Despite the shift to romance, action did not die; it mutated. The "Khiladi" series launched as an action-comedy star ( Khiladi 1992, Main Khiladi Tu Anari 1994). Meanwhile, Govinda and David Dhawan created a new sub-genre: the mindless, slapstick comedy ( Coolie No. 1 1995, Hero No. 1 1997), which relied on mistaken identities and loud humor, providing a counterpoint to the weepy melodramas.
The decade saw a massive departure from the "dishoom-dishoom" action films of the previous era. Producers realized that "Musical Romances" were the safest bet for family audiences.
While romance ruled the charts, a parallel movement of realistic cinema was brewing. This era gave birth to the "Mumbai Noir" genre.
It was the year the soundtrack became as important as the script. Movies like Aashiqui and Dil proved that if you had the music, you had the audience, a business model that persists in Bollywood to this day.
– A glossy musical about soulmates. Baazigar (1993) – The film that made SRK a superstar. Aashiqui (1990) – The album that defined a generation.
Here is a curated piece looking back at the cinema of 1990.