Can Bollywood biggies rescue the box office?

Despite satisfactory performances by young actors, overall collections have not been overwhelming at the box office.

MUMBAI:

Box office calculations indicate Bollywood made a decent start with the young kids on the block such as Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt. But the onus is on superstars Shahrukh Khan and Aamir Khan to turn an average year into a blockbuster in the last quarter, say trade analysts.

With close to 120 releases till mid  — August, the box office has garnered over INR 1,400 crore ($230 million) so far. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh extols the young brigade’s achievements, saying they have done a “tremendous job” this year.



“They have put their best foot forward — be it Tiger Shroff in Heropanti, Varun Dhawan in Main Tera Hero, Alia Bhatt in Highway or Arjun Kapoor in 2 States.

“This was something unexpected and they have proved their talent with their films,” Adarsh told IANS.

Manoj Desai, executive director of G7 multiplex and Maratha Mandir, also admitted the newcomers’ good performances have “come as a surprise to all of us”.

“Be it Heropanti, 2 States, Highway or City Lights — these films have not just recovered their money but also made a huge profit,” he said.

The movie 2 States entered the INR 100 crore club with INR 102 crore collection, Gunday minted INR 80 crore, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania raked in INR 75.5 crore and the unusual road movie Highway took home close to INR 30 crore.



This is not to forget Sidharth Malhotra and Shraddha Kapoor’s Ek Villain, which has done an amazing business at the box office.

Even some small-budget films did fair business. Queen and Ragini MMS 2 were big earners.

For the first six months, the youngsters set the ball rolling; then entered Salman Khan and ‘kicked’ a storm with his action-romantic drama Kick, the biggest money spinner of 2014 so far. Kick collected close to INR 211 crore. It is the biggest film of 2014 so far.

In between, Akshay Kumar too contributed with Holiday  — A Soldier Is Never Off Duty, but his Entertainment didn’t turn out to be entertaining enough to make big bucks.

And recently, Ajay Devgn and Rohit Shetty set box-office milestones rolling with Singham Returns, which earned INR 100.68 crore in the first five days of its release and it’s still counting.

Despite satisfactory performances by young actors, overall collections have not been overwhelming.

“Business has been poor and there has been a slowdown because of three reasons — general election, the Indian Premier League and examinations,” said Adarsh.

Three films — 2 States, Jai Ho and Holiday — entered the INR 100 crore club — but trade expert Manoj Desai insists that so far, it “has been an average year”.

“If we look at the records of the last year, it was way better than this year. I hope the remaining part of the year will make up,” he said.

Consequently, distributors are pinning hope on SRK’s Happy New Year, Aamir’s PK and Bang Bang, which has Hrithik Roshan.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2014.

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