This year, Bollywood appears to be saving the best for the last
MUMBAI: For Bollywood, it has been a dismal year. Takings at the box office have been mediocre.
All hopes now lay on the yearend releases in the last quarter.
Bollywood is keeping its fingers crossed for Judwaa 2, Golmaal Again, Secret Superstar, Padmavati and Tiger Zinda Hai.
Raees, Raabta, Ok Jaanu, Rangoon, Sarkar 3, Meri Pyari Bindu, Bank Chor and so many more – every actor from every genre tried to make it big this year but the drought has prevailed. Is it viewer fatigue, or that the offerings are way too bland?
Major releases clubbed together, producers have put in investments to the tune of 15 billion rupees ( RM103.5 million) but only 70 per cent of the costs have been recovered.
Speaking of highly disappointing numbers from promising flicks one can’t help but talk about Jagga Jasoos whose total nett gross stood at 526 million rupees, Begum Jaan that barely touched 200 million rupees and Sarkar 3 that made about 100 million rupees, among others.
Even surefire performers – the Khans – failed to grab viewers’ attention. Salman Khan’s festive release Tubelight and Shahrukh’s Harry Met Sejal though limped their way towards Bollywood’s much coveted onebillion-rupee club but they failed to live up to the expectations of the audience in terms of content and that of distributors in terms of collections.
Such was the disappointment, that both the Khans agreed to return money to the distributors.
“Tubelight and Harry Met Sejal was expected to bring in at least five billion rupees to the box office collectively but they could hardly make 1.7 billion rupees and that was a huge setback for the industry,” said film trade analyst Atul Mohan.
While the half-yearly Bollywood report card only had terrifying tales to tell, the filmmakers have taken the loss in their stride.
According to Rohit Shetty this is just a phase and will not last. This keeps happening every five years in the industry he said.
With hope, comes expectations and Bollywood is no different. “Padmavati should bring in three billion rupees, Tiger Zinda Hai another three billion rupees, Golmal Again should fetch us 1.5 billion rupees and Secret Superstar too should clock good numbers. These are however speculations and the industry is counting on these releases because none of them has a budget below one billion rupees. So making it to the billion-rupee club would not be enough,” reckoned a wary Mohan.