The heart has been in healthier shape during the first six months of 2011. Mumbai showtown’s cardiologists are actually smiling. Reason: there has been no financial disaster of the magnitude of last year’s Kites and Raavan. The biggest turkeys so far have been the relatively medium-budgeted thriller Game and the frown-raiser Thank You.
Ironically, right now, director Anees Bazmee can be considered the champ of the 2011’s most successful film Ready, till now which is said to have toted collections in the vicinity of `115 crore. And he’s also the winner of the mega-flop award for the risible comedy Thank You which gathered around `45 crore. Extreme contradictions abound, in a business which is as iffy as a punctual airflight is nowadays.
Wary of premiering films during the weeks of the IPL and World Cup matches, evidently several topline producers have targeted the latter half of the year. Normally, B-town produces 175 films a year. Of the number, only about 55 new films have hit the multiplexes from January to June-end. The quantity begins to escalate October-onwards.
Despite diversion of the audience’s interest from movies to sport in the opening half of the year, it hasn’t been a season of debacles. In any case, why ‘blame’ M.S. Dhoni’s pyrotechnics or Sachin Tendulkar’s boundaries? Usually only about five per cent of Bollywood’s annual output sprint to the hit status. And so far, indications are that the success quotient could improve during the coming months which are freckled with more holidays. During the Eid, Diwali and Christmas weeks, traditionally moviegoers are known to loosen their purse-strings.
As for any trends in what makes whoopee at the cash counters, it has been reaffirmed that overwhelmingly, no-brainers are the fastest ticket-sellers. Ever since the multiplex boom during the last five years, the aim has been to pack in the maximum number of viewers during the first weekend of a film’s release, take the money and run. Today silver jubilees, signifying an uninterrupted 25-week run at a cinema hall, or even a 100-day score, belong to sepia-tinted memory files.
A chaotically plotted and executed Ready, which essentially spotlighted Salman Khan’s goofy charm (and of course, body beautiful), has become an even more profitable earner than the actor’s action-blaster Dabangg. The Khan who has been going through a winning streak, is now readying Bodyguard for an Eid release (August 31). Similarly Shah Rukh Khan aims to release his special effects superhero flick, Ra:One, on Diwali (October 26).
So far, Indra Kumar’s Double Dhamaal has been the second highest cash-grabber amassing `36 crore in a single week.The excessively loud and lurching antics of Sanjay Dutt, flanked by Javed Jaffery, Riteish Deshmukh and Arshad Warsi, catered unapolgetically to the lowest common denominator and clicked. Ditto, one of the year’s earliest releases — Yamla Pagla Deewana — which was lapped up, never mind a plotline which was as implausible as a `11 note. Dharmendra and sons Sunny and Bobby, evidently, continue to have a solid fan base, fetching Yamla.. collections of over `52 crore.
Vikram Bhatt’s 3-D Haunted shuddered so many spines, especially in the smaller towns, that it was adjudged the biggest-ever commercial success in Indian cinema’s horror genre. Trade statistics cite its collection at over `25 crore. The Kangna Ranaut-R. Madhavan marry-go-round Tanu Weds Manu, emerged as a surprise triumph, ringing in over `35 crore. And FALTU the juvenile comedy-cum-showreel for Vashu Bhagnani’s son Jacky, brought in a harvest of `23 crores. There’s no accounting for taste really.
Gratifyingly, a clutch of superior quality did sail through the choppy seas of the box office, led by the hard-knuckled No One Killed Jessica. In addition, tradewallas slotted Stanley ka Dabba, Pyaar ka Punchnama and Yeh Saali Zindagi among the okey-dokey category, meaning they did manage to do average business.
Thumbs went down, commercially speaking at least, on Saat Khoon Maaf — which featured Priyanka Chopra to the point of creating audience fatigue. Akshay Kumar as an NRI wannabe test cricketer in Patiala House was — what can you say — bowled out.
July has kicked off with the clash of the Amitabh Bachchan near-solo act Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap and the Aamir Khan-produced, utterly irreverent Delhi Belly. The upbeat news is that they’ve sold tickets.
Inevitably, the rest of 2011 will spring surprises, of the good, the bad and the unpleasant kind. But then that’s cinema: you can never tell what will be digestible in your Bollywood belly.