With no blockbusters and plenty of debacles, the first quarter of 2015 has been disappointing for the Bollywood box office, according to trade analysts. They say that it’s the lower-budget films such as NH10 and Badlapur that are making profits — and getting the plaudits.
It’s been an average year so far — none of the Khans’ films have released. The only A-list film was Baby, featuring Akshay Kumar, and is among the four movies that performed well.
“It has not been a great period. The first quarter has not been fruitful, especially when you compare it with the previous year. It has been quite bad. We had a major release like Jai Ho last year. This year, there was no such major film,” trade analyst Taran Adarsh said.
Komal Nahta, another film trade expert, said: “Only three or four films have worked.”
“I would say the first quarter has not been good at all, and that doesn’t mean [a] film that deserved to do well has flopped. All the films that have flopped deserved to flop. It has been a below-average year,” Nahta said.
While Neeraj Pandey’s Baby collected close to Rs800 million (Dh47 million), Sharat Katariya’s Dum Laga Ke Haisha collected around Rs270 million and is still going steady at the box office. Sriram Raghavan’s Badlapur managed Rs500 million, and Anushka Sharma’s debut production NH10 drew crowds and has garnered around Rs270 million so far.
Adarsh said: “PK was released last year and its business did well in the beginning of this year, but it was a 2014 release. As far as this year’s hit films are concerned, Dum Laga Ke Haisha, NH10, Badlapur and Baby — these films have done well. However, it’s not an encouraging ratio at all.”
Rajasthan-based distributor Sunil Bansal says distributors are making a loss.
“Small budget films have done fairly well this year, but their performance has not been exceptionally great. Many distributors have faced a huge loss this year as shows were going empty and we had to pull down many shows. However, films these four films have been saviours,” Bansal said.
Analysing what went wrong this year, Adarsh said: “The examination period [for schools], and most importantly, the Cricket World Cup [which began February 14 and ended on March 29] was going on. I do feel all these factors have affected the business drastically. We also need to pull up our socks in terms of content.”
What’s dismal is that the second quarter also doesn’t seem to be any better.
Nahta said: “There aren’t too many promising films on the horizon. Good times will begin from June and July. Having said that, there is a film like Gabbar is Back, [May 1] which could do well. It’s not that we are flooded with promising films.”
Adding to this, Adarsh said: “I am a born optimist, so I expect a lot and vacations will begin from April, so that will be a benefit for the films. Unfortunately, we don’t have a single film so far that has hit the [Rs 1 billion mark] so far. So, fingers crossed.”
