Even Hey! Ram wasn't a generic hindi film, was it? Marathi-Bengali-Tamil, more like. They only 'spoke' indhi..

Yuva, Guru both failures if you read in to bihari-bengali, Gujju nuances, but works as a cleansed out 'generic' Indhi films.

I haven't lived in predominantly 'indhi-lands' but almost all my generic indhi guys (ones settled in Bombay & geographically aregional pan-Indian gentlemen) treat Mani's films to be more aspecific & less rooted (duh!) than KH's, and as a result, seemingly more 'generic' hindi film.

Roja, Bombay still treated as 'dubbed films'. 'Dil Se' as a no-man's land film with Indhi faces & places which sort of worked, but it didn't show in box-office.

Biggest non-Indhi factor about KH's films is KH himself.