Star power sells, but content is still king. This held true for Bollywood’s roaster-coaster 2015, a year full of films with strong and unique storylines making their small presence felt in a big way.
The big stars, barring Salman Khan, somehow failed to make much money, say trade experts, pointing out how only five of the nearly 172 Hindi film releases surpassed the Rs1 billion (Dh55.6 million) mark at the domestic box office. And this included Shah Rukh Khan’s Dilwale.
However, trade analyst Taran Adarsh said that the year hasn’t been worse than usual.
“It has been a trend since the past so many years now that we have had more flops and [fewer] hits. So you really can’t say that the year has been a bad one. When big films fail, it is very upsetting and really bad for the industry,” Adarsh said.
Hopes were high for movies such as Shamitabh, Roy, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, Bombay Velvet, Dil Dhadakne Do, Hamari Adhuri Kahani, Katti Batti and Shaandaar — all of which had storylines that deviated from the norm — but they all failed to get a positive response.
Movies that were welcomed by the Indian audience were Baby, Dum Laga Ke Haisha, NH10 and Piku; as well as to some formulaic entertainers such as Drishyam, Welcome Back, Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon, Singh Is Bliing and Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2.
“The year has witnessed a diverse set of films. People chose content that touched their heart and which they could carry home after getting out of the theatres,” Adarsh said.
Rucha Pathak, chief creative officer at Fox Star Studios, agreed that “2015 has been a great year in terms of content, not only for small films, but also for big films. The biggest example of the power of good content is Bajrangi Bhaijaan. Even some of the smaller films really garnered good word of mouth from the audience.”
In comparison to the seven films that crossed the Rs1 billion milestone in 2014, 2015 has had only five so far — Kangana Ranaut’s Tanu Weds Manu Returns (Rs1.5 billion); Shraddha Kapoor and Varun Dhawan film ABCD 2 (Rs1.05 billion); Salman Khan’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan (Rs3.2 billion), Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (over Rs2 billion); and Shah Rukh Khan’s Dilwale (Rs1 billion and going strong).
But, in terms of the number of hits, 2015 was way ahead of last year, said Delhi-based film distributor Joginder Mahajan.
“This year has been good, especially for multiplexes. The last six, seven months have been great. It was not so good for single screen owners, as most of the films were made keeping in mind the multiplex audience.
“[Multiplex] owners have seen a growth of 25 per cent in footfalls in comparison to 2014. However, single screens have seen a decline of 12 to 15 per cent,” Mahajan said.
What came as a surprise this year was southern historic epic Bahubali: The Beginning, whose Hindi version itself collected more than Rs1 billion.
“This is the first time that a dubbed film has done really well. It’s good to see that,” film expert Vinod Mirani said.
He also pointed out that “these days, budgets of films have become unreasonably high and this is not viable”.
“Today you make a film for Rs130 crore [Rs1.3 billion] to Rs140 crore and then expect it to collect over Rs300 crore and recover all the money. That really doesn’t happen,” he said.
This year was also one where women shone. Big actors like Akshay Kumar and Ranbir Kapoor, who had three to four releases this year, were shadowed by actresses like Deepika Padukone and Kangana Ranaut.
“Women came into their own in 2015. If there’s one very good trend in 2015, apart from the strong scripts making their impact at the box office, it’s that women have proved to be the successful risk-takers and have been doing some amazing work in the movies this year,” Pathak said.
In a nutshell:
* Overall, a mixed response for films released in 2015.
* Many big budget projects failed to entertain.
* Only five of the 172 Hindi films were Rs1 billion grossers.
* Content ruled the box office even when it came out of films without big stars and a big budget.
