Back‘Housefull 3’, ‘Udta Punjab’ signal exciting second half for Bollywood
Hollywood dominated the Indian box office for most of the first half of 2016; it's up to Bollywood to try and make up in the remaining six months
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New Delhi: With Hollywood having dominated the Indian box office for most of the first half of 2016, it is up to Bollywood to try and make up in the remaining six months. And from the looks of it, the month gone by has set the tone.
“The month of June is actually when producers usually plan their big releases and big films start releasing after exams—signalling vacation time," said Ashish Saksena, chief operating officer-cinemas at BookMyShow. “The month is not as vibrant as July-August in terms of releases and business, but it is definitely the start of the season."
Rajendar Singh, vice-president, programming and distribution, INOX Leisure Ltd, agrees that June has been a good month despite the pre-Ramzan period having kicked in.
“Pre-Ramzan, like pre-Diwali, is always a dull period. But the collections in June have been good," Singh said, adding that Housefull 3 has been the film of the month for him.
The multi-starrer comedy featuring Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh and Jacqueline Fernandez, despite harsh reviews, has brought in collections of more than ₹ 107 crore, according to movie website Bollywood Hungama.
Other Hindi offerings couldn’t manage the same though—Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Te3n ended up with barely ₹ 19 crore while Anurag Kashyap’s dark thriller Raman Raghav 2.0 only managed ₹ 6 crore.
While Saksena feels Kashyap’s film may have been affected by the barrage of releases—more than eight in that particular week—Singh’s take on Te3n differs. “Te3n was a little on the slower side and also similar in plot line to Amitabh Bachchan’s previous release, Wazir. A thriller where he turns out to be the mastermind at the end," Singh said.
The highlight of the month, undoubtedly, was the release of director Abhishek Chaubey’s controversial drugs drama Udta Punjab. The Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Diljit Dosanjh-starrer that has minted about ₹ 58 crore up until now saw an online copy leaked a couple of days before release besides being at the centre of a widely reported row with the censor board.
“Controversies usually help in getting the film an opening. Thereafter, it has to perform on its own. Udta Punjab was helped by tremendous visibility but ultimately it sustained superbly due to its content," noted Saksena, adding that on BookMyShow, the film gained the second highest ticket sales during the month for a movie.
Besides Hollywood releases like The Conjuring 2 ( ₹ 53.78 crore) and Finding Dory ( ₹ 10.72 crore), June also saw impressive performances from Telugu movies A Aa and Gentleman. For the coming month too, trade experts say there is much to look forward to—Rajnikanth’s Tamil gangster drama Kabali, John Abraham and Varun Dhawan-starrer Dishoom, Daggubati Venkatesh’s Telugu romantic comedy Babu Bangaram and Malayalam thriller Kasaba. Nothing, however, as big as the Eid release this week.
As Singh puts it, “It’s about Sultan, Sultan and only Sultan."
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