually. The diverse Indian film industry, as an umbrella industry, is the largest in the world in terms of the number of films released. Compare that to Hollywood's roster of 800-1000 films yearly, and you'll realise that all the music, dancing, and melodrama we've been witnessing since 1913 have led to a varied cinema that caters to every Indian.

An equally fascinating tradition is part of this evolution: the evolution of action. The last 50-odd years present an incredible shift in action from gritty street fights and early 1970s anti-establishment, volcano of anger movie fight brand to CGI VFX epic landscapes to MCU spectacles. This is not simply the aesthetic shift but is guided by changing audience expectations (influenced by technology shifts), and India’s aspirations towards a global cinematic ambition. The evolution trip begins in the raw, visceral hand-to-hand combat of the 1970s and 1980s - actors like Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra have become icons embodying the righteous fury of social critics. The fights were not just physical in that era. Instead, they embodied emotional extensions upon and over social frustrations, giving rise to the “angry young man” character - born of and in complicity with political, social issues, themes and settings.

This article traces the trajectory of action in Bollywood, its technical evolution, and milestones, while cataloguing some of the most memorable action films from hand-to-hand combat to CGI.

Bollywood’s Action Evolution: The Stylish, Digital, and Hybrid Eras (2000s–Present)

The early 2000s represented a significant development in the Bollywood cinema as it pertained to action. Films identified a direct stylistic influence from Hollywood and provided similar methods popularised by movies like The Matrix (1999) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). Emulators of the Hong Kong wire-fu tradition of paired motion had arrived anew with Bollywood style. Slow-motion shots, exaggerations of camera angles, editive styles of pacing, and effects-driven stunts became images of representation in named films such as Kaante (2002), Dhoom (2004-2013), and Don (2006), etc. Not to mention, formative crossover artists and dance choreographers were stripped from projectors, intended for wider representation and appeal, glamorous from an unnamed film set. In effect, action cinematic storytelling had been ethnically internationalised.

Subsequently, the revolution of VFX led into the 2010s and modified Bollywood action, which was larger, brasher, and entertaining. Increasingly, larger studio-approved companies like Red Chillies VFX, Prime Focus, and PhantomFX have led directors to adopt the methodology of digitally-mediated storytelling, albeit without the traditional constraints that were possible just ten years ago. For a good example, look at the superhero film Ra: one (2011) and Krrish 3 (2013), brokering CGI-styled powers and expandable scale. The Baahubali series also defined a differentiated understanding of the Indian historical epic since it could depict CGI as monstrous-scaled battlefields and a flowing digital landscape. The physics of action had been shed; the dream became mythic, and a global scale had materialised.

By the 2020s, Bollywood had entered a modern hybrid era of filmmaking, combining excellent CGI with grounded, practical stunt work. This composite profile of digital and practical action reflects that they are not necessarily opposites, but simply two different ways to tell a story. War (2019) is an excellent example of a hybrid style that features seamless choreography that draws in real stunt work, then applies digital effects to expand the scope of what can be done onscreen. Pathaan (2023) pushed the envelope in espionage action, layering stunt artistry with acts like skydiving, drone chases, and grand virtual reality CGI spectacle. Jawan (2023) continued this trend of incorporating a range of digital enhancements to heartfelt emotional action sequences.

This hybrid model demonstrates the consolidative development of Bollywood's new normal—that successful action films can embrace emotional depth and the vast fantastical space of digital realism. Rather than separate spectacle from soul, the culmination of effort in modern Bollywood action relies on both, appealing to the emotional and visual sense of the audience. The growth from real-life street fighting films to digital exaggerations of heroism, then to now, a fluid and hybrid practice of both approaches demonstrates Bollywood's development as a cinematic powerhouse competing with global film standards, while holding fast to its desi essence.

Behind the Scenes: The Real Heroes of Action

Although actors are always "given" credit for incredible action scenes, the evolution of Bollywood action cinema owes a lot to the many people behind the scenes who often don’t get credited for their outstanding contributions. Action directors and stunt coordinators such as Veeru Devgan, Allan Amin, and Sham Kaushal pioneered sophisticated (and safe) stunt choreography in India.

They invented how to make hand-to-hand combat more than just throwing punches in their choreography, to an inspiring, cinematic art form as we see it today. Further developments came from the digital action world. Visual effects (VFX) studios such as Red Chillies VFX, Prime Focus, and PhantomFX took action sequences further than before by combining VFX with the practical, physical action sequences created previously, creating the impression of incredible action stunts.

Several modern action actors, such as Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, and Vidyut Jammwal, are also coordinating their intense physical training with learning martial arts and combat styles to honour the authenticity of their roles. Combined, the visual effects and physical mastery give audiences an authentic impact and help engage them in this new level of action experience.

Global Influences on Bollywood Action

Bollywood's action language has never developed independently; it has been consistently fashioned and re-fashioned through powerful global agencies, the first and most durable of which is Hong Kong's martial arts film industry. Heroes like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan introduced Indian audiences and filmmakers to a very different world of stylised, acrobatic fighting (karate, kung fu and tai chi choreography) featuring precision, fluidity, and poise. Their imprint is often visible in the choreography of hand-to-hand fight scenes and the inclusion of martial arts styles (wing chun kung fu, kali and aikido) found extensively in the efforts of stars like Vidyut Jammwal and Tiger Shroff.

Hollywood's role was a much more technology-driven, cinematic, sophisticated affair that profoundly impacted Bollywood's imaginings of visual storytelling. Films like The Matrix, Mission: Impossible, and the Fast and Furious franchise gave filmmakers in India the opportunity to deploy slow-motion bullet time, direct breathtaking chase sequences, and create gadget-reliant stunt work. These cinematic visual techniques are present and account for some of the big-budget spectacles of recent Bollywood action films like Pathaan, War, and Jawan.

More locally, South Indian cinema—with Telugu and Tamil films in particular—has inspired this trend with big-budget VFX adventure films and spectacular worlds such as Baahubali and Robot. These examples not only changed the whole paradigm of action in Indian cinema, but they also put pressure on Bollywood to raise its technical standards in making spectacles reliant on CGI.

Bollywood vs. Hollywood: The Budget and Technological Divide

Remember Karishma Kaa Karishma? The 2003 Hindi series was a remake of the 1980s American TV series Small Wonder. The concept was unbelievable for Indian audiences, but compare that to the show it was inspired by, and you'll witness the gap in visual effects. Apply this to any horror movie in Bollywood, and their comparison to their Hollywood counterparts makes us look pale.

Whereas Bollywood may have seen some advancement in its choreography for action sequences and visual effects, there is still a wide gap between both industries regarding relative software sophistication, infrastructure, budgets, and equipment for film production. Compared to the movement of the Hollywood production industry, one only has to look at how the Hollywood production industry uses software, costs of budgets, developing proprietary technology, practical effects, lighting rigs, as well as the types of motion capture rigs/approaches seen in streams like ILM's StageCraft. Bollywood's production industry is now beginning to develop advanced VFX work through studios such as Red Chillies VFX and PhantomFX. Still, the gaps in scale, rendering power, proprietary technology development and capabilities will always be behind Hollywood productions.

Most VFX and post-production studios in India rely on third-party software and outsourcing rather than the in-house ecosystem of R&D models and insights that Hollywood studios use in their VFX departments.

Budget is one of the most notable differences. The typical big-budget Bollywood film might come between ₹200–300 crore (roughly $25–35 million), whereas Marvel's Avengers: Endgame alone had a budget of over ₹30,125,059,300 ($350 million). This difference affects everything from the quality of CGI to the total time in post-production. Bollywood is starting to invest more in VFX-heavy films (Brahmāstra, Jawan, Pathaan), but the scale is still small compared to Hollywood's multi-million dollar blockbuster universe-building efforts.

Films such as Krrish and RRR have significantly impacted the Indian cinema industry from being an entertainment stop to taking it a step closer to Hollywood standards for scale, production values, and universal market potential. Krrish was released in 2006 and was pioneering on many fronts; it was not only India's first successful superhero film, containing sophisticated special effects, ambitious action sequences and a story that moved between traditional emotions and mythical characters.

Krrish showed that Bollywood could produce large cinema products that followed Hollywood's ambition, storytelling, technical aspects, and imagination. Years later, RRR, directed by S. S. Rajamouli, demonstrated this to an even greater extent by providing a cinematic experience that was not only a runaway success at the box office here at home but also a critical success abroad, from North America to Japan.

The rich production design, exciting and fast action and themes of friendship, loyalty and sacrifice ingrained with universal ideas and recognition were overwhelming. Both films obliterated the notion that big-time, world-cinema spectacles only existed through Hollywood. They paved the way for Indian cinema to explore bigger stories, allow itself to use modern approaches, and open the market for global ideas, all of which were positive steps for it as it transitioned from an entertainment outlet to an emblazoned entity with a place on the larger cinema stage.

In terms of equipment, Bollywood has access to global-grade cameras, cranes, and drones, but lacks the scale of usage or volume of proprietary technology that Hollywood boasts. Moreover, training and specialisation in areas like previsualization, motion capture, and real-time rendering are still growing in India, while they are standard in major Hollywood studios.

Bollywood has access to global-grade cameras, cranes, and drones, but doesn't use the same length of time or quantity of proprietary equipment as Hollywood. Additionally, areas such as previsualization, motion capture, and real-time rendering are still developing in India, while these are everyday practices in big Hollywood studios.

At the current growth rate, Bollywood could take another 10–15 years to regularly achieve Hollywood's biggest titles' scale, polish, and technological depth (given the investments in infrastructure, Indian VFX innovation, and a pipeline for international training). However, given the recent momentum and interest in global storytelling, Bollywood seems to be on an upward trajectory.

VFX-Powered Action

When 'Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark' first came out in 1981, it was the starting point of a new standard for action-adventure filmmaking. Hollywood had mastered practical effects, miniature photography, and clever camera techniques that created a world filled with relentless danger, myth, and huge, iconic set pieces like the whole of the classic opening scene, complete with the giant boulder, the terrifying face-melting finale, and everything in between. This mastery of cinematic illusion showed the future of filmmaking entertainment, opening the door for filmmakers to reinvent the meaning of possibility in filmmaking.

Fast-forward to today, decades later, and visual effects have entirely transformed the action game in Bollywood films. They allow filmmakers to deliver their wildest imagination and explode boundaries without concerns for the physical limitations of design as they once had. With films like RRR, Brahmāstra, and Adipurush, filmmakers have completely reshaped storytelling possibilities, including the gifts of using rare digital beasts, massive battles, spectacular action scenes, and so much previously unfathomable drama in Indian cinema.

What has changed has been from using miniature builds, practical and simple chroma techniques, to state-of-the-art software of today with motion-capture technologies. While VFX has exponentially increased the size of action set pieces, they have also completely opened up the genre to the creative field, adding additional action storytelling possibilities to Bollywood's incredible range of imaginative stories to tell across an ever-expanding cinematic canvas.

How Audiences Are Shaping The Transition

Today's audiences are more intelligent, savvier, more demanding, and far less forgiving than ever. They have access to the world's content at their fingertips, and Indian viewers are no longer satisfied with generic slow-motion punches or irrelevant explosions. They want an elevated action experience, where action is grounded in realism, and blended with fantasy (grounded yet spectacular). Global franchises such as John Wick, The Dark Knight, Avengers and Mission: Impossible have trained audiences to expect fluid choreography, believable stunts, and high-tier CGI.

Bollywood must now create visually competitive films that are more than just eye candy; they must be visually coherent on a story level. Cinematography is vital. Every punch, kick, and explosion should inhabit time and space with fluidity, intent, and grace. Jarring cuts or shaky cameras do not help build tension; they take the viewer away from the action. Style is just as important as substance.

Emotion-driven action is equally vital. Audiences today want stakes to be personal. They want to feel why a character acts—why they are fighting, not just see how good a fighter they are. This emotional reality separates forgettable and iconic action sequences. Today, the viewer does not just sit passively as a cinema consumer. They analyse wirework and identify bad CGI. They write detailed reviews and share them online. If an action scene does not hold up to critique, it is salted and peppered no later than the opening weekend. And this level of accountability and exposure instils more confidence for Bollywood to improve and work on their action language; better designing, better pre-visualisation, world-class stunt teams, and clear-cut digital post-production - all spend, spend, spend! Ultimately, we get better action, which can and will, as a result, render better stories, and hopefully better eager audiences.

The Takeaway

Bollywood's action trajectory is impressive—a cinematic temporal arc reflecting the industry's larger historical arc. The abandoned gulley and godown environments characterising 1970s and ’80s cinema—with Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra raining down beatings on villains and social justice, resistance, and order—well, we have long left that world and entered the new age of grandeur and technical wizardry. The action film of old conjured sensations of unprocessed energy within symbolic fights in a profoundly emotional context. In the secular tradition of earlier action films, the fights reflected the influential figure's rage about society, the historical abilities of an individual to enact revenge through these representations, or the virtues of moral righteousness. These representations resonated with the land audience at catharsis engagements with suffering on screen.

The concept of action present today in Bollywood is much more nuanced. Action narratives rely less on brute strength and an overabundance of punches, while simultaneously embracing computer magicalness. Relying on physical choreography was apparent as the actions of Hrithik Roshan soaring to impossible physical highs in War or the animated visual poetry of Ranbir Kapoor in Brahmāstra. Action today is at least as concerned with digital narrative as scene-action seeming dynamism. The muscle now encompasses magic, and the 'punchlines' are as much the product of post-production studios as fight choreographers.

More significantly, Bollywood no longer creates action in a vacuum. Signatures from Hollywood, East Asian cinema, and mega-budget South Indian films are incorporated into the potpourri style adopted by today's top directors. Audiences have maturing demands as well. They want more than grand explosions and recoil-inducing punches in slow motion. They want emotional stakes in the action and compelling story arcs that lead us through the action.

Looking ahead, the future of action in Bollywood lies more in immersive technologies: augmented reality, motion capture, virtual production stages, and even AI-generated stunt doubles. As budgets go up and usage goes down, the boundary between video games and films will eventually disappear, facilitating action that is not just watched but experienced.

Despite the changes in the tools, Bollywood’s essence in action has not changed. It ultimately comes down to the same formula: adrenaline with emotion, and spectacle with story, whether it is the righteous wrath of Vijay in Zanjeer (1972) or the cosmic battles of Shiva in Brahmāstra (2022).