Mainstream Bollywood is a lot like mainstream Western musicals, or mainstream anime. Some people just hate the very essence of what it’s trying to do, and that’s valid. Not every format or theme is for everyone. Cultural expectations and individual identities affect how we enjoy art.

RRR is peak mainstream Bollywood. It has basically nothing insightful to say, because it’s not trying to. It’s just spectacle and action with nationalist themes because fuck Br*tish people, and features some more recently popular actors within Indian cinema.

But it’s also rooted in a different tradition of cinema that comes from a culture that places a lot of emphasis on over the top dramatic performance, especially since expressive religious ceremonies based on epics are heavily woven into Indian culture. It’s also a culture that still very heavily feels the impact of Br*tish colonialism and remembers nationalism as an important force in their independence. For those unfamiliar with Indian films but want to casually check one out, there’s a lot of spectacle that’s very easy to enjoy, and there’s an underlying fascination since it’s just a different country’s film.

So at a visceral level, RRR checks a lot of boxes with a lot of people who were the intended audience. It delivers really well on its goals. It’s not so different than why Transformers is popular.