Masala (film genre)

Masala films of Indian cinema are those that mix genres in one work. Typically these films freely mix action, comedy, romance, and drama or melodrama. They tend to be musicals that include songs filmed in picturesque locations. The genre is named after the masala, a mixture of spices in Indian cuisine. According to The Hindu, masala is the most popular genre of Indian cinema.

The origin of this genre is generally credited to the filmmaker Manmohan Desai and screenwriter duo Salim-Javed who very successfully exploited the genre in the 1970s and 1980s. It helped establish many leading actors as superstars such as Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakrabarty, Rajnikanth, Chiranjeevi, Vishnuvardhan, Ambareesh. Actress Sridevi received stardom in her early Bollywood career with Masala movies. More recently, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Mahesh Babu, Pawan Kalyan, Allu Arjun, Jr. NTR, Ajith Kumar, Joseph Vijay, Darshan, Dev and Jeet have all tasted success in this format.

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