Comparison to last year!
This year, in this quarter, we had only movies like ‘Munjya‘, ‘Kalki 2898 AD‘ and ‘Stree 2’ which performed well at the box office. But last year during the same period, there were many more movies. Film expert and producer Girish Johar says, “If you compare this quarter vis-a-vis last quarter, I think September is still halfway but there are no major big releases. We still have 2-3 weeks to go in September, but having said that, last year we did approximately around 1800-2000 crores in that quarter, box office-wise, in the Indian market, and presently we are around 1100-1200 crores as of now.”
He further added, “Last year in the same period we had Oppenheimer, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, then in August we had ‘Gadar 2’, ‘Oh My God’, ‘Dream Girl 2’ also in August, then in September last year, we had ‘Jawan’.”
Hits and misses
Exhibitor-Disributor Raj Bhansal says, “The year 2023 created a new record at the box office and we saw 4-5 Hindi films creating a new 500 crore club at the box office. When we entered 2024, we thought we would create a new record. But unfortunately, the first six months were disappointing and we were all dejected and sad. The area of hope came with the release of ‘Munjya’ and now ‘Stree 2’ which has become the biggest box office grosser in the last 70 years.”
He further added, “Apart from that, we had ‘Kalki 2898 Ad’ which did a business of around Rs 350 crore in the Hindi dubbed version. We had other big films in this quarter which didn’t didn’t do well. ‘Chandu Champion’ was a well-made films which didn’t match expectations of the producers and the audience. There was ‘Khel Khel Mein’ and some other films, they were moderate movies.”
Film Exhibitor Akshaye Rathi says, “If you look at it, the icon of this quarter is ‘Stree 2’ because nothing else has worked really. Even in terms of the ‘ROI’ (return on investment), ‘Stree 2’ has been terrific. A lot of movies that these bad people had expectations from unfortunately underperformed. All of us really were left, you know, wanting more in terms of the numbers. All of us are hoping that the next quarter with a festive season kicking in a lot of these movies”
In this quarter, movies like ‘Auron Mein Kya Dum Tha’, ‘Chandu Champion’ among others proved to be disappointing.
‘Stree 2’ dominates! Actor Abhishek Banerjee reacts!
Clearly ‘Stree 2’ success has been unprecedented. Actor Abhishek Banerjee, who got immense love for the movie reacts to the success of the movie and says, “I don’t think anybody expected this massive response at the box office. We all knew that the audience loves the film and like how Amar Kaushik, the film director, has said that, the film made because of the audience, public, it was basically made on public demand and the way public has graciously accepted our efforts, just there’s a lot of gratitude to be very honest. About the overall performance of our Hindi film industry on box office, I feel this is a year of stories, this is the year of original ideas, there are so many films which have, I think, done well, which was not probably expected out of them.”
Picking his other few favourites this year, Banerjee picks, “Films like 12th Fail, films like Laapataa Ladies, even Madgaon Express did so well, Shaitaan – yeh sab kaafi Achi film thi, that were loved by the audience. Probably we are in the era of superstar writing, I think writing and direction has become, has taken the centre stage. Directors and writers, like Amar Kaushik, writers like Niren Bhatt, producers like Dinesh Vijan, I think they’re the real superstars of this year.”
Learning from this quarter
We ask experts about the learning we can take from the hits and misses of this quarter. Akshaye Rathi adds, “It’s about getting the priorities right in terms of what the spends are made on. We’ve seen movies that top lines are our biggest stars, which they leave open at the box office, forget about doing well eventually. And then you have a movie like Stree which purely on the merit of the franchise value, the content and the writing, took one of the biggest starts in the history of Hindi cinema and has eventually you know, is challenging the highest grossing thing in the history of Hindi cinema. So I think eventually we need to put our focus back on the writing, on entertaining the hell out of the audiences and using stars only as the firepower to take that content to a bigger opening rather than depending on star power to deliver openings to a content that may be good, bad or ugly.”
He further says, that the maximum spends on a movie is on the cast. “In terms of cost, for most of our films, the biggest expense is the cost of talent. And here you had Rajkumar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor in ‘Stree 2’, who were fronting it, who aren’t stars who command a fortune like Salman Khan or Akshay Kumar. So that way, it did work out to be reasonable. Because the remuneration that you pay to actors like these is less than what you pay to superstars, and yet they’re phenomenal actors. Yet, the film became so successful.”
Abhishek Banerjee says, this era sums up the attention that needs to be paid to creativity and content. “It’s great for all kinds of creative professionals because probably creativity is getting noticed. It’s a great space that is setting the standards for the times ahead that I think we need to focus more on story, focus more on the content, focus more on the technical aspect of filmmaking and the audience will give it back. Bahut saalo baad mujhe yeh sunne mein mila hai ki word of mouth is the biggest marketing tool these days, jo apparently 70s mein hota tha, before internet and before marketing campaigns ke pehle jo filmein hit hoti thi, wo hoti thi because of word of mouth.”
Sleeper hit
One of the shocking hits of this quarter was ‘Munjya’. Reacting to the film being a sleeper hit, Mona Singh told ETimes, “Of course it was a sleeper hit. I had thought kids will go and will love it, as it’s a horror comedy film. I was sure that kids will have fun and suddenly we have Rs 50 crores, 70 crores. We were shocked. It’s a motivation for actors when films like these do well because we can continue doing such work. So, we are all very happy. This success re-enforces the fact that content is king.”
Expectations from the last quarter
The last quarter is filled with many bigges and small gems which the industry is eyeing and how. There are movies like ‘Singham Again’, Alia Bhatt’s ‘Jigra’, Aamir Khan’s ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’, Varun Dhawan’s ‘Baby John’ among others which have high hopes.
