Biggest hit of 2012? Joginder Tuteja answers

Film critic and trade analyst Joginder Tuteja answers a few questions from Indicine readers. More questions like “How important is Jab Tak Hai Jaan for Shahrukh Khan”, Box office predictions for Emraan Hashmi’s Rush and prospects of Once Upon A Time In Mumbai 2 and Dabangg 2 will be answered tomorrow. Stay tuned.

1. If you had to predict which movie would be the biggest hit of the year, what would be your Top 5? Also by hit, do you mean the biggest grosser of the year or the film with the highest profitability? – Lisa

• From biggest grossers perspective, while ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ would continue to lead from the top with near 200 crore collections, each of the upcoming biggies – Jab Tak Hai Jaan, Son of Sardaar, Talaash, Khiladi 786 and Dabangg 2 – is all set to cross the 100 crore mark. Though there have been a quite a few 100 crore successes this year, ‘Rowdy Rathore’ has fetched over 130 crores and hence is (currently) second highest after ‘Ek Tha Tiger’. However even it’s record is not safe since the aforementioned films (especially Dabangg 2) have it in them to cross this milestone. 2012’s Top-5 would be from these seven films.

2. Do you think Akshay Kumar’s brand value would increase if he sticks to one or two films a year, just like Salman, Shahrukh and Aamir? – Aseem Bhardwaj

• The kind of films that Akshay Kumar days, they carry the kind of flavour that can suit the appetite of audience every three or four months. Also, at this stage of his career and the kind of audience base he has built, going slow is not quite an option. Also remember that even at their peak, massy stars like Jeetendra and Dharmendra too used to have 4-5 films of theirs release every year. Circa 2012 and things haven’t changed much and they won’t either till Bollywood is in a position to draw a list of Top-20 saleable heroes. Today, there are hardly 10!

3. My question to you is – ‘Who are the current Top-5 Bollywood actresses?’ (According to the box office and critical success) – Salman Yusuf

• Taking into consideration both box office and critical success, they are Kareena Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra, Vidya Balan and Deepika Padukone. If box office was the only criteria, Asin would have replaced Deepika.

4. My question is that what do you think about Yash Raj Films decision to hand over the directorial reigns to Vijay Krishna Acharya for a massive film like ‘Dhoom 3’ after his last film ‘Tashan’ was a complete disaster? – Ali Feroz

• First things first, ‘Tashan’ wasn’t a disaster. In fact it did break even in the long run after considering all modes of revenue. Moreover it may also have made little profit had there been a multiplex release, which wasn’t the case in its first week due to certain issues. Secondly, Vijay did go wrong in execution (and in a major way at that) but the idea and thought process was in the right direction. Coming to him getting a second chance then well, where would Abbas-Mustan (Agnikaal), Milan Luthria (Kachche Dhaage) and Vikram Bhatt (Jaanam) have been today had they not got a second chance? After all, none of their first films was a massive success.

5. What is the budget of ‘Student of the Year’ and how much does it have to earn to become biggest blockbuster for debutants? – Vaibhav Deshpande

• ‘Student of the Year’ has a budget of around 45 crores, including print and publicity. This makes it a very expensive film, especially for the one that features an all debutant cast. The film needs to cross the 100 crore mark to be termed as a blockbuster.

You can ask Joginder a question – just fill the form below. If your question is selected, it will be answered next Sunday by film critic and trade analyst Joginder Tuteja.

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