Bollywood rejuvenated after string of hits

MUMBAI:

Bollywood has had a better start to the second-half of 2011 after a tough first six months of empty cinemas and postponed releases caused by clashes with major cricket tournaments, analysts say.

Long queues and ‘house full’ signs have returned to cinemas in India’s entertainment capital Mumbai and across the country since the start of June for a string of films that have proved a hit with audiences.

The upward trend started — after the end of the back-to-back World Cup and Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournaments — with Salman Khan’s action comedy Ready. Since then, Sanjay Dutt’s slapstick Double Dhamaal, Aamir Khan’s comedy Delhi Belly, the thriller Murder 2 and the Hrithik Roshan-Katrina Kaif road movie Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara have all done well.

The boxofficeindia.com website, which tracks industry takings, said that Zindagi Na... had taken INR443.2 million since it opened on July 15, calling it a hit.

Murder 2 had taken INR444.7 million in under two weeks, deeming it a blockbuster, while Delhi Belly had returns of INR540.3 million in three weeks, classing it as a super hit. Double Dhamaal, on the other hand, was assessed as “above average” with takings of INR452.1 million in four weeks.

“We’ve never had it so good. We’ve never had four successes back to back,” said trade analyst Komal Nahta, referring to Ready, Double Dhamaal, Murder 2 and Zindagi Na.

“When the World Cup and IPL were on, there wasn’t much filmed entertainment, so there was a hunger for films and people rushed to the cinemas.”

Despite the fact that overall revenues of the Indian film industry have fallen 20 per cent in the past three years, Vinod Mirani, another industry analyst, said the recent successes proved that good films would work no matter what.

All eyes are now turned to the next big release, Aarakshan, starring Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone, on August 12.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29^th,  2011.