Its Raining Hits In Bollywood

The first month of second half of the year has proved lucky for Hindi movies as mostly all of them have set the cash registers singing with the Ajay Devgn cop act in his latest film roaring loud at the box office, has collected 44.32 cr in its 1st week.

While the first film to start off with this run was 'Delhi Belly' (DB), subsequently several other movies belonging to different genres followed suit. DB was unconventional in every sense and though it was released in both Hindi and English. Industry insiders predicted it would have the kind of collections it would have. While it also means that the audience is evolving and their tastes changing, it also gives new directors a chance to experiment.

July box-office record: Bollywood rakes in Rs 210 crore

No July in Bollywood's box-office history has raked in as much profits as this month has. Peg it to the youthful appeal ofDelhi Belly andZindagi Na Mile Dobara or the bloody rage ofMurder 2 and Singham, but July 2011 brought business worth Rs 210 crore.

Suniel Wadhwa, independent distributor and box office analyst says, "After the box office hit record levels in June with Ready, Double Dhamaal, the good times continued to roll in July. At Rs 210 crore net box office collections, it was the highest-grossing July ever seen in the history of Bollywood, jumping over by 80% from July 2010." and recording an increase of 105% compared to an average six-monthly January-June 2011 monthly box office.

Business Thoughts: How the cinema consumer is changing

Does the box office rule? Yes and No. Yes, because in terms of absolute numbers, it is still the largest contributor to a film's revenue. No, because its percentage contribution over the last five years has dipped sharply as it faces growing competition since fans choose to consume entertainment via other platforms like television, mobile and the internet. As for music, home video as well as overseas, each is a story in itself.

Each one has myriad reasons for its changing fortunes as new ones take their place and increase their presence. While big brother, box office, retains its number one position, satellite and the fast-growing digital rights market come next, giving an opportunity for many new players to garner a share in the growing Bollywood pie.

Take overseas, for example. The year 2006 was a dream year for Hindi cinema. Six movies -Kabhie Alvida Naa Kehna, Dhoom 2, Don, Lage Raho Munnabhai, Rang De Basanti and Fanaa crossed the $2-million mark at the US box office. In 2010, only one film grossed more than $2 million at the US box office. While the US market slipped, overseas revenues increased because of new markets (50 markets today) as well as new platforms largely aided by the internet and television.

Bollywood unleashes new cinema as viewer tastes change

Be it the rural flavour of ‘Ishqiya’, the sexual overtones of ‘Love Sex Aur Dhokha’ or the urban adult comedy ‘Delhi Belly’, notice how unconventional themes are being lapped up by moviegoers?

Viewer tastes appear to be changing as new age filmmakers endeavour to stay away from the larger-than-life characters, melodrama and typical romances Bollywood has always been known for.

New entrant Imran Khan, the lead actor of adult comedy ‘Delhi Belly’, who is flourishing under the umbrella of his talented uncle Aamir Khan, feels the new lot of filmmakers is the baton carrier and ‘the industry has opened up a lot more’.

‘Writers, producers and actors have opened so much to off-beat cinema and the audience has grown alongside,’ he added.

Despite being tagged as an A-movie, replete with expletives and with no-morals attached, Imran’s ‘Delhi Belly’ hit the right chord and its success has proved that moviebuffs are coming of age too.

Mid-2011: Bollywood Boxoffice Report

The promising success of the two most recent releases at the BO has brought smiles not only to their producers, but has also heralded a wave of optimistic cheer in Bollywood. With the cricket fever and the examination season taking a heavy toll on the BO collections, the industry suffered losses close to Rs 150 crores, say trade analysts. Of the near 47 theatrical releases in the first half, about 11 have been declared hits, while only one, Salman Khan-starrer Ready has been tagged a superhit.

"It was a bad season for Bollywood, but in comparison to the previous years, I would say it was a good first half with some interesting films during the period. The industry was well-aware that with cricket reigning for as long as three months and then the exam periods in between too, the films would suffer, so this much loss was expected," says trade analyst Taran Adarsh, adding that the year began on a good note with the films No One Killed Jessica, Yamla Pagla Deewana and Tanu Weds Manu being declared hits in the first two months itself.

Trade analyst Amod Mehra points out, "The losses would've been higher had more big budget films been released and not done well," he explains adding, "Most films that released didn't stand a chance had they released alongside the biggies in the second half of the year, so it made sense to release them then even if it was cricket season." But despite the disappointing collections in the first half, trade analysts say that the out-of-the-box films like Shor, Dhobhi Ghaat, No One…, and even horror flicks the 3D Haunted and Ragini MMS kept the audiences interested.

 Thumbs Up movies Of 2011

 

Beside these movies, the films those were able to touch break-even point were Chalo Delhi, Yeh Saali Zindegi, Ragini MMS.

 Thumbs Down movies Of 2011

 In the other side, This year some big budget movies were bite the dust. The biggest disappoint of the year are 7 Khoon Maaf and Dum maro Dum, Game, Patiala house. The expectation from these movies were greate but these movies are not even able to recover their cost.  

Movie Preview: Double Dhamaal And Boxoffice Prediction

After having the audience in splits with 2007 hit film Dhamaal, the comical five some of Riteish Deshmukh, Jaaved Jaffery, Arshad Warsi, Ashish Chaudhary and Sanjay Dutt are returning with a double dose of entertainment in the sequel Double Dhamaal, releasing on Friday (June 24).

Directed by Indra Kumar, the movie co-produced by Reliance Entertainment and Maruti International, has new additions to the cast - Kangana Ranaut and Mallika Sherawat.

The story of Double Dhamaal starts where it ended in Dhamaal, when they donate all the money that they had acquired. The four good for nothing jokers -- Roy (Riteish ), Manav (Jaaved), Adi (Arshad) and Boman (Aashish Chowdhary) -- still dream of a good life where they would get everything without doing anything.

Enter their old arch-nemesis and corrupt inspector Kabir (Sanjay), who is no longer a cop and is now leading a luxurious life. He drives a Mercedes, has a posh office and lives in a villa. After seeing all the comfort and luxury in Kabir's life, Roy, Manav, Adi and Boman feel jealous and decide come what may, they will share his fortune.

However, they are unaware that their quest to turn their dreams into a reality would become a nightmare as Kabir has his own agenda, only shared by his wife Kamini (Mallika Sherawat) and his sister Kiya (Kangana Ranaut).

Made at a budget of Rs.35 crore, the film has been shot in Mauritius, Hong Kong and Mumbai and promises to be a rib-tickling comedy. Another highlight of the movie is that after "Munni" and "Sheila", sultry Mallika will be seen giving competition to Malaika Arora Khan and Katrina Kaif as Jalebi Bai with her item song.

The makers have also bought the rights of the hit song of Oye Oye from the 1989 action film Tridev and remixed it to suit the GenNext audience. The music of the film is given by composer Anand Raj Anand.

The other highlight of the film is said to be Ashish, who dons the garb of a woman and even learnt how to behave like one for the role. And it was Riteish, who demonstrated catwalk skills to Ashish and gave him a lot of tips which helped in his performance. Riteish had played a woman in Apna Sapna Money Money.

Ashish will show his 'adaas' and 'nakhras' as a girl while seducing Sanjay in the movie.

The shooting of the film, however, proved to be quite painful for Jaaved as he fractured his leg on the sets and had to be admitted to a hospital. As a result the director had to alter the final scene of the film.

The film is set for a worldwide premiere at the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards function to be held next week in Toronto.

Whether the sequel will be able to repeat the success of the 2007 film Dhamaal is yet to be seen.

Boxoffice Prediction;

The films trailer has created a lot of buzz in the industry and expectation was very high from the movie but due to the madness of Ready all around it did lose out on the hype proportion to some extent. From all angle the film is expected to make an impact on the film's opening which instead of being very good to excellent around 70% occupancy level, which is approximately 25cr in the weekends, taking 1000 print release,  now the business around 55-60% in around 19cr weekends. The first day should be around 5.5cr-6cr mark. But if it offers a good content , then it may reach 22cr mark. 

The movie Budget is around 35 cr (including P&P), required to do business around 60cr mark in Indian boxoffice  to get a hit status, all will clear in few days.

Salman Khan The Ultimate Superstar

Salman Khan has emerged as top of the order performer. He was actor par excellence from the day one, but it is now that he is being regarded as the top money making machine in Bollywood.

His films rock at the box office and have done amazingly consistently without fail for years. He is a man of all seasons.

Akshay Kumar was touted to have eclipsed all. But that was one film success, and he has failed to explain the high premium he carries due to the umpteen flops and duds that he has given to his producers.

He is stunt man in one film, lover in another and comedian in his next film. But all his films have been flopping one after the other.

Another big name in the industry who didn’t have any hesitation in calling King Khan has stopped releasing films. I don’t remember the last time when we saw him in action. His last film My Name is Khan too didn’t do that well at the box office.

Salman Khan’s Ready is making the same sort of records at the box office as Dabangg did a few months ago. Read’s collections have already crossed Rs 110 crore mark in the Indian market alone.

His appeal in the overseas market is big and the films performed very good in the UK by collecting around 4.21cr & in USA the films has collected 415cr approximately.

Senseless film pundits had predicted Ready’s doom at the box office. But the success it has got has made their mouth shut.