Bhatt Films: Box office Analysis

By Archit Mishra (click here to read more articles from the author)

With the next ‘Bhatt’ generation ready to take over, we analyze the sequels produced by Vishesh Films, owned by brothers Mukesh Bhatt (Founder, Chairman & Managing Director) and Mahesh Bhatt (Creative Consultant). Murder 3 marked the directorial debut of Mukesh Bhatt’s son, Vishesh Bhatt, after whom their production house is named. It’s true that almost all of their films have had a fair bit of controversies due to obscenity involved, but hullabaloos alone can never give you hits and these movies also had good scripts which made them sail through at the box office. Every installment in their franchises has nothing much to do with their respective prequels, but belong to the same genre.

Without any second thoughts, Raaz is the best that India has produced in the horror/supernatural genre because of the universal acceptance and box office benchmarks it has set in this genre time and again. Jism is all about deceit backed by good dosage of sultriness. As the name suggests, Murder revolves around killings and has its share of thrills and chills for the audience. Finally, Jannat deals with crime such as match fixing and arms smuggling. While all these series are different in terms of their subjects, a perfect blend of passionate romance, drama and super hit music is common in all.

Box Office Performance:

FranchiseFilmTeamNet BO Collections | Verdict
RAAZ MoviesRaaz (2002)Directed By: Vikram Bhatt
Starring: Bipasha Basu, Dino Morea & Ashutosh Rana
22cr | BLOCKBUSTER
(2nd Biggest Grosser of the Year)
Raaz - The Mystery Continues (2009)Directed By: Mohit Suri
Starring: Emraan Hashmi, Kangna Ranaut & Adhyayan Suman
26cr | SEMI HIT
(15th Biggest Grosser of the Year)
Raaz 3 - 3D (2012)Directed By: Vikram Bhatt
Starring: Bipasha Basu, Emraan Hashmi & Esha Gupta
67cr | SUPER HIT
(13th Biggest Grosser of the Year)
JISM MoviesJism (2003)Directed By: Amit Saxena
Starring: Bipasha Basu, John Abraham & Gulshan Grover
8cr | ABOVE AVERAGE
Jism 2 (2012)Directed By: Pooja Bhatt
Starring: Randeep Hooda, Arunoday Singh, Sunny Leone
34cr | ABOVE AVERAGE
MURDER MoviesMurder (2004)Directed By: Anurag Basu
Starring: Emraan Hashmi, Mallika Sherawat & Ashmit Patel
17cr | SUPER HIT
(9th Biggest Grosser of the Year)
Murder 2 (2011)Directed By: Mohit Suri
Starring: Emraan Hashmi, Jacqueline Fernandez, Prashant Narayanan
46cr | BLOCKBUSTER
(13th Biggest Grosser of the Year)
JANNAT MoviesJannat (2008)Directed By: Kunal Deshmukh
Starring: Emraan Hashmi & Sonal Chauhan
31cr | SUPER HIT
(12th Biggest Grosser of the Year)
Jannat 2 (2012)Directed By: Kunal Deshmukh
Starring: Emraan Hashmi, Randeep Hooda & Esha Gupta
42cr | SEMI HIT
  • It all began with Raaz (2002) which grossed over 22 crore and was only second to the mega budget Devdas (2002) at the ticket window that year. Ironically, Raaz also happens to be the only film (produced by the Bhatt’s) which managed to steal a spot in TOP3/ TOP5 in spite of 8 other profitable endeavors that followed. Interestingly, Raaz – The Mystery Continues (2009) was the first sequel to be made among all the franchises mentioned above.
  • With 6 and 3 films under their belts respectively, Emraan Hashmi and Bipasha Basu may be characterized as the trump cards of the Bhatt camp. Similarly, directors Vikram Bhatt, Mohit Suri and Kunal Deshmukh have called the shot twice each.
  • Another horror series which deserves a place in this write up is Vikram Bhatt’s 1920. Both the features, 1920 (2008) and 1920: Evil Returns (2012), were critically acclaimed and commercially viable. The only reason we haven’t included them in our list is that they were not produced by Vishesh Films, but Vikram Bhatt himself.

Hit Formula: 4 franchises comprising of 9 films over the span of 11 years and quite astonishingly, when you don’t find even a single flop, your mind is forced to boggle. Well, Vishesh Films have a simple and rather straightforward approach: Instead of big A-List stars and splendor locales, they just rely on their content. This, pretty naturally, keeps their budgets to minimal and thus profit becomes a certainty. Not everybody is aware of the tactic to make phenomenal business out of limited screen counts, but I bet these guys do.

TOP 3 Bhatt Songs: In addition to intelligent commercial quotient, the Bhatts have also got tremendous music sense which plays a vital role for the upsurge of the buzz around release dates. We’ve selected our Top 3 songs (in the order of their occurrences) from the above films that went on to make most of the noise.

“Aapke pyaar mein” – Raaz (2002)

“Jaadu hai nasha hai” – Jism (2003) [Filmfare Best Female Playback Award – Shreya Ghoshal]

“Bheege hont tere” – Murder (2004)

Influences from Foreign Cinema: In the words of Mahesh Bhatt himself, “Our brain is a recycle bin and every thought/action of ours is inspired by something or the other we’ve seen, read or heard in the past”. Most of the films discussed here are believed to have taken their share of elements (plot/screenplay/dialogues) from previously released films:- Raaz – What Lies Beneath (2000); Raaz The Mystery Continues – The Ring 2 (2005) and Gothika (2003); Jism – Body Heat (1981) and Double Indemnity (1944); Jism 2 – Last Tango In Paris (1972); Murder – Unfaithful (2002); Murder 2 – The Chaser (2008). Their latest offering, Murder 3, is also remake of the Columbian film, The Hidden Face (2011).

Which Bhatt series is your favorite?

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24 Comments

  • i love bhatt production movies. i love emmi and her all fameli…

    it’s my number 9804666837. i waiting for you’r call of last day in my life…… i love you emmi….

  • Bhatti are not the biggest deuce bags in in the industry but nonetheless they are amongst the top 3. Starting with a few acclaimed films which were good but the way Mr Mahesh went from there can even make ED Woods break a sweat in his grave who’s been his successor but the difference ends there Mr Mahesh Bhatt thinks of himself as the pall bearer of the industry he so loathes n thinks of himself above every1. U want to know the genius then just go his movies he has directed after a few critical movies. If someone has a track record of making the maximum no of rip offs then it’s this guy,Making 20 bad movies n a few films doesnt make someone s genius which he is whether anyone agrees or not. The worst part is he claims to have even written the scripts of those copied movies.
    He is doing great to hv stopped directing movies after Zakhm. That alone is award worthy n the industry is better off without him but now he has been ranting through a different medium doing even worse damage. I can go and go on both these self loving brothers who r an idiot based of the highest caliber. arrogance based on the movies.
    Ali’a too knows it which is why she didn’t jeopardise her career by starting off with them,the career would have put her in the same position like the other actresses who started off with them. Giving breaks to 50 ppl out of which only 5 survive is nothing to brag about which he n his bro r so proud of. I love Emraan n just as he was starting with others bang his son fell sick NCOs of which he lost that momentum n now is back with them. Sad
    It’s an arrogance which is the biggest reason for this hatred. Not a triller but can go and give u 100 more examples of this guy.
    One epic quote from the 90’s
    I would have fucked Pooja Bhatt had she not been my daughter.

  • if ther was no bipasha no raaz series no jism series .. no emraan hashmi… all credits just to bipasha

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